Of all the birds of prey in the animal kingdom, there might not be one more menacing than the Golden eagle.
A lot of that has to do with the sheer size of the raptor, whose wingspan can impressively stretch to over seven feet long. Just imagine being an animal and seeing the shadow of those wings coming down to grab you. Just an absolute nightmare…
Golden eagles have the fifth largest wingspan of any living eagle species, which helps them generate unreal speed when hunting smaller animals. Saying “smaller animals” is somewhat of a looser term, considering that Golden eagles will often take on deer if they think they can handle them.
Most of the time, these big birds stick to rabbits, squirrels, and other smaller mammals, but occasionally, they get greedy and go for bigger menu items. Which brings us to this unbelievable video that shows a Golden eagle making a run at a pretty decent sized wolf.
You would usually think that the attacking would be the other way around, with the wolf possibly getting the best of a unsuspecting eagle somehow. Maybe that’s why the upper hand (or upper talon) seemed to belong to the Golden eagle, who without a doubt caught the wolf off guard with its aerial assault.
In the clip, the wolf is walking along the mountainside when the eagle swoops down and uses its sharp talons to land an initial shot that sent the canine spinning and cartwheeling down the incline. Once it was able to regain its footing, it started to flee, not knowing where the next attack would come from.
Just as the wolf had regained its bearings, the Golden eagle swoops back in with another high speed blow, this time knocking the canine to the ground. Once the big bird had the wolf on its back, it appears to really dig in its talons into the animal, and though the video cuts off before we can know for sure, there’s a good chance that this was the final blow to end the wolf and officially put it on the dinner menu.
You can view the high-stakes footage below:
