I’m curious if the eagle would have dropped the cub from altitude to kill it or simply taken it to it’s nest and tried to “talon” it to death. Even at half it’s size, a six or seven pound pissed off cub is gonna be fairly formidable.
Doesn’t the impact of the bird combined with the razor sharp talons either kill or seriously damage the prey?
Bald eagles have massive tarsi, short and powerful grasping toes, and long talons. The talon of the hind toe highly developed in both species, and it is used to pierce vital areas while the prey is held immobile by the front toes.
Another site said the talon can be 3 1/2 inches long and exert 300 lbs psi.
I don’t yet see anything definitive but, yes, it would appear likely they’ve at least caused enough injury during capture and transport that the prey is fairly incapcitated… or dead.
Have bear cub remains or bones ever been discovered in eagle nests?
Momma Bear must have thought the same thing.
How young would a 6.5 lb cub be?
[Meryl Streep] “Norwegian golden eagle’s got my by-bee!” [/Meryl Streep]
As God is my witness, I saw that coming.
This is incorrect. Dingos are quite adept at grabbing and killing bear cubs. This is why there arn’t any bears in Australia.
Never mind the bear cub. That one in the picture is about to nab a pastry chef!
Thus leading to the extinction of the bear quote, “Dingos ate my baby.”
It’s too bad the bear cub didn’t.
Sounds like the stuff of a picaresque tale… “The Lightness of a Bear’s Un-Being”? 
Seriously, though, I have no doubt that that phenomenon is incredibly rare. OTOH, I suspect that had the same thing been observed in the former Soviet Union during, say, the Stalinist era, it probably wouldn’t have been made public.
Gee, maybe the bird carried it off to raise it as it’s own…of course the end result would be the same…when the bird pushes it out of the nest to teach it how to fly - Splat!
Or maybe the bird has plans to eventually mate with it. Then we’d get flying bears!
Flying bears!
Look out Uma!
Anyhoo…
I’m kind of curious what kind of bear this was…the linked article doesn’t say. Both polar bears and brown bears are found in Norway.
I’m guessing it was a brown bear because I don’t think the golden eagle would be found in the polar bear’s habitat. I could be wrong though.
Oh, the symbolism! I can’t believe I didn’t think of it that way.
Seriously, when I was pretty young an older kid told me that the bible had a line in it that read something like “The bear and the eagle will clash,” which pretty much led me to being scared of the Soviet Union for the first half of my life.
I’m glad to learn that the eagle actually won :D.
Are they sure it’s not a norwegian blue?
Let me guess, the bear cub’s name was Ganymede?
That has to be one of the most often cited pseudo-Biblical quotes! LOL! I’ve also heard it attributed to Nostradamus.
I actually do feel bad for the bear cub, but man, I bet that would have been so cool to see.