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african crowned eagle really that powerful? (1 Viewer)

the Crowned Eagle has a smaller wingspan than a Golden Eagle. But it is about the same size (length). One reason for the shorter (but broader) wings is the fact that the Crowned Eagle is a forest raptor where shorter wings are better (see Northern Goshawk).

It's hard to say if the Crowned or the Golden Eagle (or Martial Eagle) is more powerful. All are strong eagles with the femals being larger and stronger.

Markus
It's beem documented that crowned eagle's talons are WAY more stronger than both golden eagle and Martial eagle...
 
what makes the Philippines Eagle so powerful? The prey they take seems to be even smaller then a crowned eagles prey, actually the golden eagle seems to take larger prey then the philippines eagle, which is why I dont understand why people think it is so powerful

Fillipino is not as powerful as people think...this is a rather slender, tall eagle, equiped with longer legs , but weak talons compared with those of harpy and crowned.
Just compare the massivity of the toes and size of talons and you will have an accurate image.
 
Fillipino is not as powerful as people think...this is a rather slender, tall eagle, equiped with longer legs , but weak talons compared with those of harpy and crowned.
Just compare the massivity of the toes and size of talons and you will have an accurate image.



Records shows how powerful the Philippine eagle is; by the prey items that had been documented; from a small bat to a 30 lb deer at a nest studied by Dr. Robert Kennedy; yes colugos are the prefered prey item in Mindanao maybe becoz they are easy prey, (nocturnal mammals) inactive during the day and the eagle knows where and how to get them also a nice size for a meal 1.5-2 kg but that's the eagles in Mindanao region which the colugos or flying lemurs can only be found.

Excert from the source: Threatened Birds of Asia
The structure of the eagle (its goshawk-like appearance) is an adaptation to allow high maneuverability during sudden rapid attack, but the species frequently soars and is rarely seen in flapping flight (Kennedy 1977); however, in what was then thought the first direct observation of an eagle hunting, a bird was observed (at 10h40) “in a hard-flapping flight through the canopy of trees and crashed into the TREE CROWNS and aerial epiphytic plants [during] 8 short flights... the quick twists and turns of its head and rapid flight style [indicating its] purposeful intensity” (PECP Fourth Quarter Report 1987)(this account suggests that the bird may have been attempting to flush prey by noisily “attacking” certain forest features either themselves likely to contain an
appropriate animal or, by virtue of the disturbance, so as to induce panic and movement in nearby unseen animals). Rapid pursuit is not, however, the only hunting method: Kennedy
(1981c) claimed to have discovered why the species has such long legs, and how it manages to
exploit such strictly nocturnal mammals as flying lemurs,

Studies of flying lemurs nevertheless suggest that they generally roost in the crowns of trees and are presumably caught there (N. R. Ingle in litt. 1997). Birds are reported to hunt both singly and in pairs, in the latter case apparently when targeting monkeys (Kennedy 1977).


http://en.allexperts.com/q/Wild-Animals-705/Philippine-Eagle.htm
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Wild-Animals-705/f_4626883.htm

The Philippine eagles in Luzon has different diet regime like large snakes such as cobra and pythons, deer, monitor lizads, civets, large birds like hornbills, small dog and pigs and it's fave prey monkeys-there is only one monkey species in the Philippines, the Philippine long-tailed macaques and weighs 4 to 6 kg up to 9 kg for males and are one of the most challenging prey the'ye agile and elusive as compares to sloth and small monkey (especially genus-Chlorocebus) which the Harpy and the crown eagles hunt.

Source: http://birdbase.hokkaido-ies.go.jp/rdb/rdb_en/pithjeff.pdf
(ECOLOGY pp14-16)

By these prey items I can safely say that no one can consider the Philippine eagle as "weak talons" as you have quoted...

The African crowned eagle can take large prey but it can only lift up to its own body weight with a wingspan
of no more than 6 feet there's no way it can lift 6 - 10 kg weight of prey; Crowned eagles - Length is 80-95 cm (32-38 in), the wingspan is 1.5-2.1m (5-7 ft) and body weight is 3.2-4.1 kg (7-9.1 lbs).

