Eagles and Deer?
In our Special Winter issue of Hunting Illustrated, Michael Burrell brought up an interesting topic in his Mule Deer Watch article about eagles and deer. He throws out the topic of eagles and deer predation and harassment. There is not a lot of documentation on this topic and therefore asks for your help in sharing your experiences from out in the field with eagle and deer interaction. Are eagles a threat to mule deer? Have you witnessed an eagle swoop down and go after a deer (or any other big game animal)?
I, myself, have had an experience during a high country mule deer hunt in 2004 where I witnessed an eagle diving down on a small herd of deer. I was in Colorado with my brother Rob and nephew Colton. We were at about 11,000 feet and had stalked in as close as we could to a small herd of mule deer. They were all bedded down on a grassy knoll overlooking the world. We were sitting there wondering what to do and how long we would have to wait until the deer (or specifically the buck we were after) would stand up. Not even ten minutes had passed when all of a sudden out of nowhere, an eagle soaring high above swooped down and dive bombed within feet of the bedded deer. The eagle did this a second time and it caused the deer to spook and stand up. This was just what we needed to shake things up and get the deer moving. However, we were amazed at what we had just witnessed and couldn’t believe how close the eagle had gotten to the deer when it dive bombed down on them. A few shots later and the buck was on the ground. This particular instance proved benefitial to us, at least this time.
Here is another comment from Mike Ukrainez from Alberta. He emailed me some comments and included this at the end.
This is for Michael Burrell. While guiding Dall sheep hunts in the Northwest Territories I watched a Golden Eagle dive bomb a group of mature rams. They were bedded on a grassy knob with no nearby cliffs to get spooked over and fall to their deaths or anything. After a few swoops they took off down into the trees to get away from the nutty eagle. It also ruined our stalk. I also know ranchers who swear they’ve had healthy week or two old calves killed by Golden Eagles.
If you have any experiences to share about eagles and deer, feel free to post a comment.
16 comments December 28th, 2005
