Herb Curl:
>As Jim Rosso posted, Golden Eagles will take an interest in anything they
>think they can eat that doesn't bite back, up to deer size. The coyote
>described by Scott appeared to be uncooperative but I'm sure a sick coyote
>would be taken. Not much meat on a coyote, though.

The thing I found curious about this whole account is the implication
of possible cooperative hunting by Golden Eagles ("one or more"). Even if
that part really meant "one", there's the statement about three
eagles found feeding on the carcass later. This seems a little
un-eagle-like to me, am I alone in this? I think I'll go read up
on this when I get home, not that my resource list there is overwhelmingly
large (actually I've got as much shorebird stuff as raptor stuff in
my scant library, which I'm sure would surprise Dennis if he were
here).

On the other hand I've seen footage on PBS, I think, showing how
golden eagles can take young goats in the alps (uhh, starts with
a "C", can't remember off hand - Serge, help me?). Anyway, thought
to be too large to be taken by eagles, it turns out that eagles
will stoop on them, grab them and essentially parachute downwards
towards their nest and let go as they pass by! So, yeah, too large
for an eagle to fly with but not to large to handle in a controlled
fall!

Amazing footage...

However, most stories of goldens taking large prey are, of course,
cases of scavenging being mistaken for predation - keep this in mind
when you read old accounts. In the story given, Bent was relating
something he heard second-hand it appears, so take it with a grain
of salt.

Raptors will drag things on the ground - I watched an immature
harrier drag a freshly killed and refrigerated female wigeon
off a road into the bushes last year. I'm sure the duck outweighed
the harrier by a factor of two, and that the harrier was trying to
get the Big Prize out of sight before something big like a red-tail
found it.

There are, of course, the goldens with 25-foot wingspans found
in the alps that take young children, I've even seen a picture in
the tabloids! We used it to frighten rookie raptor banders a few
years ago :)

- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>