wow - no more hanging out on craggy alpine pinnacles for me!
April 16, 2008 4:29 PM   Subscribe

Dramatic footage of golden eagles hunting mountain goats. (alerts: rather gruesome; voiceover in Spanish)
posted by madamjujujive (46 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
Wow!
posted by vronsky at 4:35 PM on April 16, 2008


I thought the Mountain Goats had a new video.
posted by ornate insect at 4:37 PM on April 16, 2008


« Older The Mountain Goats' newest video

LOL
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:37 PM on April 16, 2008


The shots around 5:30 are breathtaking and nightmarish all at once.
posted by vronsky at 4:38 PM on April 16, 2008


Great post.

However, since it seems that most, if not all wildlife "documentaries" contain large amounts of fakery, I wonder if the producers of this show had to tether or drug a goat in place in order to capture a shot, a la Jurassic Park.
posted by KokuRyu at 4:42 PM on April 16, 2008


I was wondering that too koku, but still, nice shots.
posted by vronsky at 4:43 PM on April 16, 2008


holy shit. And here I am thinking, "how the hell can an eagle kill a goat?!"

the more you know . . .

(never going anywhere again. I might end up as eagle-food. They could knock me down the goddamn STAIRS!)

I am crawling to my car tomorrow.
posted by exlotuseater at 4:45 PM on April 16, 2008 [1 favorite]


I am not sure which I find more disturbing - the plaintive bleating or the thud.
posted by madamjujujive at 4:46 PM on April 16, 2008


I am not sure which I find more disturbing - the plaintive bleating or the thud.

my ex used to say that all the time.
posted by quonsar at 4:47 PM on April 16, 2008 [14 favorites]


I am not sure which I find more disturbing - the plaintive bleating or the thud.

Are you referring to the Mountain Goats new video?
posted by ornate insect at 4:47 PM on April 16, 2008 [1 favorite]


the plaintive bleating or the thud might also refer to Lubricated Goat
posted by ornate insect at 4:52 PM on April 16, 2008


The plaintive bleating or the thud sounds like the title of a new album by Chaos! At The Drive-Thru! or Monkeys Fucking or Thirteen Ways Of Looking At My Navel or one of those hipster bands.
posted by scrump at 4:55 PM on April 16, 2008 [1 favorite]


I am now slightly traumatized.
posted by krix at 4:56 PM on April 16, 2008


"What? That eagle is never going to be able to fly with the goat... Ohhhhh."
posted by smackfu at 4:57 PM on April 16, 2008


I love the sound of Monkeys Fucking
posted by ornate insect at 5:00 PM on April 16, 2008


Oh man, eagles... I saw this clip on TV the other night, and turned into this "OMG THAT IS THE MOST MAGNIFICENT CREATURE I'VE EVER SEEN" type of guy. And even though I've got a fondness for mountain goats, those eagles sure got the looks and they sure know what they're doing.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 5:00 PM on April 16, 2008


(btw, I'm glad you're back quonsar -- I'm dedicating my next post to you)
posted by vronsky at 5:01 PM on April 16, 2008


Damn kids.
posted by binturong at 5:09 PM on April 16, 2008 [1 favorite]



I saw a Pigeon carry off a tourist in Glasgow once.
posted by sgt.serenity at 5:23 PM on April 16, 2008 [4 favorites]


Al Queda is training them to go for Cub Scouts.

I swear it's true. Spread it around. E-mail your relatives.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 5:28 PM on April 16, 2008 [2 favorites]


"Look, it's an eagle catching a mountain goat," said I. "Oh, my goodness!"
posted by parmanparman at 5:33 PM on April 16, 2008


¡AY DIOS MIO!

Murderous Efficiency + Dash of Irony = Wide-eyed Wonder and Astonishment.

Thanks!
posted by krippledkonscious at 5:48 PM on April 16, 2008


I would never make it as an eagle... I never would have thought of ripping the goats off the side of the mountain like a delicious, goaty hangnail from a gigantic craggy thumb.
posted by synaesthetichaze at 5:58 PM on April 16, 2008 [1 favorite]


Oh face it synaethetichaze, you never thought of a mountain goat as a parachuter! I LOVED that sequence.

We can only hope he thought he was free-falling, and not about to thud...um ...kinda like quonsar.
posted by LiveLurker at 6:14 PM on April 16, 2008


wow. did you see the one at 5:22? that damn bird carried the goat off by his horns.

somehow, my crushing depression seems a little less critical. poor widdwe goaties.
posted by CitizenD at 6:16 PM on April 16, 2008


Horny goat, u say?

Well we can see just where THAT got him.
posted by LiveLurker at 6:36 PM on April 16, 2008


« Older The Mountain Goats' newest video is a dizzying, ty... | Goat Mountain... Newer »
posted by auralcoral at 6:45 PM on April 16, 2008


In surprising news, mountain goats ... not so safe on mountains. Flattish wooded areas without an incline, not so bad. Mountains ... no.

Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "drag and drop."
posted by adipocere at 8:28 PM on April 16, 2008 [2 favorites]


What with the 1970s film graininess and the Spanish voiceovers, I kept expecting Alejandro Jodorowsky to pop out from behind a rock, grab the eagle by its feet, fly up to the top of a giant penis tower and start hurling dead goats at a group of obese Jesus-impersonators carrying naked women on their shoulders.

I was disappointed.
posted by xthlc at 9:08 PM on April 16, 2008 [2 favorites]


As if I needed another reason to hate the fuckin' eagles.
posted by isopraxis at 9:09 PM on April 16, 2008


Least it was the golden eagle getting bad press today. Gives that bald eagle a day to recover.
posted by LiveLurker at 10:22 PM on April 16, 2008


I love predation pr4wn. Except the cute victims part.

and I'm seeing the meme now
posted by owhydididoit at 10:31 PM on April 16, 2008


Benjamin Franklin was right, this is a bird of Bad Moral Character. You don't see turkeys doing shit like this.
posted by Enroute at 10:50 PM on April 16, 2008 [1 favorite]


Fuck those goats.

I still fear them to this day.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 10:52 PM on April 16, 2008


That was some excellent footage. Thanks for posting it. I wouldn't have thought the GOEA would be able to get any lift carrying something that heavy. And the adult goats trying to chase it off were very determined. Very cool.
posted by gingerbeer at 11:20 PM on April 16, 2008


wow, that is amazing - thank you!

Hopefully it's intentional, but the first youtube comment actually made me laugh "He goat pwned"
posted by jontyjago at 3:12 AM on April 17, 2008


The video reminded me of a story I've heard so many times.

Sometime in the early 1920s in rural Albania my father's grandparents go to work on their field. They bring with them their 4 or 5 month old son whom they leave all bundled up sleeping under a tree nearby. Soon after, an eagle swoops in and grabs the baby by his clothes and tries to fly off with it. Apparently it didn't get a good grip because it dropped the baby 20 or 30 feet from the tree, without even a scratch on him. Anyway, eagles are cool.
posted by preparat at 5:43 AM on April 17, 2008


Wow, I had no idea eagles were big game hunters!

First it was trolls from below, now eagles from above; it must be tough to be a goat.
posted by TedW at 5:49 AM on April 17, 2008


Golden eagles can also take down young moose the same way, according to a friend who did field work in Newfoundland and Labrador studying the moose.
posted by djfiander at 6:12 AM on April 17, 2008


That's what I get for posting before viewing. Golden eagles in NF don't push the moose off a cliff. They seize onto the moose's back with their talons, and then then extend their wings like a drag-chute while the moose run to escape them. Eventually the moose collaspe from exhaustion and blood loss.
posted by djfiander at 6:17 AM on April 17, 2008


I want to be a golden eagle when I grow up.
posted by Mister_A at 9:52 AM on April 17, 2008


I was out birding on my lunch hour a while back, at an open space preserve near my office. I knew that there was (is, I hope - haven't seen them yet this spring) a breeding pair of golden eagles in the area, so I was hanging out next to a field, right along a windbreak, hoping they'd show. The sun was above and behind me, and I was scanning the pasture for anything interesting. All I could see were ground squirrels.

And then this really big shadow passed over me. Enormous, sun-blocked-out shadow. I looked up, and there was a juvenile (hatch-year) golden, about 20 feet above me, soaring out towards the pasture with all the squirrels. All of whom had disappeared into their holes. And I knew exactly how they felt.
posted by rtha at 10:01 AM on April 17, 2008


rtha, wear big clothes and look big when you are out birding, mkay? And I knew exactly how they felt. That's part of the drama of this footage, to me - it gets you as close as I would ever care to be.

preparat, what a terrible story, yet I am sure there must be human children that have swooped up - I would imagine any small creature would be a potential snack even some pretty big ones. djfiander, that's fascinating about the moose. The are magnificent and terrible creatures. After these videos, I am surprised we don't hear of more human encounters.

Here's an 1895 NYT story about two boys being attacked.
Bird Picks up Boy discusses the topic.
Bird attacks influenced human evolution
posted by madamjujujive at 10:46 AM on April 17, 2008


Is everyone else watching a different video or what? I mean, what I saw was clearly eagles providing airborne transportation to their goat friends. There was probably some kind of adventurous plot going on that we didn't know about, maybe something involving an excitable squirrel and a grouchy porcupine, and the goats needed to get to the top of the mountain before some evil land developers could stake their claim or something.

And that falling goat was obviously a stunt double. Anyone can see that.

I mean, everyone knows that eagles are the Yellow Taxis of the bird kingdom.
posted by quin at 11:17 AM on April 17, 2008 [2 favorites]


HOLY FUCKING SHIT.

Can't sleep, Eagles will throw me off a cliff!
posted by BobFrapples at 12:06 PM on April 17, 2008 [1 favorite]


Cougar visits Hayward, eats goat
posted by homunculus at 8:44 PM on April 24, 2008


« Older Sax Rohmer #1   |   mmmm. salmonberries! Newer »


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