Creature feature
I was watching that Sandra Bullock movie [The Proposal] where a fluffy little dog gets picked up by a big eagle. Could something like that really happen? I asked a friend and she said she read somewhere that eagles and other large birds can pick up a small pet and fly away with it.
A few years back, I frequently took my Pomeranian with me when I visited a friend who lived on a remote mountainside near Clinton. I recall my friend telling me not to bring Simone during the winter months when the eagles roosted nearby. An eagle, she said, could swoop down and easily carry off my tiny dog. Such a fate apparently had befallen a neighbor’s Yorkshire terrier.
I’m fairly certain she was pulling my leg. Every now and then a story circulates on the Internet about an eagle — or a hawk, owl or any other large bird of prey — making off with someone’s pet dog, but such tales are mostly of the tall variety. According to Snopes.com, a website devoted to debunking urban myths and legends, there’s no verifiable truth to the stories about bird-napped dogs. “Beware poached pooch stories,” the Snopes entry says.
That’s sound advice, says Dru Redmond, a park interpreter at DeGray Lake Resort State Park near Arkadelphia. A regular leader of park-sponsored eagle-watching expeditions, he says there’s no evidence to back up reports of such abductions. And while he wouldn’t want to diminish the eagle’s reputation as a mighty bird of prey, Redmond says, chances are slim to almost none that one could or would swoop from the sky to scoop up an unwary pup.
“These are magnificent birds, but catching a tiny dog? It’s not common and not something we’d expect to see,” Redmond says. Eagles, which nest in Arkansas from October until they migrate north sometime in March, simply aren’t interested in dogs as food.
Wild birds, like other animals, usually evolve to eat whatever food is available in their natural habitat, he says. Eagles live in high perches near bodies of water so they prefer fish for their supper. “They typically don’t recognize dogs as prey.” And even if they did, the birds could only pick up the most petite pooches.
“Eagles are capable of lifting about four pounds, but even then we’re talking about a very healthy eagle,” Redmond says. “An eagle might pick up a big fish or even a bird, but it’s not going to carry a lot of weight.”
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game, which fields a lot of questions about eagles snatching dogs, also estimates the lifting power of an eagle at four to five pounds. The department’s website, adfg. alaska.gov, explains that while an eight- to 12-pound eagle has a 7-foot wing span, how much and how far the bird could carry its prey depends on air speed. The faster the air speed, the more weight a bird can lift. While an eagle might swoop in and pick up a small dog, it’s doubtful it could carry it very far.
As for tales of owls and hawks hunting dogs and cats, Redmond says those also are unlikely to be rooted in reality. The Great Horned Owl, the largest type of owl found in Arkansas, prefers to dine on wild rabbits and skunks. Hawks like to sink their talons into snakes, rodents and other birds.
Every year, a few park visitors will ask Redmond about alleged reports of eagles swooping and snagging dogs or cats. “Usually it’s prefaced by ‘I had a friend whose cousin’s Chihuahua was swept up and eaten,’” he says. “I’ll just say that there’s plenty of other food they’re more comfortable preying on.”