Let this be a warning to keep your yappy dogs inside, or at least keep a close eye on them when you let them out.
This close call, which featured a massive bald eagle attacking a tiny little Yorkie named Coco, happened in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Security camera footage is clutch when it comes to viral videos, and once again let us see something that otherwise we may have been left guessing about.
In the video, a normal day for the Yorkie turns into a living nightmare as it has to run for its life from a Bald Eagle. The big bird (our national bird to be exact) is known to swoop down on unsuspecting prey, but yappy dogs are generally not on the menu out in the wild.
However, it’s not exactly out of the norm for eagles and hawks to hunt down smaller animals. We’ve seen eagles horrifically flying off with house cats, and hawks easily snatching up rabbits, so a Yorkie does kind of fit into that “size range” that eagles like to go after.
The Yorkie is hanging out on the deck, presumably waiting to be let back into the house, when the Bald Eagle soars into the yard from out of the sky to pick up the little dog. With the incomparable eyesight that bald eagles boast, the bird had probably been eyeing this Yorkie from above the entire time it was outside.
In the blink of an eye, the eagle swoops in and grabs the screaming and yapping small dog with its talons and starts to carry it off. It bumps into a container sitting on the porch, then goes down to the grass with the Yorkie as the eagle tried to get it situated in order to successfully fly off.
And you’ve got to give the little yappy dog some credit, because it put up a heck of a fight (apparently, it was mostly off camera). Somehow the Yorkie broke free from the eagle’s talons and came running and screaming back to the house. Once the dog got away, it appears that the eagle gave up on it, and decided to try and find a meal somewhere else.
Take a look:
It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.
It also could have just been dumb luck that the Yorkie got away, but you’ve still got admit the yappy pet is one tough dog. He/she has that dog in them, as the kids are saying nowadays.
One way to avoid this happening to your pet is to always keep a close eye on them when they are outside. Another method of avoiding an eagle attack is to just get a bigger dog. As the philosophical mind of Ron Swanson (from the beloved sitcom Parks and Recreation) once proclaimed:
“Any dog under 50 pounds is a cat, and cat’s are pointless.”
Eagle Grabs Bird By The Beak For Trying To Steal Its Food
Eagle: 1, bird trying to mess with an eagle: 0.
A bird (looks like an egret, but I’m no bird expert) was nearly sent to the afterlife after it tried to mess with an eagle at the Featherdale Wildlife Park in Sydney, Australia.
From an outsider’s view, it was a pretty chicken move considering the eagle was locked up in an enclosure at a zoo, and the bird probably thought it was the perfect time to mock the eagle, while also trying to take its food away from it.
However, the bird’s plan backfired pretty quickly, when the eagle brilliantly picked up the food and moved it further away so the bird would have to stick its head further in the cage. When it did, the eagle snatched bird’s head with its talon in an instant, and held on for a few seconds before finally letting it go.
Sure enough, the bird didn’t want any more of the eagle and quickly got away…
Bold strategy, cotton.
Needless to say, I’m sure this ol’ egret is gonna think twice before it goes after an eagle’s food again.
Check it out:
Coyote Goes After Bald Eagle For Carcass At Yellowstone
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 Cat To Nest For Eaglets
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.
