Diet of el aguila real

[Jonathan01]

Sorry for the spanglish in the topic header.

Recently I have become enthralled with a youtube video ( part of el aguila real in the series  El hombre y La Tierra)

In it A golden Eagle  pulls a fully grown chamois off a cliff face as well as 2 young ibex (i think ).

I was wondering if anyone had heard of or seen this behaviour for themselves or if this is just a rarity ?

There is a strange beauty I believe with what the eagle has learnt to do, and as I said the video has enthralled me.

Also I would be really keen to hear of any other eagle kill sightings spotted by you.


thanks Jonathan. 

Here is hopefully a link to the video. shorter ones are available on Youtube.com 

 http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz7FFlFy8eM

[nick]

Thanks for that Jonathan,

I love this video and the whole El Hombre y La Tierra series too...but this was a trained captive eagle following the standards of nature films of the time. It was filmed I believe in a private estate in Segura y Cazorla

The other goats in the video are ibexes (cabras monteses) not chamois (rebecos) but is the unfortunate individual a muflon?

[Jonathan01]

Ah thanks nick.

My love for this video has now be destroyed  I cannot believe that the eagle was a fake! Well trained. Still superb to see though.

Where did you find this out Nick,?  I didnt suspect any thing like this,  though I new Felix Rodriguez de la fuente used semi tame wolves for a few episodes.  Also seeing the eagle carry the unfortunate ibex/mouflon to its nest just added realism to me.


And i thought the young ones were cabres monetes    but i thought the last one at the end was a chamois,  glad you cleared that up for me.

Also,  Im really into this series, but cant find anywhere to purchase it from in the UK. so if anyone has any idea, i'd be grateful.





Wild eagles would still hunt in this way though wouldn't they? if they got the chance?


thanks J.

[Clive]

Hi,

Here in the Sierra de Grazalema there is talk that the older female of our only pair of golden eagle has learned to knock off young Spanish ibex from cliff edges... As far as I know this is natural behaviour although it has not been recorded very much. I think that the video of the captive trained bird is still valid as the bird is acting out something that it may do naturally in the wild.

See my top 12 wildlife sightings that mentions the the golden eagle taking an alpine marmot....
http://www.iberianatureforum.com/index.php?topic=31.0

Pyrenees not far from Ordessa...(in the middle of nowhere)
The best sighting ever of a golden eagle catching an alpine marmot, taking it up to a thousand feet and dropping it only to dive in an arc and hitting the marmot at full speed. It was a bit messy but for some odd reason I take the side of the carnivore.

[nick]

V.interesting observations there Clive

Jonathan,

The story is a kinda open secret (secreto a voces).

[nick]

Posted the video here. Thanks Jonathan for finding that
http://www.iberianature.com/spainblog/2008/10/golden-eagle-hunting-video/

[Jonathan01]

you're welcome

On a site called tu.tv they had the complete series available to watch  but there seems to have been a crackdown on el hombre y la tierra videos everywhere.

Both Tu.Tv and Google videos have lost theirs , which is saddening as I now have no sources.