Posted on 12/19/2012 1:19:11 PM PST by nickcarraway
Unbelievable amateur footage that appears to show the moment a bird of prey tres to snatch a small child has been by decried as a fake by online critics.
It may be one of the most startling moments of man versus nature ever caught on camera. Or, far more likely, it is an exquisite hoax.
In footage uploaded onto YouTube on Tuesday a golden eagle is seen circling above a sunlit park in Montreal while onlookers murmur their admiration in French.
Suddenly the bird swoops down and seizes a child who is sitting contentedly on the grass. The eagle takes to the air but after a moment the todder falls from its talons. The minute-long film ends with the weeping child being consoled by a parent.
Within hours the video, titled "Golden Eagle Snatches Kid", had garnered more than a million views on Youtube but soon armchair critics and experts alike began to express scepticism over the remarkable footage.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Lots of talk but still no proof that it is fake.
Could be fake, however eagles will try and take anything that is smaller than they are.
My sister had a cat swopped away right in front of her.
The people who made this video go to a college that specializes in 3D CGI.
Fascinating. A School Project? If so, I would give it an A+.
My first thought, however, was that the kid would be hurt pretty bad based on the footage.
Talons for any bird of prey are very sharp and have enormouse piercing power. A Golden eagle could wrap talons a good way around an adult arm. They usually pounce to drive them in before the fly. If the bird only got cloth, I would expect the coat to stretch and tear. If the bird got into meat, that kid would be in pretty bad shape.
I lean toward fake. But still interesting to watch. I have seen video of Eagles grabbing goats and dropping them into ravenes to their death. And I know a falconer (hunting rabbits) that had to deal with a pet owner after his red tailed hawk tried to snatch a ladies small dog. The dog was chained up in the back yard of her house. He spent a lot of money on vet bills as the dog was “a bloddy mess”.
The people who made this video go to a college that specializes in 3D CGI.
The talons alone on an eagle are razor sharp.
There is a series of pictures of a golden eagle killing a Pronghorn antelope somewhere out West by repeatedly stabbing it’s spine with it’s talons. The antelope either bled to death or was maimed so badly that it died.
At least its wings are real (and they’re spectacular).
How do we know the news story is real? It could be part of a grand double fake out. Lol.
Mailonline says it’s fake.
We have a lightly wooded back yard. A couple of years ago I was watching as a squirrel jumped from one pine limb to another. Out of nowhere a hawk appeared and snatched the tree rat out of midair. Speed, strength, precision. The circle of life is a wonder to behold. Thing probably never knew what hit it.
I almost posted this earlier, but saw the *fake* claims and scrubbed it. Good CGI, if a school project.
Our old office building was in an office park on the outskirts of town, with a stand of thick pines directly behind the building and a cane field to the side.
One Saturday I was in the office catching up on some work and I went outside for a cigarette. As I was standing in the break area, I caught something moving swiftly out of the corner of my eye and followed it. It was a huge owl (I'm assuming it was a great horned owl) that was diving from the top of the pines into a grassy area at the edge of our parking lot. He plucked what must have been a 3' long snake right out of the grass, and with one fluid continuous movement, banked hard right and up, flapped his wings and floated back into the pines clutching the snake.
I doubt the whole episode took more than five seconds, and although this took place less than 20 yards from where I was standing, it was utterly silent. Of course I've scene things like that on Wild Kingdom, Animal Planet, YouTube, and at falconry exhibits, but to see it raw, up close and in the wild was somehow a completely unique experience.
This is real. I had this happen to my daughter when she was in diapers. I was fortunate enough to see and intercept the bird at the last instant so my daughter wasn’t harmed but it gave me quite a scare.
I saw a hawk grab a baby bunny while I was walking my dog.
I was horrified. I could see the little legs hanging down as it passed over me.
What bothers me is that these birds of prey start ripping them apart before they are dead.I saw that on a webcam last year while monitoring Bald Eagles.I found it very disturbing but am well aware of the balance of nature etc.
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Could be. See my long-standing tag line.
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