Can Raptors Carry off Dogs and Toddlers

16 years ago

Eagles, hawks and owls are very limited in the weight they can carry. They certainly cannot "lift 4 times their own weight" as a recent post claims.

The Alaska Fish and Game Department, in a good spot to observe eagles, points out that "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 heÂs a falconer who trains raptors .... "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."

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http://carnivoraforum.com/index.cgi?board=zoological&action=print&thread=4547 discusses this issue, and has a video of a Golden Eagle taking a small goat (they don't specify the size of the goat).

The best the eagle can do, even with the elevated take-off from the cliff - is a very steep angled glide. You see it trying to flap and then shift to fully fanned out wings for maximum braking. Unfortunately they don't show the landing.

Hawks will gorge on a kill that is too large to carry, digest it (they have very fast digestive systems), defecate to lighten their load, then go back and carry the remains off if they are small enough now to lift.

***********

So if your 12-pound pooch goes missing, it was coyotes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Alaska Fish and Game page

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sowngrow (8a) G

16 years ago

The boy next door was carried away by a red tail hawk until he was just able to reach up and tickle it with his last ounce of strength. Close call though.

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User
Original Author
16 years ago
I'm glad the little tyke came through the ordeal ok :)
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sowngrow (8a) G
16 years ago
Me too! It really was quite a sight. ;-)
User thanked sowngrow (8a) G
bb_smith
14 years ago
so my chiuaha might be carried away, i see lots of these small chi chis in the lost pages i am wondering if that is the case and some big birds have taken them away . i remember seeing a deer hanging in some news clip from a high wire and they were saying it was a big bird who carried it there and couldnt hold it no longer and it was stuck on the live wire.
User
Original Author
14 years ago
bb.smith ... Chihuahuas are small enough my cat could have one for lunch if he wanted to. For a red-tailed hawk, great horned owl or other fairly common raptor - or a coyote, bobcat or mountain lion - they would be a snack.

I have my doubts about the deer being left in the high wires. Unless it was hit by a train.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/poormoose.asp
http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/poledeer.asp
sharbear50
14 years ago
I saw recently on the news that a baby dear was taken up by an Eagle and dropped on some power lines. The report didn't show the eagle but it did show the poor little dear dangling on the power lines, dead of course.
gymell
14 years ago
If you're talking white-tailed deer, fawns can weigh 5-8 pounds at birth. So it is possible that a large female eagle was able to carry it, but that's the upper limit of what even the largest eagle could carry. So that's probably why it was dropped.

Great horned owls can attack and take small (very small) dogs.
User
Original Author
14 years ago
Great horned owls can attack and take small (very small) dogs.

Saw one do it ... it was in the habit of stopping in the parking lot where I worked, perched on a light post. hoping for one more bunny or mouse.

We were admiring it when a man came jogging through the industrial park, preceded by a very small dog running off leash about 50 feet in front of him ... end of dog. The owl swooped, snatched, and kept going, with a very dead (limp,not moving) dangling from its talons.

If the idiot owner had followed the leash laws, the dog would have been
bulldinkie
14 years ago
When we got our second jack russell,the man said he was sitting on his deck withhis jack,an owl came down grabbed him right there with the man next to him,he clapped,screamed the owl had him about 30' dropped him,he livid but the owls claws dug in the jacks eyes ,hes blind.
Tim
14 years ago
It's more probable that the deer was sucked up by a tornado miles away and deposited on the wire than some bird picked it up into the air.
More than liely, a person put it there as a practical joke.
And no, a raptor will not try to carry off a child. Humans are not part of their natural diet. However, a raptor will attack a child or an adult if one ventures to close to it's nesting site.

Can Raptors Carry off Dogs and Toddlers

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