Swiper no swiping…
While fox may be known as one of the smarter animals, this certainly wasn’t the best example of their intelligence.
A camera was set up to live stream a bald eagle couple in the Catalina Islands of southern California and it captured a brave fox try to sneak in and grab an egg for a meal.
Bald eagles typically build their nests in an area with a good view of the surrounding landscape, such an large trees, cliffsides, or other rock promontories, but this one appears to be pretty easily accessible for a number of creatures, including fox.
The video starts with a lone bald eagle watching over the nest when the curious fox peaks its head up and takes a look at what’s inside. Bald eagles are quite large, measuring up to 40 inches tall and weighing up to 12 pounds, so it’s highly unlikely he just missed the bird sitting there, but regardless, after taking a second to work up the courage, he popped over and tried to enter the nest.
As you can imagine, it was a bad idea.
We’ve seen bald eagles take out muskie, attack a brown bear, and fly off with a house cat, so the small fox was going to be no problem for this predator bird.
It immediately bows up, spreads its wings, and begins pecking mercilessly at the attacker, sending the poor, most likely desperate, fox running for its life. Even though the eagle had no problem running it off, it immediately starts calling out for its partner, who quickly returns from what I assume was a hunting trip.
Incredible to see these majestic birds up close, and even cooler to see them still depend on each other, despite being fully capable of taking care of themselves.
I hope the fox was able to get itself some food and stays away from the eagles moving forward. It could easily turn into their meal if it keeps bothering them…
