Eagle Takes Down Buck Antelope!
Pronghorn
Contributors to this thread:
This is pretty incredible. You hear about eagles taking down lambs and calves. Here are some photos from Wyoming showing a Golden eagle taking down a doe (not a buck, sorry about the error in the title) antelope! There are 17 photos in the file I received so I'll not post them all - just enough to tell the story.
Looks like it started eating before the 'lope even went down.
Maybe there was something wrong with the antelope. It looks like it just stood there. Golden Eagles are tough critters.
Shuteye,
Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. Other than the first photo, where she looks like she's preparing for the attack, she's totally docile. Maybe the eagle stunned her or something?
I have video of 4 golden eagles taking down a very nice buck antelope in Wyoming. They did stun it first.
I suspect it happens often like most things in nature. But only seldem when humans are around to video or photograph it.
I have watched eagles kill wolves and they are pretty darn good hunters and killers. Fortunately for me we only have one that I know of in the neighborhood. It is way bigger than the Bald Eagles which we have bunches of. Our Bald Eagles let the Ospreys catch fish and then take it away from them. They run the buzzards off of road kill and will take advantage of anything that something else kills.
TT,
If that doe has blood on her in the first photo it may be that the photo sequence didn't start until after the eagle hit the doe the first time.
I know when I hunted the Bolton Ranch in Wyoming back in 1994 the cowboys told us eagles were killing doe antelope on the ranch. One eagle would stun the antelope withthe first strike and then the other would hit it in the same spot behind the neck to knock it down. This is the same ranch were they killed all those eagles in the 1970's.
Shuteye: "Our Bald Eagles let the Ospreys catch fish and then take it away from them."
Interesting, as the Bald Eagles out here do the very same thing (or at least they try).
Couple years back while out fishing the Skagit in my driftboat, I watched an adult Osprey pick a 16" Dolly Varden right out of middle of the river. Just as soon as it got airborne with that load, 2 mature adult Bald Eagles and one juvenile went after it. The Osprey put on one hellofan aerial acrobatics show for about 5 min. as it was making every effort to hang on to dinner. It finally dropped the fish on a bar, and of course the eagles were all over it in a heartbeat, however they now had to suffer the wrath of the Osprey and ultimately the Osprey drove them off, and got his supper back..;)
Mike B, I was building a house next to the C&D canal and watched the eagles and ospreys every day. Often the eagle would chase the osprey and it would go way up and finally drop the fish. On rare occasions a second eagle would catch the fish before it hit the water but normally they would grab it out of the canal. I saw this day after day. Just this past summer I shot a groundhog in my garden. My wife said that I had sure nailed him, never moved a muscle. I told her I would get rid of it as soon as I ate lunch. She told me there wouldn't be anything left to get rid of since an eagle was on it. When I got done lunch there was a circle of buzzards around the eagle but they had to wait. Eagles are cool.
I once watched a golden eagle attach two muley does as a group of them moved up thru a notch in the rimrock. One of the does was knocked down but appeared to recover and the second doe took the hit and moved on up thru the gap. Was very cool to watch, late winter, I'll bet eagles kill a bunch of young of the year mulies.
I had no idea they took that size game. I see a lot of Eagles each winter, but havent caught them in this action, despite their access to large herds of deer in hay-fields.
Our Bald Eagles stay fat in the fall of the year due to deer season. They get the wounded deer and the gut piles. My neighbor has an outside spigot on a cement slab in the field across from my house. I often take my deer up there to field dress and wash out with a water hose. I put the guts in five gallon buckets and dump them about 200 yards away. Normally, while I am washing off the cement slab, the eagles will be on the gut pile before I get everything cleaned up. They have caught on and are watching for me to gut a deer. There is one golden eagle but I haven't see it catch or eat anything.
HA/KS's Link
Here is the story!
The photos below show an adult golden eagle attacking and killing a pronghorn antelope near Rawlins, Wyoming. It was assumed that the pronghorn was not healthy, and the photos are quite gruesome, but they do show the ability of the amazing ability and tenacity of the golden eagle.
More at link.
My wife and I saw a bald eagle eating a deer Tuesday. It was about 100 yards out in a field and was probably hit by a car and made it that far before it died.
Also noticed a big bouquet of flowers near where we saw the deer. Found out today a jogger was hit by a car and was laying in the road. A nurse, on her way to work, stopped and got out of her car to move the jogger out of the road. Another car came by and hit her, killing her. The jogger was also dead. Wide open road and you can see for a mile.
