Golden Eagle Tries to Snatch Toddler

[Clone]

Holy Cannolli!!!

[chuck white]

One advantage to having over weight kids.

[Clone]

One advantage to having over weight kids.

There's nothing a parent could do if the eagle achieved lift-off.
Wow.
Just wow.
Scary stuff.....

[tvguy]

Who chose that music:wacko:

[Clone]

Who chose that music:wacko:

I'm on my Netbook and don't have my hearing aids on...I didn't hear any music!

It's from Montreal, if that helps any.

[Tiamat]

Chariots of fire plays for the SloMo. Really dumb. There's a debate about whether this video is faked or not.

[orygunluvr]

No need to worry folks, the enviros are all over this. Wonder if Obama will save the eagle?

http://savetheeaglesinternational.org/re...agles.html

Windfarms threaten the Golden Eagle in the US

STEI opposes licenses to kill golden eagles (“take permits”) issued by the Fish & Wildlife Service

Save the Eagles International (STEI) is hereby issuing a biodiversity warning concerning the United States. Contrary to dubious studies financed and controlled by vested interests, the population of golden eagles in the Western States is on the decline. Wind farms are the main cause. The issuing of licenses to kill will accelerate the decline towards extinction.


At the large wind farm of Altamont Pass, California, 116 golden eagles (GE) have been reported to be killed by turbine blades yearly. This was established by a comprehensive study realized by Dr Smallwood in 2004 (1). Extrapolating to the 25 years of existence of the wind farm, this would represent a toll of about 2,900 golden eagles. Adding to this the mortality at other wind farms in the Western United States (2), this is clearly unsustainable. Indeed, recent studies have reported an apparent decline of the GE population at two different places in California (3), and the number of active nests in the vicinity of Altamont Pass has declined considerably (4).


The Altamont Pass wind farm should have been closed down and decommissioned a long time ago. But pork-barrel politics have kept it in operation, and now the authorities are minded to authorize its continuation for another 25 years through repowering. Old wind turbines are to be replaced by much bigger ones, which are reported to kill twice as many eagles per megawatt (5). There will be less of them, but the total area swept by their blades will be much larger. So the carnage of eagles is likely to increase, notwithstanding biased studies pretending fewer birds will die. All other things being equal, if as reported a) the new turbines kill twice as many eagles per MW, and b) the wind farm’s rated capacity is also to be doubled, “repowered” Altamont could be killing 4 times as many golden eagles as with the old turbines.


Another aberration is the willingness of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to issue “take permits” (licenses to kill) for golden eagles at new wind farms, for example in Oregon (6) and Wyoming (7). Save the Eagles International firmly opposes this perversion, which has illegally but effectively changed the mission of FWS from preserving biodiversity to that of catering to the interests of an industry, an ineffective and ruinous one to boot.


STEI solemnly warns the Western States that biologically-blind policies will cause the extinction of the Golden Eagle, the California Condor, and other species of raptors. Considering that the Eastern and Central States are not acting any better, it is biodiversity in the whole of the contiguous 48 States which is in peril, including other species such as the Whooping Crane. No amount of bad science financed by the wind industry and government agencies has been able to convince honest conservationists that wind farms don’t harm bird and bat populations.


Mark Duchamp
President
save.the.eagles@gmail.com
tel: +34 693 643 736


Jim Wiegand
Vice President, United States
jim@jimwiegand.com

[Clone]

UPDATE: A Montreal animation school has fessed up that the "Golden Eagle Snatches Kid" on YouTube is a fake, created by three students in its three-year animation and digital design degree program.

"Both the eagle and the kid were created in 3D animation and integrated in to the film afterwards," the school, Centre NAD, said in a statement Wednesday
.
As seen below, cyber sleuths and imaging experts had quickly poked holes in the viral video, spotting obvious flaws in shadows and composition.

Students at the Centre NAD have cooked up digital hoaxes in the past as part of their coursework, including this video of a penguin escaping from the Montreal Biodôme.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/12/19/...27158.html

[Tiamat]

So don't trust the Canadians!

[Larry]

WHeh! Good to know it was fake. Otherwise, we would have to ban eagles.

[chuck white]

WHeh! Good to know it was fake. Otherwise, we would have to ban eagles.

Not to be confused with the eagle band.

[Scrapper]

WHeh! Good to know it was fake. Otherwise, we would have to ban eagles.

Not to be confused with the eagle band.

Or Eagle brand.

[chuck white]

Or ban legals

[tvguy]

It fooled me and I should have known better. I have read about studies that disproved the urban myth that an eagle did or could could actually lift the weight of a baby.

Even large birds like Golden eagle don't weight very much, hollow bones and all and they can't lift anything near their own body weight.
I remember reading that pond for pound the little sparrow hawk was the strongest.

[Tiamat]

It fooled me and I should have known better. I have read about studies that disproved the urban myth that an eagle did or could could actually lift the weight of a baby.

Even large birds like Golden eagle don't weight very much, hollow bones and all and they can't lift anything near their own body weight.
I remember reading that pond for pound the little sparrow hawk was the strongest.

