Was doing some research on eagles in Australia and apparently one bird decided to do a selfie with a small videocam set up to shoot crocs. And no I don't know why the linky isn't parsing.
Was doing some research on eagles in Australia and apparently one bird decided to do a selfie with a small videocam set up to shoot crocs. And no I don't know why the linky isn't parsing.
There's a whole slew of videos out there of eagles with GoPros strapped to their backs taking wing and soaring all over the place. Some commenters on these vids think it's some poor wild eagle being forced to wear a harness and a GoPro, but as you clearly see jesses trailing after the birds in some cases and them usually flying to fist, they're clearly falconers' birds and were probably hatched by them. Also a real wild eagle would probably tear the bejeezus out of a GoPro harness!
It's not going to be so funny when an eagle grabs a camera bag with an SLR in it and "drop[s] purported prey shortly after taking flight, securing an easy kill."
It's not going to be so funny when an eagle grabs a camera bag with an SLR in it and "drop[s] purported prey shortly after taking flight, securing an easy kill."
Well uhm remember that this particular eagle grabbed a fairly small, REMOTE videocam so first of all it was tiny, and second, there were no people around.
It wasn't like it snatched a DSLR from around someone's neck. You're far more likely to lose a small p&s with a dangling wrist strap to a brazen seagull - they're scavengers so they'll grab anything they can - than a stationary DSLR-laden camera bag to an eagle any day.
It wasn't like it snatched a DSLR from around someone's neck.
I was picturing it grabbing your camera bag, which you've set down while you are grabbing a sandwich or something, not snatching it off your person.
But 99.99% of all wild eagles wouldn't do that!!!! Obviously that young eagle was the exception, and I'm guessing the videocam drew his attention in some way - shiny casing, interesting noise, whatever. But truly wild eagles have to have a super-strong incentive to be around people. Normally they are very solitary and avoid people at all costs. For them to get close enough to snatch up and carry off a camera bag, esp one loaded down with camera gear (esp Canon gear)...well...I'll email a friend of mine at the Canadian Raptor Conservancy, where they raise and fly raptors at shows, and use them for TV, movies etc and get his feedback on this.
But fwiw, I'm sure you have nothing to worry about unless you have a squirming rabbit strapped to the top of your camera bag.
Seagulls are the birds to watch for. They will mob you, they are notoriously brazen and known to snatch sandwiches, ice cream cones etc from your hand. Even so even most gulls would probably find a small p&s too unwieldy to fly off with and would probably drop it before long.
ETA: Yes, a 12-lb eagle (the size of a large Golden, like a Berkut) can take down prey much larger than itself. Raptors kill with their feet, which are phenonemally strong. That is, they can KILL prey much larger than themselves - google Eagle kills deer and see the recent stills caught by a wildlife cam in Siberia for examples - but they cannot FLY OFF with, say a deer weighing around 100lbs.