Take a look at this youtube footage of a crowned eagle taking a small monkey, it can barely fly with a 1-2.5 kg of prey granting that the eagle is a male.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9ENY2ujNUE
 
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what makes the Philippines Eagle so powerful? The prey they take seems to be even smaller then a crowned eagles prey, actually the golden eagle seems to take larger prey then the philippines eagle, which is why I dont understand why people think it is so powerful


What makes the Philippine eagle so powerful? We can only gauge by the prey items that the eagles take and are available in the eco-system they live in. Philippine eagles are opportunistic hunters; they hunt a variety of animals ranging in size from a small bat to a 14 kg deer; taking what is availabe and most vulnerable.

Documented prey items: Monkeys, civets, colugos or flying lemurs, monitor lizads, deer, large snakes, large birds, small dogs and pigs.
 
Check out this material...and according to an experiment made bu Animal Planet the african crowned eagle is the raptor that was documented in an experimant as the bird who can lift and fiy with the heaviest load...

http://stephenbodio.blogspot.com/2006/01/when-birds-attack.html


I'm gonna look for the Animal Planet that ceritfies this fact , very soon !

All the best to everybody !

Too bad that those magnificent eagle species are endangered....
 
actually the most dangerous prey of the eagle is NOT monkey it is large snakes and monitor lizards


I think large male monkeys averaging 7 to 9 kg are more dangerous prey for the eagle. Unlike snakes the eagle would simply pick it up closer to the neck, take it to the air and the snake is powerless one bite to the head and the snake is doomed much like the monitor lizard with the exception of a large python.

The generic name of the Philippine Eagle, Pithecophaga, which led to its
original English name “monkey-eating”, was the result of the natives of Samar reporting that it “preys chiefly on the Green Monkeys”, and indeed the man who bestowed this name, Ogilvie Grant (1897), considered that “the worn tail and broken ends of the quills of both wings and tail no doubt bear witness to many a savage struggle amongst the branches”

Reports stated that individual male monkeys defend the troops they lead
against attack, deliberately exposing themselves to view while the others escape, and that they appear to be too powerful for single combat, Gonzales (1968) concluded that eagles would be more successful at taking monkeys when hunting in tandem. Various locals who told Kennedy (1977) that the birds course through the forest in pairs looking for monkey, one eagle distracting a monkey while the other captures it from behind. It also tends to be borne out by the fact that Wharton (1948) exported a live eagle captured by locals after it broke its leg in a fall during a struggle with a large monkey.

Source:Threatened Birds of Asia

A Philippine Eagle taking and eating a monkey
 

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monkey were not designed for combat and they do not have the powerful muscles of a thick thick skin of monitor lizard or snake nor do they have the powerful claws of a feline or strong jaws neck muscles of a canine

With the exception of male baboons of course
 
monkey were not designed for combat and they do not have the powerful muscles of a thick thick skin of monitor lizard or snake nor do they have the powerful claws of a feline or strong jaws neck muscles of a canine

With the exception of male baboons of course

FYI - Philippine long-tailed Macaques do also have large canine almost as large as Baboon's plus four strong gripping (hands and feet) especially large males which can weigh as much as 20 lb. A fullgrown male cat even the wild cats wouldn't stand a chance to a macaque, I just dont know IF you have already seen a fight between the two. they are harder to hunt than monitor lizards and snakes coz they gather in troops which means more eyes and ears to watch for predators and eliminates the element of surprise which most predators use to their advantage for a successful hunt.

Long-tailed Macaques
 

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monkey were not designed for combat and they do not have the powerful muscles of a thick thick skin of monitor lizard or snake nor do they have the powerful claws of a feline or strong jaws neck muscles of a canine

With the exception of male baboons of course

Dont be deceived by the looks of these cute cudly primates they are not easy picking as the sloth or lemurs, they fight back agressively especially large males who lead the troops unless they are caught unaware by the eagle or attacked from behind and where did you get the idea that they don't have powerful muscles? They have strong arms and legs to jump from tree to tree averaging 6 meters and a large canine that could inflict serious injuries even to an eagle.
 
if small leopards are able to make a meal easy out of a silver back or a chimp (well documented)then i am pretty certain any 25 pound wild cat could make an easy meal out of any same sized monkey

I am not saying monkey are wimps but they are just by far not the most formitable things an eagle could kill as large snakes, dogs, cats, monitor lizards are much much much more impressive ~! the monkey/ape family uses its brain for defense not brute force, most of what they got is bluff and bravardo.

