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It is the 28th of September 1996. Two keepers of the Innsbruck Alpine Zoo carry a large wooden crate into Max' territory, open the latch and release Donna.

Donna is a splendid female, who, after some hesitation, flaps her wings and with a whoosh descends down on a large branch right next to Max.
Max is a hand-fed foundling and Golden Eagle who has led a lonely live in the Alpine Zoo in Innsbruck until the day Donna came. Donna, also hand-fed and also a Golden Eagle, was five years old when the two first met. Before she came to Tirol she lived in Germany where she enjoyed a two-year falconer training. Golden Eagles are cautious, sensitive and picky. This might explain why it took the two birds six years until the finally made the decision to build an eyrie together. In 2004 Donna laid two eggs, and then again in 2005 and 2006. Unfortunately no eaglets hatched from them ever.

While Golden Eagles do breed in the wild (in Tirol there are some 200 wild Golden Eagles today), artificial insemination is often used in captive breeding programs for birds of prey. Natural breeding of Golden Eagles in captivity is very difficult and the success rate is low. In Europe only one natural captive breeding occurs per year. At the Innsbruck Alpine Zoo they are still waiting and hoping for a little eagle. The mating and breeding already works out all right – the only thing still missing is the eaglet.