Name: Esperance

Breed: Red-tailed eagle

Age: 5

Parents: unknown (deceased)

Siblings: unknown (deceased)

Eye color: pale yellow

Voice: Pink

Mate: 402

Likes: 402, being alone (sometimes), flying

Dislikes: death or talking about death (as well as any mention of it), knowing she's the last of her kind left in the world

Personality: She is sad, depressed, and lonely. Also pensive, wistful, pessimistic, somewhat apathetic, and melancholy. She's very shy, reserved, is very quiet and hardly ever talks. Is usually nice, but can get irritable if someone talks about death too much. Don't remind her of it if you value your life. Plain and simple. But luckily she's not like that all the time. Sometimes she tries to remain strong, though she's hurting inside.

History: She hatched in Prentice Cooper State Forest, about 10 miles west of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Her parents were the last pair of red-tailed eagles in existence; the rest of their kind had been wiped out by environmental pollution, poaching, and habitat loss. When Esperance and her two brothers were a year old, they were sent to a local zoo, but it didn't have any room for the five eagles, so they were sent to one in Rio de Janeiro. On final approach into the airport all four engines on the 747 freighter failed, resulting in the loss of all hydraulic flight control lines, so the flight crew couldn't move the flaps or rudder. The crew tried a windmill restart in an attempt to regain engine power, but were unable to get them restarted. The jet broke up when it hit the ocean, killing the flight crew (as well as Esperance's parents and siblings) as the fuselage filled with water. Through some twist of fate, Esperance was the only one to survive. She escaped from her damaged cage and flew away from the crashed jet, upset at the loss of her parents and her brothers. She didn't stop flying until she reached the forest outside the city, then alighted on a branch and cried, knowing her parents and her brothers were dead, and that she was the last of her kind. It took a few months for her to get over their deaths and feel better, though the memory will always stay with her. Soon she was captured by a couple of the zoo staff who had been looking for the bird that had escaped from the crash after they found one was unaccounted for. She was caged and brought to the Jardim Zoológico do Rio de Janeiro, the oldest zoo in Brazil. She escaped a few hours later, as some bird thieves cut the cage open, hoping to make some money on this incredibly rare bird on the black market. As she flew away, the thieves ran after her, but she eluded them. As she was flying away, she looked down at the city, and was transfixed. A Carnaval parade was making its way down a street, and Esperance couldn't help but notice all the bright colors, lights, and the music, never having seen or heard anything like it before in her life. She was fascinated. That night, she got little sleep, as she couldn't stop thinking about Carnaval. Soon thoughts of her lost family entered her mind. Esperance was saddened, and started to cry. She wished they were still alive to have experienced Carnival. She felt a little better the next morning. She spends her nights in a tree overlooking the city, as well as the bay in which she lost her family. Sometimes she thinks about her future.

When she dies, will that be the end of her kind? Or will scientists be able to replicate another? Only time will tell.

Relation to Rio: lives in Rio, is friends with Nico and Pedro

*To see how the crash looked, Youtube search "air force one crash", and it's the 29-second video with the same name