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taralon · July 5, 2007, 06:56 PM

I'm fairly certain (85-90% so) that the bird of prey is a golden eagle, and that that hunt is taking place either in Mongolia or possibly Kyrgyzstan on the smaller gazelle type ruminants they have there. The mongolian gazelle is fairly small. Being around 50-70lbs live weight.

Then again, a lot of the deer that are shot down in Alabama/Lousiana way I'd call 'fawns' myself. I've seen average 'live' weights for Alabama deer in overpopulated areas that fall into the 65-70lb category for a 3 year old deer. Compare that to Colorado and Wyoming where an 'average' white tail comes in at 150-175lbs.

So be rather careful when disparaging the possible 'size' of that animal, as it probably isn't all that much smaller than a lot of the deer that get harvested in the southern US.

And as for 'full grown deer' not being able to be taken down by a bird... Well I've seen a golden eagle do a full out strike on a lamed mulie doe (broken foreleg, was waiting for the game warden to show up), and I can tell you for a fact that given a deer that ain't moving and a hungry enough eagle, you get a dead deer.

July 5, 2007, 06:56 PM	#15
taralon Member Join Date: October 21, 2004 Posts: 88	I'm fairly certain (85-90% so) that the bird of prey is a golden eagle, and that that hunt is taking place either in Mongolia or possibly Kyrgyzstan on the smaller gazelle type ruminants they have there. The mongolian gazelle is fairly small. Being around 50-70lbs live weight. Then again, a lot of the deer that are shot down in Alabama/Lousiana way I'd call 'fawns' myself. I've seen average 'live' weights for Alabama deer in overpopulated areas that fall into the 65-70lb category for a 3 year old deer. Compare that to Colorado and Wyoming where an 'average' white tail comes in at 150-175lbs. So be rather careful when disparaging the possible 'size' of that animal, as it probably isn't all that much smaller than a lot of the deer that get harvested in the southern US. And as for 'full grown deer' not being able to be taken down by a bird... Well I've seen a golden eagle do a full out strike on a lamed mulie doe (broken foreleg, was waiting for the game warden to show up), and I can tell you for a fact that given a deer that ain't moving and a hungry enough eagle, you get a dead deer.