Eagle Defeats Technology with Cunning Use of Deer.

guyver01

Lifer
Sep 25, 2000
22,135
5
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Deer-on-Power-Line.bmp



mmmm... them good eats
 

Lemon law

Lifer
Nov 6, 2005
20,984
3
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I somewhat wonder about the entire sequence of the event.

1. An eagle spots and kills a fawn. But even then, there are two ways for an eagle to accomplish the feat. (1) They can swoop down and initially injure their prey on the ground. And finish the kill using their primary weapons of beaks and claws on the ground. Once the pray is dead, they can eat it on site, or try to take off flying and carry the load somewhere else. Given the weight of the fawn its hard to believe the latter happened. (2) Or the eagle can use its flight, lift, and moment to simply snatch up the pray in one continuous motion. Grabbing something like a Fawn using its two Talons in the back without ever landing. Such methods may work fine for fish or jackrabbit sized animals, but could be an epic fail on a far heavier fawn because the Fawn is still alive and struggling.

Which is why I expect its possibility #2 that is the true sequence. But our unsuspecting eagle had no way to know the dropped prey would end up on a power line.
 

Nebor

Lifer
Jun 24, 2003
29,582
12
76
I somewhat wonder about the entire sequence of the event.

1. An eagle spots and kills a fawn. But even then, there are two ways for an eagle to accomplish the feat. (1) They can swoop down and initially injure their prey on the ground. And finish the kill using their primary weapons of beaks and claws on the ground. Once the pray is dead, they can eat it on site, or try to take off flying and carry the load somewhere else. Given the weight of the fawn its hard to believe the latter happened. (2) Or the eagle can use its flight, lift, and moment to simply snatch up the pray in one continuous motion. Grabbing something like a Fawn using its two Talons in the back without ever landing. Such methods may work fine for fish or jackrabbit sized animals, but could be an epic fail on a far heavier fawn because the Fawn is still alive and struggling.

Which is why I expect its possibility #2 that is the true sequence. But our unsuspecting eagle had no way to know the dropped prey would end up on a power line.

Option #3. The fawn was struggling a lot so the eagle dropped it on the power lines, right at the post, knowing that it would be electrocuted to death.
 

ProfJohn

Lifer
Jul 28, 2006
18,161
7
0
Option #3. The fawn was struggling a lot so the eagle dropped it on the power lines, right at the post, knowing that it would be electrocuted to death.
Option #4. This eagle was trained by the Taliban to disable our electrical system!!!
This may have just been a test run. Before you know it fawns will be dropping all over the country.
 

uberman

Golden Member
Sep 15, 2006
1,942
1
81
I used to live in Kodiak, Alaska. I saw bald eagles all the time. I even saw 17 at a time when we were throwing dead pollock into the water and the eagles were flying off with them.

I just can't see how an eagle could pick up a small deer and carry it away.

I mean if there were two eagles and they carried the deer on a line; maybe that might work. I've heard of swallows transporting coconuts that way. I just find a single bald eagle flying off with something so heavy not possible.

Now, if they were African Bald Eagles, then...
 

Genx87

Lifer
Apr 8, 2002
41,091
513
126
Fawns weigh just pounds at birth. If this was just a few days old. It wasnt very heavy.
 

Macamus Prime

Diamond Member
Feb 24, 2011
3,108
0
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See, if that powerline was armed with a rifle, that deadly deer/eagle (deargle) beast would have been taken down ASAP.

What are you going to tell the powerline's outlets now? America will never be safe until it's powerlines can properly defend themselves.
 

Throckmorton

Lifer
Aug 23, 2007
16,829
3
0
I don't think an eagle is capable of understanding that a power line can kill a deer. I think it was an accident that it happened to fall on the line.


Then again, it may have noticed one of its eagle friends dying by spanning its wings across the lines.
 
Feb 16, 2005
14,080
5,453
136
I used to live in Kodiak, Alaska. I saw bald eagles all the time. I even saw 17 at a time when we were throwing dead pollock into the water and the eagles were flying off with them.

I just can't see how an eagle could pick up a small deer and carry it away.

I mean if there were two eagles and they carried the deer on a line; maybe that might work. I've heard of swallows transporting coconuts that way. I just find a single bald eagle flying off with something so heavy not possible.

Now, if they were African Bald Eagles, then...

Win.... You definitely win... Kudos, and well played.
 

werepossum

Elite Member
Jul 10, 2006
29,873
463
126
I used to live in Kodiak, Alaska. I saw bald eagles all the time. I even saw 17 at a time when we were throwing dead pollock into the water and the eagles were flying off with them.

I just can't see how an eagle could pick up a small deer and carry it away.

I mean if there were two eagles and they carried the deer on a line; maybe that might work. I've heard of swallows transporting coconuts that way. I just find a single bald eagle flying off with something so heavy not possible.

Now, if they were African Bald Eagles, then...

LOL!

Only time I've seen this happen is when a semi at speed struck the deer and it landed on the lines. Also, this appears to be a full-grown adult deer - no spots. I'd bet this is the result of a truck, not an eagle. In fact, the picture actually looks like the picture with the semi-strike story, if I remember correctly.
 

Lemon law

Lifer
Nov 6, 2005
20,984
3
0
White tailed deer fawns are spotted, not sure about mule deer that are far more common in Montana.

But I still like the uberman comment of, "I mean if there were two eagles and they carried the deer on a line; maybe that might work."

That is likely the conspiracy theory, imagine if 6 or eight eagles or more eagles worked together, they could lift and then drop fairly large logs on any human habitation on the planets. Now we are talking chicken little on Steroids.
 

werepossum

Elite Member
Jul 10, 2006
29,873
463
126
White tailed deer fawns are spotted, not sure about mule deer that are far more common in Montana.

But I still like the uberman comment of, "I mean if there were two eagles and they carried the deer on a line; maybe that might work."

That is likely the conspiracy theory, imagine if 6 or eight eagles or more eagles worked together, they could lift and then drop fairly large logs on any human habitation on the planets. Now we are talking chicken little on Steroids.
Mule deer fawns are also spotted. And yes, they could grip it by the husk.

There was one of those monster hunter / reality show things about giant raptors which posited that the African Crowned Eagle was responsible for lifting a small boy. Other possible bird culprits would be an African Martial Eagle, which feeds on antelope, and even the Golden Eagle which occasionally takes deer. But none of these seem likely to actually life a deer (which would be struggling madly) rather than to merely kill and eat it on the ground. There's a very big difference between a 9 kg raptor killing a thirty kg deer and a 9 kg raptor lifting a thirty kg deer.