Yahoo News- by RAPHAEL SATTERRemote cameras intended to monitor Siberian tigers in Russia instead caught a golden eagle’s fatal attack on a deer, snapping three photos as the massive bird dug its talons into the distressed animal’s back.
London’s Zoological Society, which distributed the pictures to journalists, said the sequence showed a rare but not unheard of attack by a golden eagle. The society’s Linda Kerley said she first realized something was up when she approached the wildlife-monitoring device — also called a camera trap — and found a mangled deer carcass nearby.
“Something felt wrong about it,” she said in a statement accompanying the photographs. “There were no large carnivore tracks in the snow, and it looked like the deer had been running and then just stopped and died.
“It was only after we got back to camp that I checked the images from the camera and pieced everything together,” she said. “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”
Golden eagles are large birds. Their wingspan tops more than 2 meters (6 ½ feet) and, while they typically eat small birds, mammals, or snakes, they’ve been known to target larger animals as well.
It’s rare for a camera to catch such an attack in progress, and the photos have been an online sensation.
The zoological society said the photos were shot in the Lazovsky State Nature Reserve in the Primorye region of Russia’s Far East on Dec. 8, 2011. The pictures were released only after the publication of a scholarly article by Kerley and co-author Jonathan Slaght of the Wildlife Conservation Society in the Ohio-based Journal of Raptor Research earlier this month.
___
Online:
Raptor Research Foundation: http://www.raptorresearchfoundation.org/
http://news.yahoo.com/cameras-capture-eagle-killing-deer-russia-144336036.html
i used to manage a fish hatchery, and i walked up on an eagle that was soaked from diving for fish, and unable to fly and just airing out it’s feathers extending it’s wings. It was 3+ feet tall. It was wet and still giant. I am unable to convey the size and fierceness of this bird in words. This bird looked at me and i knew that if i took another step I would be torn to shreads. Pure wild rage. These animals do not play.
I’ve seen a pair of golden eagles take a full grown doe whitetail down on my mountain side. Their tactics were something to see. The take-down was ruthless; something one should consider when dealing with human enemies of our Nation.
That is right BentSpear. If people would waych and study wild animals we people could learn trust, honesty, and respect, something that I think too many have lost. In other words BentSpear, those two Golden Eagles had trust, honesty, and respect for their prey. I have Golden and Bald eagles as well as Red Tail Hawks at my place and they don`t play their games with their prey, they get the job done and they do not fool around. Yes, we people would learn volumes from the animals.
Exactly. Not only birds of prey, but other predators do the task, get it done; no parades or dancing on the mountain. They do it to survive. If our Nation is to survive, we’ll do the same. P/C, free lunches & “me, me” crap will be history; so will the excuses of being commies, socialist, & do-gooders. I & others have Zero compassion for evil or the minions of evil. Send the f^ckers to God & let Him judge them.
When I lived in the Ozarks, one of my favorite sights was watching the red-tail hawks, which are huge in that part of the country, being chased by a crow and a blue jay chasing the crow.
Yes Greg, that is real cool too watch. And ya know that those crows will always have at least 2 or 3 crows chaseing/messing with the hawk. I think I have even seen them guys messing with a eagle.