Yeah, they are impresssive, And surprising for most people who have only ever seen them from a distance. The bottom heavy shape and huge hind legs gives the impression that they are built like a Tyrannosaur, with tiny useless forelimbs. In fact they have large powerful forelimbs that only appear small compared to the humungous, powerful hindlimbs.
Much like deer. And just like deer they prefer to run if chased. And just like deer, if you are stupid enough to force one to fight, it will kick the shit out of you in about 10 seconds flat.
Peaceful herbivore =/= helpless victim.
Peaceful herbivore =/= cuddly toy that I can grab and take a photograph with.
Peaceful herbivore = prey animal that has evolved ways of dealing with annoying predators.
Peaceful herbivore = harem animal where the 80kg males fight with each other for weeks on end.
That’s a mistake that a few tourists a year come to regret, around here. Most folks have enough sense not to try to get all cozy with the bears or wolves, but for some reason bison, elk, and bighorns make people stupid.
I can recall a warning given here in Canberra a few years ago. Drought was bringing roos deeper into suburbia looking for eats, people were advised not to confront them. Though most of the time they just look at you, and amble off if you get too close.
I spent 1997/98 in Australia. Somewhere between Melbourne and Adelaide the minibus driver stopped to show us some penned-up red kangaroos. He was perched on a fence but got too close to one and it used its arms to paw at his knees (I suspect to pull him into the pen). His shins were somewhat shredded after that. As an Australian trying to point out the dangers of kangaroos to dumb backpackers it left him fairly sheepish.
Here’s an attack that put the victim in the hospital. Roo supports itself on its stout tail, grasps victim with forelegs for balance, and then kicks with its rear legs. Front legs scratched up the vic’s face a bit, but the major damage was to his groin, where he required a lot of stitches.
Yeah, that seems to be the rule: No matter how cute or ugly the critter is, if it’s from Australia, it’s capable of killing you without working up a sweat.
That eagle did not actually lift the sheep, that is, raise it in the air. The most it seems to have done is to have slowed and controlled its fall under gravity.
In general, birds of prey can’t lift more than about half their own weight. They can, however, sometimes kill prey that weighs more than they do.
Saw a live bald eagle at the sanctuary near here http://www.worldbirdsanctuary.org/. Full grown, 6’ wingspan and weighs 11 lbs. That seems shockingly light for something that big, but that’s using my ground mammal intuition; birds are built much more lightly than ground critters.
At any rate, taking the info from our resident ornithologist above that birds of prey can lift half their weight, and with this bird weighing in at 11 lbs, we conclude that the max carry weight for a full grown bald eagle is in the ballpark of 5 lbs. Maaaybe 7, but not 10 and certainly not 20.
Sure they might be able to kill something much bigger, but IMO stories of them flying off with a schnauzer, a sheep, or a toddler are just that: stories.
I think we’re quibbling at this point. We’re talking (tangentially) about whether an eagle has any use for buffed forelimbs. I’m pretty sure that hanging on to a mountain goat(?) while gliding pretty much counts. And if you look at the video, that eagle is gliding for a significant distance. So I’m pretty sure the limiting factor is not the forelimbs/talons, but rather the wings capacity.
Pretty sure the video is real as there are several other similar videos on Youtube of eagles grabbing onto a goat (or sheep) and yanking it off a cliff.