Jackie the bald eagle dies at Big Bear Lake — SkimNews
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- Jackie died on Monday at Big Bear Lake after 14 years, having been called "arguably the world's most famous bald eagle" by the LA Times for her live-streamed nest watched by millions
- Friends of Big Bear Valley, the nonprofit that manages the live stream, received thousands of comments and emails from fans worldwide after her death, said media manager Jenny Voisard
- The nonprofit raised $10 million this year, including a $5.5 million donation from OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and his wife Anna, said Voisard
- Those funds — more than 25,000 individual donations totaling almost $5 million plus the Brockmans' gift — purchased a 63-acre plot called Moon Camp, described as the "last undisturbed shoreline" on the lake
- Conservation leader Beth Pratt of the National Wildlife Federation compared Jackie's cultural impact to mountain lion P-22, which inspired the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, and to Flaco the owl
- Fan Gloria Ackman, a retired Illinois English teacher whose husband died in December after a terminal cancer diagnosis, said watching Jackie and Shadow's resilience helped her through the hardest period of her life
Why it matters: Jackie's cultural reach translated into permanent conservation outcomes — her live stream helped Friends of Big Bear Valley raise $10 million this year and purchase the 63-acre Moon Camp, conserving the lake's last undisturbed shoreline. The Brockmans' $5.5 million gift alongside more than 25,000 individual donors shows how a single animal's story can mobilize resources at scale for habitat protection.
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