What does the fox say about *this*?

May 25, 2018 9:53 AM

A couple of days ago, I captured an especially dramatic act of thievery...
posted by BuddhaInABucket (29 comments total)

Holy cow, that's pretty great. The photos are very nice, but don't miss the video at the bottom to contextualize it all; the BLAM moment when the eagle snatches the rabbit and the fox just WHOOOSHes along out of frame in an instant is great.
posted by cortex at 10:00 AM on May 25, 2018 [3 favorites]

Love the fox's expression in that last shot: You see that shit? Seriously, WTF?

This is why nobody likes eagles.

Also: Basically, just don't be the rabbit. It never seems to end well for the rabbit.
posted by Naberius at 10:10 AM on May 25, 2018 [21 favorites]

Bald eagles (eagles in general really) are really fascinating. There's a couple at the SF zoo, rescues who's wings were damaged so they can't fly and they have their own island. There was a great photo/meme going around where somehow a cat and an eagle end up perched on the same balcony I think the caption was " I eat things shaped like you- but not your size." "I eat things your size- but not shaped like you" IDK why but I love eagle memes.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 10:14 AM on May 25, 2018 [2 favorites]

Was just coming in to say the same thing cortex did: the speed at which the eagle hits the rabbit (and the fox) is breathtaking. It's like it was shot out of a cannon.
posted by saladin at 10:17 AM on May 25, 2018

And this is why the bald eagle is the symbol of America.
posted by seanmpuckett at 10:19 AM on May 25, 2018 [27 favorites]

"I eat things your size- but not shaped like you"

Someone didn't google before making a meme
posted by Space Coyote at 10:20 AM on May 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

And the way the fox just goes flying through the air with all four feet akimbo!

Geez, eagles are strong. That's an impressive amount of power.
posted by barchan at 10:20 AM on May 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

Geez, eagles are strong. That's an impressive amount of power.

I want to see a scaled up version with a coyote or something fighting a Golden Eagle over a goat.
posted by FatherDagon at 10:30 AM on May 25, 2018 [3 favorites]

YOINK
posted by 4ster at 10:38 AM on May 25, 2018 [6 favorites]

A few years ago when I was in Scotland, I had the opportunity to spend an afternoon at a falconry center. The guy who runs it does a lot of raptor rescue and rehabilitation as well, so he had a large variety of birds on site that he's gotten from various rescue situations. I got a chance to handle and fly an amazing series of raptors, culminating with a bald eagle. Those things are MASSIVE and when they hit you--even one that has been trained to carefully land and perch on a falconer's glove--it's like getting hit by a truck. The head falconer would help you hold your arm and brace for impact, which wasn't necessary for any of the other birds. How they can even fly is a miracle of bioengineering. I'm amazed that fox survived at all, let alone came away seemingly unscathed.
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:41 AM on May 25, 2018 [10 favorites]

"For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him."
posted by uncleozzy at 10:42 AM on May 25, 2018 [37 favorites]

The photographer's version, for folks who are annoyed by BoredPanda.
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 11:23 AM on May 25, 2018 [9 favorites]

What does the fox say?

“AAAAAAAAAH HOLY SHIT AN EAGLE”
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 11:30 AM on May 25, 2018 [6 favorites]

I wonder if it would have played out differently had the fox not stopped to “wrestle” with its catch at just that moment
posted by hwestiii at 11:58 AM on May 25, 2018

Great shots! Really amazing sequence.

Yesterday I was waiting for the bus and there was a massive aerial battle between a bald eagle, the blue heron it was harassing, and then the dozen-odd crows driving off the eagle with a constant flurry of dive bombs and interference until the screeching heron was able to circle slowly up and away.

Everyone at the transit center and grocery store parking lot that I could see from where I was standing was stopped in their tracks and staring/watching at it and pointing.
posted by loquacious at 12:03 PM on May 25, 2018 [7 favorites]

What does the fox say?

FUCK, AN EAGLE!!
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:13 PM on May 25, 2018

Yesterday I was waiting for the bus and there was a massive aerial battle between a bald eagle, the blue heron it was harassing, and then the dozen-odd crows driving off the eagle with a constant flurry of dive bombs and interference until the screeching heron was able to circle slowly up and away.

Seattle area? The bald eagles on 520 were always mixing it up with the small but crafty crows. And occasionally, disastrously, with buses.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 12:20 PM on May 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

I saw my local bald eagle on the way to the rancheria again today. He's always sitting in the same tree. It's pretty great. Even though I know he's likely going to be there, I still get excited every time.

