Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Coyotes are both hunters and scavengers, tending to let situations dictate how they get their meals. The wild animals are commonly known to hunt small prey, but on occasion, they’ll pick up on the scent of an already deceased animal and go to stake their claim.
However, that doesn’t always go as smooth as coyotes would like, as evidenced by the pictures below. A deer carcass was up for grabs, and two massive golden eagles had already tracked it down to dig in. But that didn’t stop one hungry coyote from approaching the potential meal and challenging the large birds.
A trail camera that was set up right in front of the deceased deer (presumably on purpose) took these stunning pictures two years ago, and they were just recently shared again on the Instagram account “Nature Is Metal,” which is notorious for posting some of the gnarliest wildlife content you’ll ever see.
The coyote tried to get in on the deer carcass consumption for over 20 minutes with not much success. Defending their food was rather easy for the two golden eagles, who generally wouldn’t try to attack a coyote, though we’ve seen viral videos that prove they could if they wanted to.
In the caption, it’s revealed that the golden eagles stayed for quite some time to pick on the bones of the deer, and the coyote eventually moved back in once they had enough and flew away:
“This showdown between two golden eagles and a coyote over a deer carcass was captured via trail cam. The birds were able to scare away the coyote after a 30-minute confrontation, but the coyote returned that evening to feast without competition.”
These pictures look like a painting.
Those photos are unreal, and go to show how every meal can be a battle out in the wild. Lucky for us humans, we have something called “DoorDash” that makes our food search more civil. The wild animal in us only comes out if the delivery takes too long… tough problems to have.
