Survival of the fittest.
Yellowstone National Park is one of the snowiest places in all of America, as it gets around 150 inches of snow on average, and can reach up to 200 to 400 the higher the elevation, according to Yellowstone National Park Lodges.
With that being said, food can be few and far between for the wildlife that remains in the park during the snowy months, and as we’ve seen before, many creatures have to fight for their food in order to survive.
In this video, you can see a few bald eagles taking what is left of a carcass at Yellowstone. Although the bald eagle normally feeds off fish, they are forced to make due with what they can get in the winter, as the ponds are frozen over.
It appears for a bit that the bald eagles have the carcass all to themselves, when out of nowhere, a coyote can be seen lurking in the distance.
Once the coyote realizes that the coast is clear of any wolves, he makes his move on the bald eagles in an effort to obtain the carcass all for himself.
He runs in and lunges at the remaining bald eagle, and although the eagle makes an effort to stand its ground with its talons, the coyote is victorious in the end, and the eagle is forced to onlook from a distance.
“Yellowstone is one of the snowiest places in America and, as winter progresses, it rapidly transforms into a wonderland. But for Yellowstone’s wildlife, it’s a finely balanced fight for survival as bald eagles and a coyote fight over a carcass.”
Check it out:
Bald Eagle Delivers House Cat To Nest
A man’s gotta eat and so does his family…
Unfortunately for us, our favorite furry critters can be easy targets for those birds that decide to make a home near an urban environment.
It’s notoriously rumored that many nests that belong to birds of prey are littered with many different collars from cats and smaller dogs. It’s no question that these birds are absolute killers… assassins of the sky.
Eagles in particular are crazy good at hunting. They have vison far better than humans and it’s said that what we can see at 5 feet away they see the same at 20 feet. They also see in UV meaning any trace an animal leaves is easily picked up and draws them in.
Yup, that means your yard covered in dog piss is a clear target these birds are keeping an eagle eye on.
The funny thing about this particular video is that it involves a housecat. Cats are known to cause more bird deaths in North America than any other cause by far. Seriously, they kill millions of birds a year.
So, if we think its cute when our pet lands on the front step, proud of his kill, it’s hard to be to upset when something comes after it, isn’t it?
I mean, I get it… they are pets… there is a difference. But we need be realistic about what goes on out in the wild.
These eagles here are shown with one parent and two chicks in a nest. It’s a common research tool and its often live-streamed to watch an eagle’s nest. Lots of cool stuff can be captured, just like this instance right here.
The mature eagle in the nest looks back and another flies in and lands in the nest.
At first its hard to tell what, but this eagle brought home dinner. After we get the slo-mo replay you can see that it has a house cat that is done for in the nest… all you can really make out is the head…
According to the author of the video, this eagle’s name is Harriet:
“Harriet flies in to the nest with roadkill cat (head and foot). She most likely picked it up from the side of the road after the cat had an unfortunate run in with a car and brought it to the nest as prey for the E’s.
Eagles are opportunistic hunters, nothing is wasted in nature. It may be difficult to see the cat head on the nest and some viewers may want to limit their watching until it is disposed of one way or another. Poor kitty…”
Keep you kitties close if you have any birds of prey around.
