I will again go out on a limb here and suggest it sounds like a study done
along time ago on I believe cats. they studied the kill mechanism of the cat
stalking, chasing and actually killing the prey animal. The cat should
after the full sequence of events, be able to eat the prey as the mind
(brain) that is hard wired to stalk, chase and kill is finished with the
series. But on some occasions the sequence is not finished and the cat (I
think they were feral cats) would either drop the kill and start hunting
again without eating. Since these were feral cats and suppose to be hungry
the study was hard pressed to find answers, but in the domestic house cat,
it seemed it was easy to just assume the cat was full and did not need a
meal. Mostly the study could not really come to a conclusion. for what it
is worth.


Dawn Bailey
Eatonville, WA
mailto:dawnsdog at rainierconnect.com

"If there were dreams to sell, what would you buy?"
? Thomas Lovell Beddoes


----- Original Message -----
From: "Rob Sandelin" <floriferous at msn.com>
To: "'Steve Ellis'" <sellis at coup.wednet.edu>; <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2005 7:52 PM
Subject: RE: [Tweeters] Weird Accipiter Behavior


>I watched the same thing happen during a shorebird census years ago with
> peregrines. If I recall correctly it was noted 4 times where a peregrine
> abandoned a bird in talon to chase after something else. I seem to recall
> our hypothesis was that it was looking for birds with more body fat, but I
> can not remember why we thought that.
>
> Rob Sandelin
> Naturalist, Writer, teacher
> The Environmental Science School, Monroe, WA
>
>
> --
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