the deadly and devious golden eagle

8/13/2019 The Deadly and Devious Golden Eagle

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The Deadly and Devious Golden Eagle

Rare photos of a golden eagle attack illustrate the predators legendary hunting techniques

By Eric Wagner

Smithsonian Magazine | Subscribe

February 2014

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Something about the dead deer didnt seem right to biologist Linda Kerley. The carcass, splayed

out in the snow of Russias LazovskiiState Nature Reserve, was picked clean save for hide and

bone. But Kerley saw no signs that a large predatorsuch as the Amur tigers that she had come to

studyhad brought the animal down. Based upon the tracks still visible in the snow, it looked as if

the deer had been running and suddenly keeled over.

Kerley only discovered what had really happened after she returned to her camp to check on a

remote camera that had been placed in the forest. In photos taken a couple of weeks before, she

watched as the deer lurched across the snow. On its back, wings splayed, bill and talons slashing,

was a golden eagle.

A camera trap captured these rare images of a golden eagle attacking a young sika deer in the

Russian Far East. ( Linda Kerley, Zoological Society of London)

Its rare for golden eagles to prey on deer, which is why biologists believe this was anopportunistic attack. ( Linda Kerley, Zoological Society of London)


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When attacking large animals, the golden eagle strikes with a sustained grip of its talons. ( Linda

Kerley, Zoological Society of London)

Nobody had ever documented a golden eagle killing a deer in this region. But Kerley, who, along

with Jonathan Slaght of the Wildlife Conservation Society, published a report of the incident in the

Journal of Raptor Research, knew what the massive birdswith wingspans up to seven feetwere

capable of. She had grown up in eastern Oregon and done her graduate work in Wyoming, places

where golden eagles live. That an eagle would take down a deer? I wasnt shocked, she says.

Named for the distinctive gold-colored feathers on the nape of its neck, the golden eagle can

deploy up to seven distinctive hunting techniques, each one corresponding to the size and speed

of its prey. When attacking slow-flying birds, for instance, the golden eagle soars upward and then

rapidly descends, literally knocking the birds out of the sky. If its stalking large animals, such asdeer, it flies low to the ground, waiting for the right moment to strike with a sustained grip of its

talons.

The golden eagles fearsome reputation earned it respect, and even reverence, throughout

history. In Greek mythology, it was the companion to Zeus, serving as his bearer of messages or

omens. Among falconers in medieval Europe, it was the royal eagle, its use reserved for kings.

But in modern times, the golden eagles prowess as a hunter was almost its undoing. Golden

eagles typically prey upon small- and medium-sized animals, such as geese, rabbits and reptiles.

But its occasional attacks on bigger animalslambs, deer and even juvenile brown bearsled

ranchers in the United States to believe that the bird was depleting their livestock. Between 1941

and 1961, some 20,000 golden eagles were shot from airplanes. In 1962, following studies that

countered claims that the eagles were a threat to ranchers livelihoods, the government

designated them a federally protected species.

Though golden eagles are no longer officially persecuted, they still face threats, poisoned by the

lead shot they eat from scavenged carcasses, or bludgeoned by the wind-turbine blades they

sometimes fly into.

The most pressing issue, however, is habitat loss. Golden eagles are creatures of open spacethe

shrub-steppe, the prairie, the tundra. When these lands are converted to farmland, paved over or

otherwise lost, small animal populations decline and the eagles have no reason to stay.


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Golden eagles are top-of-the-food-chain predators, so what happens to them reflects whats

happening in the ecosystem, says Jim Watson, a biologist with the Washington Department of

Fish and Wildlife who has studied the birds since the 1970s. Its important for us to understand

them. They epitomize what is really wild.

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/royal-raptor-

180949437/#ixzz2sz8bzQCc

Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12!: http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv

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The relationship between these predators and the ecosystem.

The way golden eagles capture their prey.

The different roles of this bird througout history.

Their habitats and some threats they face.

the deadly and devious golden eagle

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