Has this happend before?

[Brandonm22]

Be careful. You can get a hefty fine and maybe jail time for killing either a Bald or Golden eagle. They're not on the endangered species list anymore, but they're still protected under federal law.

Yea, the legal assistance alone you would need to defend the charge would be outrageously expensive.

 

[djinwa]

Sadly the national bird is pretty much a scavanger, I agree it was most likely dead before the eagle go to it

Yes, they lost their luster for me years ago when I was working in the woods in Alaska. Went to the town dump and saw one flying away with diapers in its talons.

 

[paintedwolfranch]

Man, I thought we had it bad with coyotes -- lol. I have seen buzzards scavenge a dead calf but that's about all that I've seen from airborne predators in our area. I'm glad I don't have to worry about eagles here -- I'd probably end up getting myself arrested trying to protect my cows -- lol.

 

[CleoK]

i just heard this again Sunday from a cattleman in Oklahoma.. amazing to me that anyone would see a dead 40 pound calf (and that's a small new born!) being scavenged by an eagle and assume the eagle killed it.

Primarily a hunter- bald eagles eat a diet primarily composed of fish (rabbits, squirrels, snakes.. animals of that size), but if opportunity presents itself, or if prey is scarce, bald eagles will eat carrion.

Something else killed the calf.. the eagle just claimed the carcass.

Sad, 'cause some ignorant fools seeing this then go out and kill eagles :-(

 

[gizmom]

We have an Eagle pair on our farm and like some said they will get the afterbirth but we have never had a problem with them messing with the calves. They are big birds but not that big. I did worry about letting my little lap dog Winnie out without me she would have been just the right size for them to snack on for sure.

Gizmom

 

[Andyva]

There is a reason that eagles were on the endangered species list right beside timber wolves and grizzly bears in most of the country that you could raise anything on. And, don't believe that junk about DDT, either. It was powder and lead that took most of them. Seems kind of odd for virginia, but we are eat up with golden eagles around here some parts of the year. I saw two team up on turkeys once, and I saw one knock down a yearling deer. Didn't see it kill it but it was staying with it as it went out of sight. What's bad about them, they are doing a tracking study on them. So instead of the three S's, you would have to do the three S's plus go to a truck stop and tape the transmitter under a tractor trailer.

 

[Nesikep]

Andyva... Put the transmitter on a pigeon!

I don't bother stuff that doesn't bother me... the yotes here are pretty well behaved, never so much as looked at a calf, though they have had a few of our free range hens (death penalty for that).. We have a pair of ravens that have been around here for years, their nest is just up the hill from us, they don't bother us at all, not even our cherries.

once in a while we'll have golden eagles, then they leave for a while again.. Bald eagles are more common though. I'd give either of them fair warning, and if they don't heed it I'll have to escalate.

 

[insurman]

Sadly the national bird is pretty much a scavanger, I agree it was most likely dead before the eagle go to it

It really is sad..kayaked in a cove/up river in Alaska one summer and watched several of them try to catch salmon and they were jumping all around us and we were able to touch to fish and the eagles just kept coming up empty.

 

[Chris H]

i just heard this again Sunday from a cattleman in Oklahoma.. amazing to me that anyone would see a dead 40 pound calf (and that's a small new born!) being scavenged by an eagle and assume the eagle killed it.

Primarily a hunter- bald eagles eat a diet primarily composed of fish (rabbits, squirrels, snakes.. animals of that size), but if opportunity presents itself, or if prey is scarce, bald eagles will eat carrion.

Something else killed the calf.. the eagle just claimed the carcass.

Sad, 'cause some ignorant fools seeing this then go out and kill eagles :-(

Did you join just to make a post on a 3 year old thread? Do you troll for these kinds of posts? 10 years ago it was unheard of a buzzard killing calves, but it has been widely documented. Yes, it is a Mexican Black Buzzard, but still a Buzzard. If their foraging habits can change, so could an Eagle.

 

[Stocker Steve]

angus cowman, I'm in agreement with the SSS method. I ask if he shot any video. He did not, but he was adamant the eagle killed his calf that had just been born.

But he didn't say how? Cuz short of picking it up and dropping it I am not sure how the eagle would have accomplished that.

Some of those BA calves are about thte size of kid goats...

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

We had twins born Saturday and they were so tiny they looked like house cats! :lol: