Could a eagle take out a deer?

"How much does it have to happen to get caught on film that many times?"

The name of the first video that you posted was "Hunting Deer w/ Birds".
If there are people "hunting" with Golden Eagles you can be assured that they are also filming or snapping photos of it. How many of these photos have been snapped by people using trained Golden Eagles? A good many I would guess.
The documentation of them preying on livestock and such cannot be denied but I wouldn't believe it to be as common as say, coyote or wolf predation.
 
Rob- I also posted a link to that on page one of this thread.

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The name of the first video that you posted was "Hunting Deer w/ Birds".
If there are people "hunting" with Golden Eagles you can be assured that they are also filming or snapping photos of it. How many of these photos have been snapped by people using trained Golden Eagles? A good many I would guess.
The documentation of them preying on livestock and such cannot be denied but I wouldn't believe it to be as common as say, coyote or wolf predation.




Many of the pictures here:

Are of deer that do not appear to be "hunted" by trained birds. Several appear to be mule deer and at least one appears to be a Thompson's gazelle (could be Africa or Texas for that matter). Since in several of the pictures the deer are still alive, it cannot be argued that the eagles were simply scavenging on deer killed by something else which happens a lot I am sure.



No, I would not say it is as common as coyote or wolf predation simply because there are not as many eagles as there are wolves or coyotes.

 
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I figured it was a 'baited' question when I answered. The footage had not been added yet. I would like to see the deer in the film close to something to give it a size reference. We do not have Goldens here, only Bald eagles. They do prey on newborn calves here(up to a few days old) when conditions are right. In that I mean that the water ways are frozen over preventing them from 'fishing'. This becomes a difficult problem because they are protected to the point that you can not even attempt to frighten them off. We then have to deposit other forms of carrion to try to keep them fed and away from the livestock. Luckily here, this usually works and our hard freezes are short lived.

I wish they would eat more deer though!
Maintain
 
I saw a horned owl attack and kill a ~12 pound cat (ours). I don't know if it would have carried her away (or tried) if I hadn't scared it off, but it was in the lot behind our house and I assume it wasn't planning on staying there to eat her with people, dogs, etc. around.
 
People naturally make the assumption that since it is a bird it has to fly off with it's kill. Eagles are scavengers too, which seems odd about the bald eagle. It has been shown that the golden eagle can carry in flight against the wind about 4 pounds and with the wind or no wind about 8 pounds. However in a free fall situation(like off a cliff) it could go along for the ride appearing to carry a huge load. An eagle can also attack and release before the animal hits or rolls on the ground. There are eye witness accounts of 1 to 3 golden eagles attacking animals as large as elk. I assume this may be a pair hunting with their young. Why not they don't have much to lose.
 
Hell, Im an eye witness several times each day, of a Swainsons hawk, attacking a human!....ME, every time I go out to feed the horses. They have a nest up in the pine out back,and with relentless abandon, stoop and dive my big melon, coming within inches of my sparsely haired head, but Im certainly in no danger of death....kind of like an eagle dive bombing a mature elk:)
Like was made mention of, a bird of prey can tote approx. a third of it's weight, so whatever that bird weighs,whether it's an eagle,hawk or an owl, divide by three, and thats what it can lift off with....not much more. An eagle can not fly with a deceased mature sheep in its hooks, to take to the youngins', it's just not physically possible.
 
Oh brother, I just checked out the youtube stuff. In the text of the photo clips it states: "The golden eagle, with talons that can crush a human skull, like a human hand can crush an egg"....unbelievable. The various pics are really decieving, the most realistic ones depict the eagle ready to snatch a rabbit, and the size of eagle to rabbit look correct, then the next shot is of the eagle, wings spread, shielding its kill, what looks to be some kind of deer,and the size comparison looks the same as the one with the rabbit did? Im not buying.
One can also note, again, the men running around on foot and on horseback, are of asian descent, like in the last go round of a thread concerning eagles hunting wolf....they either have big eagles there, or tiny little deer and wolves:)
 
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they either have big eagles there, or tiny little deer and wolves:)




The worlds largest eagle (the Harpy) is 29 pounds for the largest ever recorded.

Those guys with the wolf look either Eskimo or Mongollian to me. Either way, it is not a Harpy eagle and all golden eagles world wide are similar in size since they are simply different sub-species.

The golden eagle may only weigh 15 pounds but has a 6 foot wing span. When spread out compared to a deer you get that effect.

Compare the size of this golden eagle to a mountain lion.

The eagle lost by the way.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_4Yx1KXQMCM&mode=related&search=
 
Just last fall is saw two goldens harassing 3 mature bull elk,they finally got tired of it and ran down into the timber.A big golden will kill fawns,sheep,yotes,whatever it can get a piece of and eat later,they dont have to fly anywhere with thier kill.
 
i have seen them kill full grow antalope. they dive bomb them sending the antalope cartwheeling.
also had one fly off with 1/4 of a white tail deer.
when we raised sheep they were harder on them then coyotes.
 
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Different eagle flying in than the one on the ground,




Yes it does appear that the eagle flying is a bald eagle and not a golden.

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the eagle on the ground is tied---what a bunch of crap.



And you know this how? It looks to me like it is just holding onto the rabbit.

If it was tied this would imply a trained eagle. Do you think somebody would tie up their trained eagle so a lion could kill it? If so, this would be illegal.

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Makes me wonder if the rabbit is really a rabbit, if the eagle actually is an eagle, and maybe that's a black panther and not a mountain lion.



I'm pretty sure it is an eagle, a rabbit and a mountain lion. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
 
I find it interesting that people call Eagles "magnificent" and stuff like that, but Buzzards are "disgusting scavengers".
All I see Eagles do, we have lots of them here, is sit in trees like Buzzards and eat dead fish.
Bald Headed Buzzards.
Ben Franklin was right, Turkey should have been the national bird.
Carl
 
I was setting an elk wallow and watched a golden take out a mature merriams hen. There was only about 30 seconds of fight in the turkey and the eagle hop/flew to a stump about 30yds away and ate after resting up a bit. Interestingly the eagle grabbed the turkey more toward the body than the neck or head. looked to be about 15-17# turkey .
 
My son was bow hunting deer in Iowa once and had a nice buck coming his way along the river here ,and a bald eagle did the dive bomb thing on it a few times and turned it away and he never got a chance for a shot.

I raise whitetail deer and was crapping this spring as I watched three bald eagles come flying along and then circle my pens with many newborns on the ground at about 100 ft. Lucky for me and the deer , they finally boogied on ....

I was raising domesticated wild turkeys years ago and watched the tom and two hens and three young poults (about chicken size) in a hay field recently bailed . A hawk went into a dive and the tom jumped into the air goobling all the way straight up to meet the hawk at about 40 ft. at which time the hawk (red tail) turned tail and flew to a power pole and landed and just watched and wondered what he had gotten into and then flew on it's way.......SM
 
CHILE, I have posted in the predator biology section 2 times on 2 seperate sightings i have seen up to 20 sheep carcasses killed by golden eagles. they are all full grown sheep total carcasses found was about 40. there was no coyote scat or tracks and no bite marks. hope this helps!!
 
JoeN, I don't think anyone is doubting that a mature golden eagle can kill a sheep. An eagle just can't fly off with 50 lbs or more of sheep in its talons. Like Chile said, just not physically possible. A small lamb, wild or domestic sure.. A fawn, you bet.
 
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