There was no way a bald eagle in Maine was letting its tasty meal of roadkill skunk get away, as the huge bird rode the skunk’s carcass like a snowboard down a snowy slope.
Alison McKellar was driving near her home in Camden, Maine, when she caught sight of a bald eagle jealously standing on and clinging to a skunk’s carcass by the roadside. She pulled over and caught video of the huge raptor turning its meal into a gruesome snowboard.
Shortly before the encounter, a driver going to other way flashed his headlights at McKellar, so she knew something was going on up ahead, but didn’t expect to see a bald eagle.
“I see there’s an eagle flopping around on the road,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “At first, I thought it was injured. Then I realized it had a skunk — that was probably roadkill — that it was trying to drag off the road.”
‘It Started Sliding Down The Slope’
Once the eagle got its rancid prize off the road, it perched atop the skunk carcass and starting tearing at it with its beak.
The eagle seemed completely unconcerned as the carcass slid ever-closer to the edge of a small hill, and finally went over, McKellar said.
“It just started sliding down the slope there,” while the eagle remained unconcerned and still focused on getting a bite to eat, she said.
After seeing something so seemingly bizarre, McKellar lingered for a while to make sure there wasn’t something wrong with the eagle.
“It seemed heathy and happy, and was just there taking care of a skunk that had probably been hit on the road,” she said.
Not Surprising
Two Wyoming raptor experts told Cowboy State Daily that they aren’t surprised that the eagle stayed on for the ride on the dead skunk.
It probably had to do with the way birds’ feet work, said Bryan Bedrosian, conservation director at the Teton Raptor Center.
“It’s somewhat related to how bird feet and tendons are wired. When ‘relaxed,’ the feed are clinched,: he said. “It’s why birds don’t fall of perches when they are asleep.”
Sometimes, it can be a raptor’s undoing, Bedrosian added.
“Osprey can sometimes drown as a result. They grab a fish that’s too big and can’t let go easily,” he said.
Raptor researcher Chuck Preston, the founding curator of the Draper Natural History Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, agreed that eagles don’t let go of their goodies.
“It’s not unusual for an eagle to just hang on,” he said. “It’s (about) hunger, they really don’t want to lose a meal.”
Eagles Make A Comeback In Maine
Wyoming has resident populations of bald eagles, as well as golden eagles. During the winter, Wyoming’s golden eagle population doubles as many of them migrate in from the north.
Bald eagles are also making a comeback in Maine, McKellar said.
Now 40, she recalls that as a child, seeing a bald eagle was practically unheard of.
Now, bald eagle sightings are more common but still a treat, she said, even ifeagles irritate locals who are ice fishing.
“I see them sometimes around where people are ice fishing,” she said. “And people will say that an eagle came along and stole their fish.”
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
