ML65359781

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Hustai (Khustain) Nat'l Park; see remarks about marmot kill, GOEA interaction We observed one Steppe Eagle carrying a marmot. As soon as I spotted the Steppe Eagle, I could tell it was laboring in flight with that heavy load. Then an immature Golden Eagle flew in and assailed the Steppe Eagle, but the Steppe Eagle maintained possession of the marmot. It did not seem as if the Golden Eagle was posing any great threat to the Steppe Eagle, to my eye. Soon, another Steppe Eagle flew in. The Steppe Eagle with the marmot landed on a grassy hillside. The other landed near it, hopped toward it, and took the marmot from the first one. We could not tell if this was an intentional transfer of food between cooperating family members, or perhaps just one Steppe Eagle stealing food from a less dominant one. At about the same time, the immature Golden Eagle reappeared, soaring over the ridge. It made a number of passes over the Steppe Eagles as the latter were standing on the hillside. The Steppe Eagle that had originally had the marmot was perched about thirty or forty meters above the first one, on the same grassy hillside, and the Golden Eagle appeared to back off from this upper Steppe Eagle. Meanwhile, the Steppe Eagle that now had the marmot ate most of it, starting at the head. One of the herdsmen that had appeared on another hillside now approached where the eagles were, and the Steppe Eagle with the remains of the marmot flew up, just after having begun eating the entrails. It flew right over us, carrying the hindquarters of the marmot--still a fairly burdensome load--and landed on another grassy hillside near us, where it resumed eating.

Technical information

Model

Canon PowerShot SX50 HS

ISO

80

Focal length

215 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/6.5

Shutter speed

1/200 sec

Dimensions

2400 pixels x 3000 pixels

Original file size

1.63 MB