The tiny 7 pound crowned eagle feeds on full grown female baboons easily.


Something like a python or monitor lizard does not have brains or speed but has pure power and strength
 
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if small leopards are able to make a meal easy out of a silver back or a chimp (well documented)then i am pretty certain any 25 pound wild cat could make an easy meal out of any same sized monkey

I am not saying monkey are wimps but they are just by far not the most formitable things an eagle could kill as large snakes, dogs, cats, monitor lizards are much much much more impressive ~!


Its also well documented that an eagle got injured broke its legs to a fall during a struggle to a large monkey which never happens to (Philippine eagle) any large snakes or monitor lizards it preys on to that effect.
That is why I said LARGE monkeys averaging 7-9 kg are even more dangerous prey for an eagle than the large snakes and monitor lizards.
 
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yes eagles are killed by snakes and monitor lizards i just read about it a few days ago an eagle having its wing broken by a monitor lizard and was rescued

a big monitor lizard can easily get 10kg and is far more dangerous then any monkey

and many many BOPs have had the tables turned on them by a snake even smaller then they are!


http://www.backwoodsbound.com/hawk_snake600.jpg
 
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if small leopards are able to make a meal easy out of a silver back or a chimp (well documented)then i am pretty certain any 25 pound wild cat could make an easy meal out of any same sized monkey

I am not saying monkey are wimps but they are just by far not the most formitable things an eagle could kill as large snakes, dogs, cats, monitor lizards are much much much more impressive ~! the monkey/ape family uses its brain for defense not brute force, most of what they got is bluff and bravardo.

The tiny 7 pound crowned eagle feeds on full grown female baboons easily.


Something like a python or monitor lizard does not have brains or speed but has pure power and strength


It only shows according to your posts that "pure power and strenght" (brute force) is not enough to be considered formidable or impressive. Brains, agility and craftiness also counts like the monkeys! I guess this only means monkeys falls or qualifies to this categories as one of the "formidable" preys for the eagles.
 
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if small leopards are able to make a meal easy out of a silver back or a chimp (well documented)then i am pretty certain any 25 pound wild cat could make an easy meal out of any same sized monkey

No offense dude but this is a ludicrous comparison and it suggests you've not had that much exposure to the macaques in question which if you want to mess with them are effectively a combination of mid-sized dog and spiderman.

Leopards are known for knocking off animals considerably bigger than themselves right up to juvenile elephants and have a hunting technique and physique that works well to do the same. It does not follow that a small wild cat is a scaled down version of the same.
 
yes eagles are killed by snakes and monitor lizards i just read about it a few days ago an eagle having its wing broken by a monitor lizard and was rescued

a big monitor lizard can easily get 10kg and is far more dangerous then any monkey

and many many BOPs have had the tables turned on them by a snake even smaller then they are!


http://www.backwoodsbound.com/hawk_snake600.jpg

I have never seen a monitor kill a\n eagle. Where did you get the scource from?
 
Sanje Mangabey Cercocebus sanjei Kills an African Crowned Eagle Stephanoaetus coronatus

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Abstract)

We present the first ever reported observations of a hunting African crowned eagle Stephanoaetus coronatus being killed by a primate, in the Udzungwa Mountains of south-central Tanzania. An adult female eagle launched an attack on a young Sanje mangabey Cercocebus sanjei who was feeding in a tree, but was intercepted and bitten by an adult mangabey who was feeding nearby. The adult mangabey and the eagle then fell together 25 m to the forest floor below. The eagle subsequently died from her injuries, while the mangabey escaped and is thought to have survived. This rare event is briefly discussed in the context of previous accounts of primate-crowned eagle interactions.

Link: http://content.karger.com/produktedb/produkte.asp?typ=pdf&file=FPR2006077005359
 
There was also a documented record about a Philippine eagle who attacked a large macaque they struggles and fell from the tree the eagle broke it's leg from the heights But luckily survives the ordeal unlike the Crowned eagle Stephanoaetus coronatus who died from bites and the injuries.

Below: Sanje mangabey and a Long-tailed macaque
 

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