The one-year-old eagle left Serbia in August for its first trip to the Middle East, flying over North Macedonia, Greece, Turkey and Syria. In October, the bird conservation organization that tagged Felik lost contact with the transmitter.
The eagle had been captured by poachers in Syria and sold to Lebanon. Before the organization's staff could track him down, he was sold back to Syria, and getting Feliks back was made difficult by fighting in the region.
Finally, a group of refugees managed to smuggle the eagle across the border in a potato sack, but getting him home was now made more difficult by the war in the Middle East. The rescue came from UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon - and he was flown home by military plane.
