Eagles having an affect on Mule Deer herds and other game animals

[velvetfvr]

Just got an email and it was pictures of an golden eagle eating a pronghorn alive. I would post pics but don't know how. The people are also having problems with them eating full grown muleys and muley fawns. They also prey on other game animals and cattle. This is happening in wyoming. The game and fish have been notified from the email but man wonder what they will do because aren't they protected??? what do you guys think???

 

[overton]

I think we should start a thread about the deer decline in Utah.

 

[tx_packmule]

I could see it being an issue with the goldens... would figure the baldies would be a problem with fawns as well, we have some problems with them when calves are dropping (but then again we have the same probs with buzzards)



The above post was written with all due respect....

 

[stillhunterman]

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www.unitedwildlifecooperative.org

 

[TOPGUN]

The pictures of that Golden on top of that live doe antelope standing there as the eagle was eating it's shoulder have been all over the net lately and it was pretty gruesome looking at them. They take a lot more game like that than people reaalize and since they are a protected species there isn't much taht can be done about it.

 

[tailchasers]

There's a lot of eagles in Utah so its the eagles fault.

"Courage is being scared to death but saddling
up anyway."

 

[timothymarks]

Eagles do kill deer. imo we should have a raptor season, we cant manage one kind of game and not another.

 

[progono]

I so wish I would have had a camera but last spring while driving i noticed a couple elk running around on a hill side. From a distance there also appeared to be a big crow flying really weird. I stopped and took a better look. It was a bald eagle dive bombing a cow elk. It was a very steep hill and the eagle was pushing the elk strait down the hill. Fortunately the elk made it to some cover and the eagle made a couple passes at the trees. It was the craziest thing I have ever witnessed. I can't help but think the eagle has successfully done this before or why else would he be doing it now. So I have no problem believing they would take out a mule deer. I just wish I could train an eagle to find big bucks for me and lead me to them

 

[6x7]

I have seen a golden eagle dive bombing muleys in Idaho, and I have read about what ravens do to fawning grounds in the state of nevada to muleys, the ravens wait out a doe till she drops her fawn then they swoop in and over whelm her with there numbers and peck the fawn apart.
Just another thing to add to the 20 other problems facing mule deer,As a kid I never saw ravens or eagles, now there dang near as common to see as a robin.

 

[huntersrwg]

Years ago there was a mule deer hunting film called too many bucks. It looked like they were hunting in Colorado. Anyway they showed a clip of a big golden eagle swooping over the heads of a group of deer that were standing near a cliff. No doubt that eagle had experienced success in spooking one off of a cliff.



"99% of the failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses" George Washington

 

[scandalousbob]

I spent some time in southern Utah over the holidays. A few of us went out looking for coyotes and saw at least 8 different eagles in just a few hours. I've seen a lot of eagles over the years, but never that many in the same day. I don't know about them killing deer, but there definitely seem to be more of them around.

 

[sagebrush]

Kill the eagles and feed them to the wolves!

 

[MuskegMan]

These are the pix I got:

 

[tx_packmule]

Now you can't even clean one without them bothering the heck out of you. Chunk a piece of something in the air and they act like seagulls.


The above post was written with all due respect....

 

[tailchasers]

I am astounded... Absolutely incredible photographs. I look at the goat and notice the hip area and can't help by think this antelope might be ill or something. I just can't see how an eagle would be able to hang on to healthy antelope and get that far into the meat of the shoulder.

Thanks for sharing the pictures.

"Courage is being scared to death but saddling
up anyway."

 

[BigJohnson]

If only the F&G would have done a better job, that antelope would have had bigger horns, and could have fought that bastard off. Talk about mismanagement.

 

[nickman]

Amazing.....years and years of Elementary level education, completely wasted. Do you guys study ANYTHING about wildlife?

"Fathom the hypocracy of a Government that requires every citizen to prove that they are insured.....but not everyone must prove that they are a citizen"

 

[tailchasers]

Got all my wildlife learning from Seasame Street, Looney Tunes, and MM.

"Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway."

 

[goofyelk]

One thing I can tell you about eagles for an ABSOLUTE fact,
Their dang hard on turkeys!,,,I've been seeing it for years.
Took these picture last week, It was a mature tom too...

