Subject: Will a hawk or eagle kill a 6 lb dog?
Date: Mar 24 22:16:47 1994
From: Pete Gaughan - irishpete at AOL.COM

> A friend just asked whether a large hawk (or eagle) that she sees
> around her rural home is any danger to her aged 6 pound Yorkshire
> dog as it blindly stumbles around outdoors?

Although several species are *capable* of taking on that size mammal (and
much larger), it's pretty unlikely that they would actually attempt it. I'd
suggest first finding out what species the raptor is, and making sure it's
the same bird (not just occasional appearances of various individuals).

If a single individual is hanging around and it turns out to be a
Rough-legged Hawk or either Eagle (in the West, add Ferruginous Hawk), then
I'd guess the odds of trouble are less than 1%. Anything else and there's no
problem.

**********************************************************************
Pete Gaughan | irishpete at aol.com
1521 S. Novato Blvd. #46 | voice or fax (415) 897-3629
Novato, Calif. 94947 USA | 37 deg 10' N / 122 deg 35' W
=================================

Hello, from Ellen Blackstone, Seattle, WA (vaccine at u.washington.edu)

This is purely anecdotal, but I guess I'd pay attention... A friend of
mine who lives in "the country" outside of Seattle watched as an owl
(species unknown) plucked the family cat off a fence post in the late
evening. You gotta love the owl.... but no doubt, they loved the cat,
too! I doubt the Yorkie is in danger, "stumbling around the yard."
However a cat sitting on a fence post late at night seems reasonable prey
for an nocturnal owl.

The moral of this story (and of many other stories, too!) is: It's dark!
Do you know where your pets are?

Cheers--EllenB
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From: "Susan A. Fogleman" <s_foglem at OZ.PLYMOUTH.EDU>

With their relatively diminutive feet and bills and normal dietary
preference for lemmings (and lemming-size prey when wintering south of the
arctic), it would seem highly unlikely that Rough-legged Hawks would pose
any kind of threat to pets. Unless, of course, you have pet lemmings...;-)

-- Sue
Susan A. Fogleman
s_foglem at oz.plymouth.edu
==========================

From: Gerry Rising <INSRISG at UBVMS.bitnet>

Years ago Walter Spofford told me that his pet eagle killed and ate
his first wife*s lap dog. He convinced her that the dog had run away.
I don*t recall the type and lap dogs can be very light.

-----------------------------------------------
Gerry Rising insrisg at ubvms.bitnet
295 Robinhill Drive insrisg at ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu
Williamsville, NY 14221-1639 716-689-8301
-----------------------------------------------
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From: "WHITLOCK. PETER L." <WHIT0522 at VARNEY.IDBSU.EDU>

Recently, someone asked if a hawk might pose a threat to their
neighbor's 6 lb. nearly blind dog. Given that the sighting is
frequent and in Pennsylvania it's most likely a red-tail, but in
wintertime there is an outside chance of the bird being a golden
eagle. As Sue Fogelman points out, while the bird might be a Rough-
legged Hawk, rough-legs have very small feet compared to red-tails
and tend to eat much smaller prey. I have not done a search, but I
have been in a position where I have had to handle raptor/human
conflicts before. I have never encountered a report of a red-tail
attacking a dog, and as others have suggested it seems extremely
unlikely. Chances with a golden eagle are slightly higher; Marty
Stouffer's Wild America once showed a golden chasing and killing a
young pronghorn antelope, but it looked very set up. There is no
guarantee, but the dog seems safe from raptors. I would be much more
worried about potential conflicts with Black Bears which are quite a
bit more common than golden eagles in PA.

Ellen Blackstone relates an anecdote about a great horned owl killing
a cat. When I worked as a wildlife rehabilitator (1990-91 and some
of 1993), I had at least three phone calls concerning great horneds
killing cats. In one case, I eventually received the owl for rehab.
A legally blind woman armed only with a broom called myself and the
State Fish & Game for assistance when an owl killed one of her
neighbor's farm cats while the neighbor was away on vacation. The
owl killed and ate the cat in her driveway at noon, flying only ten
feet away with the cat when attacked by the woman. Game wardens
arrived and captured the owl after it killed its third cat in this
manner (more than a dozen loose cats being cared for there). On
exam, the owl was extremely emaciated - despite having killed three
cats. I suspect that were it not emaciated it would not have hung
around quite so much, nor killed so many cats, nor been hunting in
daylight three days in a row. Further, in a talk on coyotes, Peter
Trull, a naturalist on Cape Cod, mentioned that coyotes and owls both
take large numbers of feral domestic cats.

My personal feeling is this: loose cats are responsible for the
deaths of more than 10 million birds in the U.S. every year (this
conservative estimate comes from an article in National Wildlife two
years ago) - not to mention millions of small mammals, lizards, etc.
They should not be part of the wild ecosystem, but when we let cats
roam outside and without bells on they become part of the ecosystem.
They become the highest impact predator around in most areas, but
they are not the only predator. Once loose and part of what happens
in the wild, it is only fitting and proper that they occasionally get
preyed upon. Quite frankly, although I love cats and have enjoyed as
many as six at a time as pets, I wish for the sake of the birds that
this sort of thing happened a lot more often.


Peter L. Whitlock
Raptor Research Center
Boise State University
Boise, Idaho
e-mail: whit0522 at varney.idbsu.edu
==================================

From: hir <hir at CC.BELLCORE.COM>

Seems to me that Nina Mollett posted something about 6 months ago about
a Great Horned Owl grabbing some small dog that had must been let out (as
I recall, the dog was on the back door steps). Hard to imagine that a
Golden Eagle couldn't grab a 6 pound dog as easily as a Great Horned Owl
could. But the responses to this so far have had little fact to support
them (as is true of this one). What is the grabbing and lifting power
of an eagle or large buteo? We're not talking Chinook helicopter power
here . . .

From: Rocky Rothrock Internet address: hir at cc.bellcore.com
Holmdel, NJ 07733 Work telephone: (908) 758-2136
Home telephone: (908) 264-9119
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From: Pete Gaughan <irishpete at AOL.COM>

I got this msg from "ai462 at Freenet.HSC.Colorado.EDU" and I'm not sure it went
through to BIRDCHAT, so I'll repeat it:

> Scratch rough-legged hawk from short list of raptors that
> could possibly carry off a small dog (as someone had suggested on
> Birdchat). The roughleg doesn't have the muscle-power in its
> feet to carry off such a large animal; roughlegs eat mice, vole,
> and lemming-sized animals almost totally and would have difficulty
> carrying a good-sized rabbit.
> - Ric

Thanks, I haven't had enough experience with Rough-legs to be sure. I knew
they had the wingspan, and thought they *did* eat rabbits. But this leaves
only the eagles as potential dog-predators in the East and, again, I find
those very unlikely.

So the Pennsylvania Yorkshire Terrier is that much safer... :)

--Pete Gaughan, Novato Calif. ::: irishpete at aol.com
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