Glunt@work's Link
Here's a small deer being taken by an eagle.
On the ranch where I grew up in Wyoming we would watch eagles kill healthy adult deer all winter long. They were quite efficient about it. They would usually get the deer running and then strike the deer in the withers to the neck and in the process usually break their neck so the deer was usually dead by the time it quit tumbling. Nothing as gruesome as the doe antelope pictures from NvaGvUp.
Pretty normal thing here, I see it quite often.
Good Grief!
How'd this thread get moved to the Antelope Forum when it was intended to be about EAGLES!, which take down not only antelope, but fawns, young wild sheep and a host of other things as well.
Interesting article and photos. Not surprising though. There are quite a few eagles and antelope in Carbon County.
Saw one pick up a fawn antelope one time, fly up in the air and drop it to kill it. Some of the cries of that fawn were gut wrenching.
not to be picky but a black cheek patch and forked small horns?? think the tittle is right :) Amazing photos thank for shareing them.
Cool sequence! Mr. Wapiti's right, def a buck. Black patch....
Yeah black cheek patch... One time while bass fishing a pond, suddenly all of the ducks on it took off in a big hurry then I saw the golden flying above. I think that the only thing a golden can't take is a duck in flight. Wolf, mountain lion, golden eagle, bears, coyotes, in that order other than man as a predator. Have also seen golden eagles kill red tail hawks, coyotes, beaver, white tail yearlings, and badgers.
they are generally twice the size of bald eagles.
Marshall eagle hit a Jack Russel once in Zimb...just kocked it out ,Ph and dog were lucky . We see them on dead sheep or deer road kills in Col.
My first time bowhunting in Wy in 1972 three of us witnessed a Golden taking a doe antelope down. When we told the rancher He just shook his head and said "nope couldnt't happen, government says so, their the experts" and then proceeded to tell us about all the sheep his neighbor lost and couldn't get paid for.
I have a couple of friends who own property out in the desert here in Idaho. They have told me numerous times it is no secret why I rarely see a coyote out during the daylight hours. They have seen the golden eagles tag them often. They howl and howl at night but stay in the brush during the day on their ranch.
Nature is pretty awesome!
bear mountain lion yots eagles now wolf numbers are all up and the DNR says we have no idea why mule deer numbers have crashed in last twenty years
Unbelievable! Thanks for sharing, Nva!
The Haast Eagle of New Zealand centuries ago (now extinct) was a hunter of the great Moa (much bigger than an ostrich) and was reputed to kill and eat Maori women and children...
Very interesting, didn't know Golden Eagles were THAT badass....
Also another solid argument for how ethical hunting really is, I'd rather get shot in the lungs by a .270 at 300 yards than go through what that pronghorn did any day.
Let's get one thing clear - I love Bald Eagles but they are no where near the size and hunters Golden Eagles are.
Matter a fact it's not even close.
I agree that eagles find those antelope/deer that are struggling and take them out. No way a healthy adult antelope let's that happen.
Yearling and babies - easy pray. All the stories are true of Eagles picking up pets and never being seen again.
I have witnessed numerous kills of adult healthy buck and doe antelope by eagles.
I have seen them kill alone, in pairs, or in larger groups. They work well together and it is obvious they coordinate their attacks. They have various techniques, but generally they start by running a single antelope or a herd and then striking or landing on the back of their target and digging in their talons to start the blood flowing. Not sure how they pick out a target, sometimes it is in the middle of the pack, sometimes a straggler, but for the first hit it doesn't have to be an unhealthy or weak one.
When they strike one hard it generally affects both the eagle and the antelope much like a tackle on the football field - both parties know they have collided! Sometimes the hit will break the back or neck of the antelope and it is game over, but not always. I have seen the antelope recover and move off before the eagle was ready to fly again. Once the action resumes the eagle has the advantage. They will continue to pressure the antelope until exhaustion and blood loss takes its toll, then they move in much as the first string of pictures in this thread shows.
When rabbit and prairie dog populations are low, antelope become the target of choice. Spend some time in antelope country in the winter and you will probably witness at least some of what I am describing. It is a daily occurrence.
Frank Moore
Frank-
I was on may to a resevoir in Idaho and saw a Golden hit a mid-size muley. It was crazy.
The next day going back for another great day of fishing I didn't see it on the carcass and it took off right in front of me.
You read and see them from a distance but once your that close you don't realize how enormous they are!