Still waiting for the US Fish and Wildlife Service to process my eagle feather permit. And then I'll be waiting another three to six months to actually receive the feathers I requested.
posted by elsietheeel at 12:35 PM on May 25, 2018 [7 favorites]

The bald eagles on 520 were always mixing it up with the small but crafty crows.

Down in Portland I get a kick out of seeing various smaller birds running sorties against raptors over various bits of the Willamette river now and then. I remember watching a trio of seagulls run off a hawk (red-tailed maybe) a while back, just clearly pushing and pushing until the thing fucked off from wherever their spot was; and just the other day I saw a solitary crow just go absolutely GTFO on a bald eagle. Scrappy as hell, fun to watch.
posted by cortex at 12:56 PM on May 25, 2018 [4 favorites]

I was once on a Mountaineer-sponsored bike trip to the San Juan islands of Washington state, and I'd separated from my group because they were too noisy and weren't even bothering to glance around at the incredibly beautiful land we were passing through.

So I ended up sleeping alone under the 15' broken off stub of a dead tree about 30 yards from the road with my bike leaned up against the other side, only to be awakened very abruptly around seven in the morning by a big hunk of bark landing right on my face.

The first thing I saw after my eyes jerked open was a huge bald eagle perched 10' over my head on the sole remaining branch of the tree, and which was clearly the source of that piece of bark.

It wasn't till after I'd gotten back on the road and was congratulating myself on being lucky enough to get to see such a magnificent bird so close up that it occurred to me the eagle might have used that piece of bark to check whether its prospective breakfast was likely to put up too much of a struggle to bother with.
posted by jamjam at 2:27 PM on May 25, 2018 [14 favorites]

That fox has the look of a tourist whose fries got snatched by a seagull.
posted by lydhre at 2:33 PM on May 25, 2018 [3 favorites]

Just checking if you were roadkill yet, jamjam! Bald eagles like themselves some roadkill, it's half of what keeps the juveniles alive until they get a clue about that fishing thing.
posted by tavella at 2:36 PM on May 25, 2018 [2 favorites]

I posted this yesterday to my social media page. I love it. BUT, the photographer describes the eagle”...let(ing) go of the fox” when *clearly* the fox finally let go of the rabbit.
Also, all other prey animals call rabbits by their common name - “food”.
posted by dbmcd at 3:09 PM on May 25, 2018 [2 favorites]

The photographer said it seemed clear that the eagle had snagged both the rabbit and the fox. FTA: Instead, the fox, with its jaw still clenched on the rabbit, inadvertently got snagged by the bald eagle.

If you look closely at the next photo in the series, it looks as though the eagle is clutching the rabbit with its right foot, while its left foot appears to have hooked the fox inside the lower jaw.
posted by Lexica at 4:48 PM on May 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

Yeah, don't be the rabbit, but that's why with the pressure of such predators, rabbits breed like crazy.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 5:09 PM on May 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

cortex: "just the other day I saw a solitary crow just go absolutely GTFO on a bald eagle."

There is a stretch of river near here where it's bald eagles on the south side over the foothills and none on the north side where there is a bit of a ridge of cliffs. That's because the cliff swallows harass any eagles that have the nerve to come over to their side of the river. It's kind of hilarious to watch a huge eagle being "moved along" by a teeny cliff swallow.
posted by Mitheral at 8:04 PM on May 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

The quick brown fox says "Fuck! An eagle is grabbing my face!"
posted by kirkaracha at 1:17 PM on May 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

So yeah I rescued a baby rabbit from my neighbor's cat the other day. I put it in a box and go next door to ask my neighbor to put their cat inside. We look around and hey! the cat's in the bushes out front! and it's in the process of catching ANOTHER baby rabbit!

So my neighbor grabs the cat, the baby rabbit goes zip out of the bushes and takes off down the sidewalk. And I'm like nooo come back baby rabbit! But I don't chase it because it said online not to chase them! And then two crows swoop down from a tree across the street and carry off the baby rabbit! And I am like NATURE SUCKS
posted by daisystomper at 6:40 PM on May 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

But at least you didn't chase them, daisystomper? So it's nature sucks, instead of feeling like maybe they wouldn't have run into the crows?
posted by tavella at 9:31 PM on May 27, 2018