Could a eagle take out a deer?

Full grown deer? My guess would be no. A fawn yes. They do on occasion take calves here. This is in the winter during rare cases when water ways are frozen over. Maintain
 
Yes, deer come in many sizes. A few years ago a guy came here with a golden eagle and hunted coyotes. Last year we saw a golden up close in the wild it was impressive.
 
The picture shos a registered Angus calf that was paralyzed by an eagle. Talons hit the spinal cord and made one rancher very unhappy. Not a newborn calf by any means.

I have seen eagles hit live coyotes in legholds and repeatedly hit full grown deer from behind lifting their rearends totally off the gound and then releasing them.

No doubt an eagle can just about have anything it sets its mind to.



img166.jpg
 
Wow thats some cool footage! I would have thought no but after seeing that all and can say is wow wasnt expecting that thanks for sharing!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
Pretty cool....but I have to wonder about the intelligence of it.

If the deer rolled over the eagle (looks like it did) it could result in a broken wing, or worse. No need, in my opinion, to expose such a beautiful bird to a life-ending injury. JMHO. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
I saw a show once where eagles in spain would put goats off the cliffs let them drop and then fly down and eat them.

Gary
 
Last edited:
Thats some kind of asian or siberian eagle I suspect,and that deer is some kind of dwarf species inhabitating the same country. Our golden eagles run around 15 pounds, for a big female,so no deer I know of except a fawn or other jackrabbit size game is in any real trouble around a typical golden eagle....interesting footage though.
 
Very good question I have heard that eagles can lift a cow up off the ground and fly away with it. Now that seems a bit too much, but I would hate to underestimate such a great animal. But if they could lift them up off the ground from there killing them seems pretty easy.
 
I have seen them take fawns before, and I have seen nest where they carried in full grown sheep to eat with the babies. I would think that there are ones that may even specialixe in killing deer. In one issue of Predator Extreme magazine last year the author wrote a bout an eagle that seemed to specialize in seperating a fawn and mother to pick off the fawn.

There is no doubt in my mind that and eagle can do it.

I talked to a rancher that said he saw 2 eagles kill an buck antelope. the first one would swoop and get the antelope to duck then the second would hit its neck as it raised its head.
 
You all are dreaming:) NASA can address this one, he's resident bird expert and amateur falconer, but I seem to remember him saying a bird of prey can maybe lift and carry 1/3 its own weight?...so figure a 15 pound bird could maybe lift and tote off prey weighing up to 5 pounds....now way in hell is an eagle going to pack a full grown sheep up to its nest....totally absurd!
 
No, I don't think eagles can fly off with grown deer or goats, or probalby even fawns, but they can definately kill them.

It seems to be pretty will documented that they do kill animals more than 20 pounds.

http://icwdm.org/handbook/birds/Eagles.asp

http://texnat.tamu.edu/ranchref/predator/eagles/p-eagles.htm

http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v094n04/p0789-p0790.html

Here are some pictures that show a golden eagle killing a wolf (I assume from the picture and the number of people standing around that it was the release of either a captive bred wolf or one that had been trapped and tranmittered).

It also has a picture of an eagle carrying a red fox in flight.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=SSYOKPUIIqY&mode=related&search=
 
Last edited:
Oh,I don't doubt for a minute that an eagle could possibly kill an animal larger than itself, but I doubt it is a common occurence. You must admit, that film footage is suspect, as to species of eagle and species of deer...kind of like the footage of an eagle killing what appeared to be a wolf in a past thread?
For the most part, eagles are perfectly content to kill, carry off and eat rabbits, rodents and various birds, don't you think?
 
Some Golden Eagles are perfectly content on killing and eating small goats or small sheep or little beef calfs just like some coyotes are. They are easier to catch for eagles and coyotes than rabbits are.
 
I saw a mature Bald Eagle take a nice 6 lb Coho about 3 miles offshore in Alaska. (Odd to see them that far out.) Had to pump hard to get back airborne and didn't get very far off the water, probably 30 feet. Last I saw it it was about 2 ft above the chop about 1/2 way to shore. I hope it let go because it wasn't going to make it all the way back in with the fish.
 
I have seen footage of a Golden Eagle taking a small to medium sized Mountain Goat off the side of a cliff....It was very steep, the Eagle was able to hang on and glide off......
 
Quote:
Oh,I don't doubt for a minute that an eagle could possibly kill an animal larger than itself, but I doubt it is a common occurence



Vic- not to be argumenative, but this research would seem to contradict that statement. Not to mention the number of pictures and videos that you can find on the subject. How much does it have to happen to get caught on film that many times?



http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1065&context=vpc16



Quote:
Thats some kind of asian or siberian eagle I suspect



The golden eagle of Asia and Siberia is simply a subspecies of the same golden eagle we have with no signicant size difference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Eagle#Distribution

The worlds largest eagle is the Harpy eagle weighing in at 29 pounds. The average for the species is 12-15 pounds which is near that of the golden eagle.

http://www.no-pest.com/HarpyEagle.htm

 
Last edited:
Quote:
You all are dreaming:) NASA can address this one, he's resident bird expert and amateur falconer, but I seem to remember him saying a bird of prey can maybe lift and carry 1/3 its own weight?...so figure a 15 pound bird could maybe lift and tote off prey weighing up to 5 pounds....now way in hell is an eagle going to pack a full grown sheep up to its nest....totally absurd!



Well the guy who was taking the photos of teh nest with the babies took some shots one day came back teh next and there was a sheep carcus in teh nest. The photos he had apeared to be of a full sized/or atleast not a lamb sheep. A nearby ranchers reported that atleast 3 sheep had disapeared without a sign. They found 3 sets of sheep bones amongst the trash pile of the nest. I did not see it happen, but did see the pictures. I gues maybe there was a fence nearby and the sheep were jumping it and landing in teh nest???
 
Back
Top