 

[AZMIGHTYMULIES]

Eagles having an affect on mule deer herds is the least of our worries . The only reason an eagle is going to attack a full grown deer or elk for that matter is only to protect it's territory such as nest or babies . An eagle will kill a fawn, but maybe 1 in 20,000 chance of that happening . Eagles will kill rabbits and such but eagles are a big carnivore bird as well . I've seen more eagles eating off a carcass of deer and cattle more than I've witnessed them killing snakes, rabbits or rodents . My last 2 fresh cougar killed mule deer there were golden eagles eating off the carcass .

 

[mntman]

LAST EDITED ON Jan-27-12 AT 08:01AM (MST)[p]Mntman

"Hunting is where you prove yourself"

 

[mntman]

I once seen an American Kestrel carry off a 3 month old moose calf. All raptors should be shot on sight.
FYI for the fish lovers, I als got to witness a kingfisher take out a 45" musky up in Minnesota once.

I had my camera both times but forgot the lense on the moose incident and my batteries fell out just as I was taking a picture of the kingfisher eating the musky.




+100 AZMIGHTYMULIES
Mntman

"Hunting is where you prove yourself"

 

[AZMIGHTYMULIES]

Who here remembers and or has read this book as a kid ???
"My Side of the Mountain ". It is about a little boy who leaves home, goes to the mountains, resides in a hollowed out tree and raises a Falcon that he took from a nest . When I read this book as a little kid, I fantasized about doing the same thing for a long time, even planned it on paper ... LMAO . Well needless to say I took up Falconry for subsequent years, studied birds of prey from falcons, eagles hawks etc . To this day there are 2 people here in ST George Utah that raise eagles, hawks and falcons . They typically acquire the birds from the DWR and are usually birds that have been hit by cars or just certain problems in general . Let me tell you all, after studying these birds and birds in the wild w/ these biologists , eagles, hawks, etc would rather eat off of something already dead , specifically eagles . The predators we need to worry about are coyotes, cougars and now obviously wolves . NOT EAGLES !!!!!!

 

[TOPGUN]

Very interesting! So they take the easiest way out as much as possible if they can already find dead stuff before making a kill like that huh? I sure love to watch them soar for hours in the air currents and with no energy expended doing it.

 

[kingfish]

I hear Eagles taste a lot like chicken??


Government doesn't fix anything and has spent trillions proving it!!!
Let's face it...After Monday and Tuesday, even the calender says WTF!

 

[wybighorn]

Wow! those pictures are amazing! I can't believe that the buck is being fed on while its still alive. However, life in the wild is neither fair or biased. It's good to be reminded of the conflict that happens everyday between predator and prey. It makes me all the more appreciative when I have the opportunity to harvest an animal.

 

[bowhunt]

I can tell you, the dang things raised havoc on our lambs!

 

[TOPGUN]

Yep, I heard they are hard on domestic lambs and will also try to knock sheep off mountain ledges to their death. I see looking closer at the posted pictures that it's a small buck,rather than a doe when I first looked at the pictures.

 

[MuskegMan]

"All raptors should be shot on sight"

Before Alaska became a state, they had a bounty on Bald Eagles. After statehoold there was a bounty on Dolly Varden trout (they ate tons of salmon eggs and fry)

 

[mntman]

MuskegMan, I didn't know that but I was just being sarcastic...

same as the hawk and kingfisher that each weigh in the ounces carrying of animals 100's of times their weight.

Should have guessed that though due to people trying to exterminate every other predator they came in contact with during prior centuries...

Mntman

"Hunting is where you prove yourself"

 

[Castnshoot]

LAST EDITED ON Jan-27-12 AT 02:31PM (MST)[p]These guy need to come work on the Coyotes. Looks like fun.

 

[ICMDEER]

I've seen Golden eagles kill adult pronghorn antelope. It's generally done as pair; don't think I've seen an individual eagle kill an antelope. I've also seen eagles kill whitetails up near Sundance in the 70's. The thing that amazes me is that I've also seen coyotes and foxes following eagles so they can help clean up what the eagles kill. I've seen some pretty good fights over kills through time.

But I agree that it it not as major of a problem as coyotes or lions. And where we live on the river the eagles raise cain with the turkeys. They have killed more than one turkey in a day several times. Those tukeys have learned to feed in the trees and stay out of the open fields during the winter.

Some of this goes back to the fact we don't have as many rabbits as we used to. I'm sure an eagle would rather catch a rabbit than an antelope or deer, but if you are hungry, you'll try alternatives.

 

[Bushmen]

*BUSHMEN*