just looks like his beak needs viagra! great national symbol really... australia's eagle kicks american eagle tail-feathers! http://www.australianfauna.com/wedgetailedeagle.php
Oh, c'mon. That eagle is about to meet its doom! The kangaroo is engaging in the classic "sleeper" position, pretending to be dead or wounded. It then grabs the unsuspecting eagle, snaps its neck and stuffs it in its pouch for snacking on later in the day. At least our eagles are smart enough to take on less-savvy opponents, like house cats.
I was doing a presentation at a customers home when a happy little toy poodle came up to me. I admired the dog and was told it was a replacement for a previous like pet. Seems they had gone on an outing /picnic/ whatever and brought their white dog along and was out running around. A bird of prey swooped down and carried Fido off. I'm not making this up. Its all I could do to not burst out laughing from the mental immage. Ive been told that an Owl will kick an Eagles tail(feathers).
I have an Osprey in Miami near my building, he sat on my terrace railing once, He was almost 3 ft tall, claws the size of my hands. & a wicked beak I dont allow my cats on the terrace Poor kitty
The Eagle is looking at the cat like you must be crazy. The Eagle would rip the cat to shreads, not only are they much stronger but birds such as Eagles are highly intelligent compared to the stupid cat, their is a well known bird trainer that has a pet Eagle he rescued that flys back and forth 100ft to him at seminars and it does tricks as well, cool bird.
Personally I think it depends on the cat. You ever watch a cat hunt? They hunt the same way their big brothers do...they go straight for the kill - right for the jugular. If a "real" cat, not fluffy who was pictured (read a street tomcat who still had his nutz and had been in a streetfight or ten), was in a similar situation, I think it would be a good fight. I can't imagine an eagle flying away with a pissed off cat hanging from its neck...it would definitely be a fight to the death once each animal got pizzed enough.
I think the eagle is out of his element..... Were he flying around and could swoop down and grab the cat I think he may be the victor. Standing is another story altogether. The eagle would be giving up his advantage of being able to strike the cat from the back and take him into the air. And while they have pretty strong talons, I don't think their wings would be able to take a full on fight with a cat. Now I'm not saving the cat isn't going to have a puncture or two but I think the cat would be able to take the eagle in a ground fight. Well, the fight that would ensue from the picture anyway......
My guess is you could be surprised. We once trapped a cat that was stealing food from ours....and that was a hell of a battle. These small beasts are VERY strong if they really fight for their lives. And quite fast as well. The eagle could easily get the cat from high in the sky -that's how they do it, but on the ground, i doubt it. One of our cats once fought against a crazy german shepherd, and you'd be surprised to hear the issue (poor dog had his nose bleeding...though that cat was the king of the block, defeated all the other cats in the neighborhood, killed and ate a two dozen pigeons etc.)
Inteligent? Birds are pretty darn stupid. I would say that it would be one hell of a fight. Have you ever seen an eagle on the ground, they are hopeless compared to a cat. If the cat manages to atack the eagle from behing, the eagle is history.
Have you ever owned one? I used to think the same thing until we got were given a cockatiel a couple of years ago and the experience has turned me around. I was one those "birds are just rats with wings" kind of people. Now I've learned two things. One, birds are very smart. Two, don't underestimate rats either. On another note there's an experiment that shows a crow bending a piece of metal to form a hook in order to fish out a piece of meat from a glass tube. The crow hadn't been shown how to do it. It was just given the piece of metal and the problem. Problem solving like that is pretty high up on the intelligence scale if you ask me. http://users.ox.ac.uk/~kgroup/tools/crow_photos.html#0002 See the video here: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~kgroup/trial7_web.mov
Have you ever seen those experiments with the African Grey Parrots? They show one where the parrot learns to count and add. They assigned numerical values to different shapes and would ask things like "What's ball plus cube?" or "What's triangle minus 3. Pretty cool to see.
] I didn't think much of birds either till I bought my ex gf a Blue and Gold Macaw, she raised it from a baby and it is extremely intelligent, can say sentences, sing, and understands instructions as well and works through problems, definately on a higher level than a cat. Eagles are on the same level.
Crows are very smart, not doubt about it. Parrots can learn a bunch of things but so do cats. They just need to be trained and the fact is that hardly anybody does that. A friend of mine is into bird-watching. He says that a trick thay use is to build an observation tent, and two people come in, and then one leaves the tent. Birds cannot do math, so they think that everybody is out of the tent, and they keep doing what they do without worring about humans watching them.
A bird on the ground is very fragile and at a distinct disadvantage. On the ground the cat wins, because the first thing the eagle will do is try and take off while the cat is in full attack mode, if the eagle can get airborne in time then a draw, if not kitty gets big meal.