Maybe but I've talked to people who have told me about eagles taking newborn lambs. And I've also heard about many near misses, where the eagle tries but fails as would have been the case in this clip, had it been real. People have told me about eagles trying to take newborn fawns and leaving talon marks behind. The same people told me that usually it isn't the eagles they fear as much as the crows who peck out the eyes of the newborns leaving them helpless. Yeck!

[tvguy]

It fooled me and I should have known better. I have read about studies that disproved the urban myth that an eagle did or could could actually lift the weight of a baby.

Even large birds like Golden eagle don't weight very much, hollow bones and all and they can't lift anything near their own body weight.
I remember reading that pond for pound the little sparrow hawk was the strongest.

Maybe but I've talked to people who have told me about eagles taking newborn lambs. And I've also heard about many near misses, where the eagle tries but fails as would have been the case in this clip, had it been real. People have told me about eagles trying to take newborn fawns and leaving talon marks behind. The same people told me that usually it isn't the eagles they fear as much as the crows who peck out the eyes of the newborns leaving them helpless. Yeck!

Most of the info I found on how much weight an eagle can lift says they can lift UP TO half of their body weight. And they only weigh 9 pounds or so with some reaching 14 pounds.
Anyway I suppose it's possible they could fly off with a newborn but the myths usually talk about toddlers.

Every few years a story makes the rounds about a bald eagle carrying off a dog or trying to snatch someone’s cat. Biologists who study birds of prey and folks who live around eagles have seen plenty snatching and carrying – as well as swooping and swimming – and they offered insights into what eagles really can and cannot do.

Bald eagles are strong, aggressive birds but like everything that flies they are governed by aerodynamics. The wings of an eagle need to support the eight to 12-pound bird as well as whatever the bird is carrying, and best estimates put the lifting power of an eagle at four or five pounds. But it’s not quite that simple.

Lift is dependent not only on wing size, but on airspeed. The faster a bird (or plane) is flying, the greater the lift potential. An eagle that lands on the beach to grab a fish, and then takes off again, is limited to a smaller load than an eagle that swoops down at 20 or 30 miles an hour and snatches up a fish. That momentum and speed gives the bird the ability to carry more weight.

Biologist Ron Clarke earned his masters degree studying birds of prey, and he’s a falconer who trains raptors. He hunts with a gyrfalcon and a peregrine falcon, and said his 45-ounce gyr can carry an 8-ounce bufflehead duck pretty easily. “He can't do the same with a mallard, though,” he said. At about two pounds, a mallard is four times the weight of a bufflehead.

This is from Alaska Fish and wildlife news...

Eagle Flight and Other Myths
Eagles Don’t Eat Children or Pets
By Riley Woodford
Clarke said an eagle with momentum is a different story.

“On a wide-open beach, I have no doubt that an eagle with a full head of steam could pick up a six- or eight-pound dog and just keep on going,” Clarke said. “If it landed to kill a ten-pounder, and then tried to pick up and fly from a dead stop, could it get off the ground? Probably not.”

Eagles will carry heavier loads a short distance. Mike Jacobson spent decades as an eagle management specialist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and recently retired.

“There used to be stories about eagles carrying off babies and little kids, and none of that has ever been documented,” he said. “They can pick up and carry four or five pounds, maximum, and actually fly off with it. They can lift a little more and hop it along, but they can’t carry it off.”

Flying may be an eagle’s birthright, but it requires skill. Falconers and birdwatchers can attest that swooping down to nab dinner, or snatching food off the water, requires techniques that are honed with experience. Young predators develop their hunting skills by trial and error, play, and testing limits. Young eagles will swoop on floating bottles, attempt to lift salmon that are too heavy, and investigate new objects.

Jacobson said an immature eagle is most likely to swoop down on something inappropriate, like a large dog on the beach. People then overreact and claim that eagles are hunting dogs. “It gets exaggerated” he said. “Eagles don’t hunt cats and small dogs.”

[Larry]

http://www.youtube.com/embed/nA3LtXnNIto...r_embedded

Pretty cool Osprey videos

[chuck white]

It fooled me and I should have known better. I have read about studies that disproved the urban myth that an eagle did or could could actually lift the weight of a baby.

Even large birds like Golden eagle don't weight very much, hollow bones and all and they can't lift anything near their own body weight.
I remember reading that pond for pound the little sparrow hawk was the strongest.

An African sparrow can carry a coconut.

[Larry]

It fooled me and I should have known better. I have read about studies that disproved the urban myth that an eagle did or could could actually lift the weight of a baby.

Even large birds like Golden eagle don't weight very much, hollow bones and all and they can't lift anything near their own body weight.
I remember reading that pond for pound the little sparrow hawk was the strongest.

An African sparrow can carry a coconut.

How far and at what velocity?

[chuck white]

It fooled me and I should have known better. I have read about studies that disproved the urban myth that an eagle did or could could actually lift the weight of a baby.

Even large birds like Golden eagle don't weight very much, hollow bones and all and they can't lift anything near their own body weight.
I remember reading that pond for pound the little sparrow hawk was the strongest.

An African sparrow can carry a coconut.

How far and at what velocity?

I'm mistaken it was an African Swallow. (sorry)