What makes eagles good predators

Sight is the strongest of all eagle senses. An eagles vision is 4—5 times better than that of a human. Eagle eyes are angled 30 degrees away from centre of the face, which gives eagles a greater field of view.

Eagles can see five basic colours to our three, and can detect UV light. Cones are light detecting cells that are sensitive to colour. One of the reasons that eagles have better vision than humans is because their retinas, a layer at the back of the eyeball, have more cones.

We have , cones per square millimetre, whereas eagles have one million. Eagles are monogamous, so generally mate for life. They can outrun a person in just a couple days.

Eagles have killed calves into July, when calves weigh 30 pounds or more, but they are much more opportunistic later when calves are bigger. Eagles may live 25 or 30 years, and like other top predators, experienced hunters develop techniques and strategies that may enable them to make ambitious attacks. Whitten said golden eagles have been documented taking adult pronghorn antelope, mule deer and caribou.

But in the Arctic, Whitten found that adult and nesting eagles tended to target ground squirrels, and the young birds were more active in calving areas. Adults are better at defending territories that provide abundant rodents, Whitten said, leaving the more challenging work of killing calves to younger birds. Bortje once came across an adult caribou in early April that had been killed by a golden eagle.

Golden eagles migrate north in the spring, and he suspects this bird may have arrived on the North Slope a little early, before calving season, and was perhaps hungry and a bit bolder than usual. You could see the marks in the snow where the eagle had struck the caribou - it would fall and get up, and the eagle would land and then come at it again. Bortje said in some cases eagles will make repeated attacks on an animal over the course of several days, wounding and sometimes blinding their prey before it succumbs.

Then they sit and watch, and wait, or come back later. Editor: Riley Woodford West 8th St. Juneau, AK Where golden eagles prey on domestic animals, they usually take lambs and kids, but some become persistent predators of domestic livestock as large as pounds kg.

Bald eagles rely heavily on fish and carrion where available. They readily adapt, however, to preying on waterfowl, other birds, rabbits, and other small mammals. They also occasionally kill adult deer, pronghorns, and calves.

These birds catch prey such as hares with their razor-sharp talons. Sometimes they store grub for later in a throat pouch that can hold a pound of meat. A bald eagle sometimes floats on water while hunting for fish. After nabbing a fish, the bird may grasp the prey with its feet and use its wings as oars to row back to shore.

All rights reserved. Personality Quizzes. Funny Fill-In.