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I've heard of large female Golden Eagles managing to pick up a small deer fawn, though apparently when they attempt this the prey is usually taken from ground higher than the nest site. It is then easier to carry as the bird only has to glide down rather than struggle to lift the carcass some height. I would also imagine that the find would have to be fairly close to the nest too.
I've seen Goldies attempt to take fairly well grown lambs from a hillside.
That's probably the reason they're not spreading as fast as we would like, there's not enough little girls on the hill to keep them well fed. This was most noticeable after the clearances when the Scottish population of little girls were virtually removed from the hill. As we all know, by the early 1900's the WTE's were extinct in the UK. Re-introduction and a weaning onto other solid foods in the 1970's enabled these spectacular birds to reclaim a foothold in Scotland. Whether or not we will ever see the fantastic spectacle of the great Erne returning to it's natural prey of little girls remains to be seen. Possibly the RSPB could get involved here and set up a feeding station, something along the lines of Gigrin Farm in Wales!
lol...i just came across that piece on google.it happened it 1932 or so.And it was fairly well reported then,according to the article.the eagle dropped the girl halfway to the nest and she miraculously survived the fall!
And the person saying that the eagle ate some of the deer before it was able to carry it,wasnt the food in its crop?didnt it have to carry that weight too?forget it.....eagles are powerful
lol...i just came across that piece on google.it happened it 1932 or so.And it was fairly well reported then,according to the article.the eagle dropped the girl halfway to the nest and she miraculously survived the fall!
And the person saying that the eagle ate some of the deer before it was able to carry it,wasnt the food in its crop?didnt it have to carry that weight too?forget it.....eagles are powerful
There's no doubt about that, Eagles are powerfull! I remember going up to a Golden Eagle eyrie containing 2 young some years ago, the stench from the nest nearly made me sick, there was a half grown lamb in there, obviously it was long dead before the Eagle brought it to the nest, it was green with putrification. This was a complete lamb, no bits missing! I suppose it's weight would be somewhere in the region of 20 lbs. That's a fair lift for a bird weighing something like 12 - 14 lb tops for a female, 9 - 11 lb for a male. The eyrie was quite high, about 1100 ft above sea level and approx 40 ft up the rock face, so the bird would have had to take the lamb up from a much lower level, the nearest sheep pasture was probably down at around 500 ft.