Ambitiously Carnivorous

In this photo taken from a remote camera at the Lazovsky State Nature Reserve in the Primorye region of Russias' Far East, a golden eagle attacks a deer.

"I've been assessing deer causes of death in Russia for 18 years -- this is the first time I've seen anything like this. I saw the deer carcass first as I approached the trap on a routine check to switch out memory cards and change batteries, but something felt wrong about it. There were no large carnivore tracks in the snow, and it looked like the deer had been running and then just stopped and died.
"It was only after we got back to camp that I checked the images from the camera and pieced everything together. I couldn't believe what I was seeing."
Dr. Linda Kerley, Zoological Society of London

Dr. Kerley and her study co-author and colleague, Dr. Jonathan Slaght of the Wildlife Conservation Society published a paper, appearing in the current issue of the Journal of Raptor Research. And it will be seen as a highly unusual situation by anyone who studies the biological imperative of survival among carnivorous creatures and those upon whom they prey. In the experience of the two scientists there have been other occasions they were aware of when golden eagles preyed upon animals.

Animals much, much smaller than the Sika deer that the eagle their camera had caught attacking -- the deer that ultimately succumbed to the savage attack by its assailant. The photographs were taken in the Lazovsky State Nature Reserve in Russia's Far East Primorye region.  The reason for the camera set-up was to document the predations of Siberian tigers on the Sika deer that are prevalent in the geography.

The deer remains were discovered weeks after the attack had occurred, very close by where the camera footage was taken. The young deer was simply no match for the seasoned and rapaciously-deadly hunting skill of the winged predator, and its determination to make a feast of deer flesh. Truly, a representative in chilling reality of "Nature red in tooth and claw".

They had been filming for five years in the area, and what they discovered on this occasion was unusual enough to have made their research a success of a type they had hardly envisaged. Grist for the mill of documentation through a scholarly paper, with full pictorial documentary evidence to support their observations.

"The scientific literature is full of references to golden eagle attacks on different animals from around the world, from things as small as rabbits -- their regular prey -- to coyote and deer.
"The most startling to me was a record from Norway in 2004, when a golden eagle swooped down and carried off a small [about 3 kg] brown bear cub trailing after its mother. Everybody knows not to mess with a brown bear sow with cubs, but that particular eagle was unfazed."
Dr. Jonathan Slaght