Growing up in the countryside, grandparents would always scare when children were not obedient: if you don't obey again, let the eagle take you away!
Although I had never seen an eagle at that time, the image of the eagle in my mind was as tall as the eagle brother in the TV series "Eagle Hero", until I saw the real eagle, and doubts followed: Will the eagle really take away the child?
Let's start with eagle hunting.
Eagles are birds of prey, distributed all over the world, the world's largest eagle is the Argentine giant bird, living 6 million years ago, weighing 70 kilograms, wingspan up to 7 meters, unfortunately has become extinct.
Among the many eagle species today, the golden eagle can be described as the "king of birds of prey", which has three major characteristics:
1. Wingspan up to 2.3 meters;
2, the claws are very sharp, three toes forward, one toe backwards, long thick and long nails, once caught the prey, the nails will be pierced into the flesh of the prey, and the prey firmly grasped;
3, good at soaring, after finding prey, will be 300 km / h from the sky swooping.
With these three characteristics, the golden eagle picked up small prey, such as chickens and hares, so easily, and even a golden eagle once caught 14 wolves.
The weight of a wolf is about the same as that of a child, so it can be seen that the golden eagle can pick up a child of about ten pounds.
However, in reality, eagles take away children are not as simple as imagined, cases are not common, and some photos are even forged.
First of all, there is a difference between picking up and leaving.
Scientists believe that although the golden eagle has this explosive power to grab heavy objects, but its carrying capacity is relatively poor, the load capacity is less than 1kg, other eagles, the carrying capacity is slightly better, but also can only carry two or three pounds at most.
That is, it can only lift heavy objects more than 1kg off the ground, but it cannot take them away.
When they catch large prey, they tend to break down the prey into small portions, eat a portion of it first, and bring the rest back to the nest in batches.
If the nest is farther away, it also needs to put food down halfway to rest.
Second, eagles are not hunted by humans.
Although many large birds prey on animals such as dogs and sheep, and even occasionally catch young seals, humans are not on their menus and rarely actively attack, except for some domesticated ones.
Moreover, eagles need a lot of dive flight speed to grasp heavy objects, so such things will only happen in very flat and empty mountains, and the probability of occurrence is low.
On top of that, many ferocious eagles are on the brink of extinction.
The American horned eagle, which feeds mainly on monkeys and sloths, is currently only found in the remote Amazon basin and is in danger.
The African crown eagle, one of africa's most ferocious birds of prey, is rumored to be able to prey on more than 50 pounds of animals, and is also on the verge of extinction.
There are many more such cases, so it can be seen that ferocious eagles also need our respect and protection, and most birds are endangered, so there is no need to be too afraid.