Eagle attacking deer: A camera on the Lazovskii nature reserve at the eastern end of Russia was in place to capture images of the endangered Siberian tiger, however, it photographed something much rarer: A golden eagle attacking a deer. The photos showing the eagle attacking a deer were reported by EurekaAlert on Sept. 23, and have gone viral on the web.
The three images released by the Zoological Society of London and the Wildlife Conservation Society, only cover a period of two seconds, but show an adult eagle clutching the back of the unsuspecting sika deer, which could do little to escape from the predator.
The deer's body was found two weeks later, a few meters from the camera, a finding that, at first, baffled investigators. "It was only after we got back to camp that I checked the images from the camera and pieced everything together. I couldn't believe what I was seeing," Kerley said in a release by EurekaAlert.
According to Jonathan Slaght of the WCS, Golden Eagles have a long history of incredible predation attempts. "The scientific literature is full of references of these eagles attacks on different animals from around the world, from things as small as rabbits- to coyotes or deer, and even a record in 2004 of an eagle which tried to attack a young brown bear."
Scientists emphasize that eagles do not regularly attack deers, and there is no evidence that such attacks have an impact on deer populations.
