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America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

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171–180 of 246 posts

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#171
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How small a dog are we talking about? pug/chiuaua-sized? Not sure I understood what actually happened. Did the bird take the dog and leave some feathers behind? Did the dog shred the bird? Did the dog's owner shoot the bird with a shotgun?

The dog wasn't more than 10-15 pounds, miniature french poodle looking thing. Sorry for being unclear, but the aftermath was all the fuzzy dog hair that got scattered everywhere from the impact. Dog was done for, owner didn't have time to react beyond scream and try to get the Park Ranger to "DO SOMETHING ABOUT THESE DANGEROUS BIRDS"

I've heard of wolves being hunted using golden eagles in Mongolia, they're not much larger than a bald eagle.

I wish the biohackers would bring back Haast's eagle.

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#172
post #139

I find it amusing the article had to clarify the lower 48 states. In the majority of the United States bald eagles are a rare and majestic sight. In Alaska they are on par with seagulls.

Tangentially, why do Americans call their middle 48 states the "lower 48"? Alaska is north of them and Hawaii is south of them. Does "lower" mean "east" somehow? If lower meant south as on a map, the actual lower 48 would be everything except Alaska and Minnesota.

Well, they're the "lower 48" in terms of the date of admission to the union...

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#173
post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish hollywood would make a few more recordings. They always use exactly the same one, every time they have a long shot of a wilderness scene. Movies, TV shows, documentaries, everything. It's worse than the Wilhelm Scream.

There’s also a stock audio sound for police radio chatter that is the same as the one in SimCity 2000. Every time I hear that (which is too often) I can’t help but think “well, you cheaped out on sound design"

I noticed that too! I thought I was going crazy until I started compiling a list of them...

"We need a dispatchment 148...mumble mumble...ksshhh"

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dklA4-ACN4k

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#175
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is why you have dogs to protect your livestock. I think people forget that man's best friend became that way by doing jobs for us. Want your cattle and chickens protected from wolves, fox, eagles, etc? Train some dogs to protect them.

I have guinea hens for pest mitigation and when the coyotes and/or hawks have picked off enough I just buy more. I pay about $2 each, it’s not worth getting a trained dog to watch over them, especially since coyotes and raptors do me a huge solid by keeping the cottontail population in check

You can adopt a dog from your local humane society for very little. When I say "train" I mean "find a dog that isn't going to eat your chickens or run away if you can't keep them in a fenced area".

Unless you've actually got cattle you need herded and protected from wolves, pretty much any mutt over 60lbs is going to be good enough to keep the predators away. They'll also be happy to help the rabbits if you let them.

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#176
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your intent wasn’t to start a political flame war, what is the insight you’re providing here? Every animal needs to survive and will do anything to get by including scavenging. That’s nature. At this very moment, millions of things are getting eaten alive. Welcome to the brutality of Mother Nature. It’s not very charitable to say something deeply provocative and putting a note to defend. It only reflects your prej…

> Every animal needs to survive and will do anything to get by including scavenging. Yea, and so do nations. The descriptors they used feel conformable describing both the nation and the mascot. It's not deeply provocative. It is a comparison that is interesting to read, because it describes how nations and animals can act similarly, but on difference scales.

Except nations are a completely made up concept by groups of humans, rather than a deep survival drive of the individual when pushed into a life or death scenario.

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#177
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every animal needs to survive and will do anything to get by including scavenging. Yea, and so do nations. The descriptors they used feel conformable describing both the nation and the mascot. It's not deeply provocative. It is a comparison that is interesting to read, because it describes how nations and animals can act similarly, but on difference scales.

Except nations are a completely made up concept by groups of humans, rather than a deep survival drive of the individual when pushed into a life or death scenario.

> Except nations are a completely made up concept by groups of humans

Every division of the universe into distinct constituents is a completely made up concept by groups of humans, including “humans” and “groups” thereof.

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You still see a lot of them being brought into wildlife rescue hospitals for lead poisoning from having eaten birdshot or in some other way ingesting fired ammunition. Seems to be the biggest issue in the Midwest for them, anyway. Either way, as a kid I remember being told to assume you'd never see one and they'd probably be extinct in my lifetime. Now I couldn't even tell you how many I've seen, from as far east as…

I see reports about 'a dozen' etc suffering from lead ingestion. But no national statistics, just anecdotes. Considering that hunters shoot millions of lead bullets each year, it seems a small problem? It's suggested that birds eat guts from eviscerated animals that hunters leave behind. Perhaps a policy of burying or scattering the guts would solve the problem?

Bird-lovers have pushed an anti-lead agenda (for hunting) for decades and have been highly successful. They continue to make inroads into banning use of lead entirely:

"Bald eagles across the United States are dying from lead poisoning":

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/16/us/bald-eagles-dying-lead...

"CALIFORNIA'S LEAD AMMO BAN IN EFFECT JULY 1[2019]":

https://www.gohunt.com/read/news/californias-lead-ammo-ban-i...

I think most of this is anti-gun lobbying. When people are reduced to stoning wild ducks and spearing deer then anti-gunners will ask Congress to ban sticks and stones.

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to national eagle center, "The average eagle needs between ½ and 1 pound of food each day.". So those animals are harvesting 35-70lb of food (other animals) per day. That's incredible to me! There must be so much life in that area. https://www.nationaleaglecenter.org/eagle-diet-feeding/

> So those animals are harvesting 35-70lb of food (other animals) per day. That's incredible to me! There must be so much life in that area. I mean, you could almost certainly harvest more than 70 pounds of ants a day without making a dent in the ant population. Eagles can't eat ants, but "pounds of life" doesn't mean much.

For sure, you're right, I just find it fascinating how much life is out there. If I try visualizing 70lb of small creatures for eagles to eat, it suddenly seems kind of crazy to think of all those creatures and so much life cycling in such a small area where these things hunt. The earth is just covered in life.
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