Facts from the Life of a Martial Eagle (12 photos)

Meet the martial eagle. This feathered creature is considered the largest and most powerful eagle in Africa. Diving at an impressive speed, the predator flies towards its prey, inspiring fear and respect with its appearance alone.





When you've climbed to the top of the food chain and are now bored.

All eagles are serious predators. Evolution has honed them into perfect killers that rule the skies around the world. Now the question is: how much cooler does an eagle have to be than its fellows for unsentimental scientists to call it a "martial" eagle? Yes, exactly as big as you thought.

The martial eagle may not be the largest bird of prey in the world, but it is definitely the largest eagle in Africa. Its appearance alone inspires fear and respect: a 2.5-meter wingspan, 4 to 6 kilograms of weight, and predatory curved claws up to 5.5 centimeters long. It would be a shame to mess with one like that.



Just one look will make your palms sweat.

With such dimensions, the martial eagle can catch and eat almost anything. Which is what it does! Its prey is animals weighing from 18 grams to 37 kilograms! And we will tell you about all his victims.





I am not a black cloak. I am even worse.

The feathered killer selects its diet and hunting strategy based on the characteristics of the environment. The most common prey is land animals weighing from 0.5 to 5 kilograms. Mongooses, hyraxes, gophers, snakes, monitor lizards and hares do not stand a chance against the ruler of the skies.



Ordinary eagles stalk their prey from cliffs or treetops. The martial eagle soars in the sky for hours, constantly scanning the area.

The predators spot their prey from a distance of up to 6 kilometers, get closer and fall from the sky like a stone. Take the mass of the eagle, multiply it by the acceleration of gravity and concentrate the resulting answer on the tips of sharp claws. Small animals die instantly from a blow of such force. Neither poisonous fangs nor camouflage skills can save from the sudden attacks of martial eagles.



The range of the brown-winged raiders is huge: they live throughout Africa south of the Sahara, avoiding only dense tropical forests and human settlements. But not everywhere are small animals found in sufficient quantities for food. If mongooses are not brought in, and there is a shortage of hyraxes, the eagles turn into air fighters - they hit the bird right in flight.



Of course, even the might of a martial eagle has its limits. Trying to attack 100 kg of hoof meat is not the best idea.

Usually martial eagles attack guinea fowl, ducks and spurred hens. But they are strong enough to hunt strong large birds, such as a crane or a Kori bustard weighing up to 8 kilos. And they are also dexterous and skillful enough to gobble up dozens of maneuverable social weavers weighing only 18-50 grams!



And sometimes martial eagles even attack other large birds of prey. However, this is not the best idea, because you can get back at them. I wonder what these two are going to do next? In such an awkward position.

But hunting strong and nimble birds is nothing special. Kenyan martial eagles, for example, have learned to hunt ungulates! And not only babies, but also real adult antelopes. In 1974, ornithologists from the Tsavo East National Park recorded that 2 married pairs of martial eagles caught and ate 86 Kirk's dik-diks in a year - small antelopes weighing up to 8 kilos. But that's not the limit: especially tough eagles manage to single-handedly deal with bush duikers - antelopes weighing up to 37 kilograms.



Gazelles often lose their offspring. They don't have horns or even enough weight to drive a martial eagle away from a cub, which is why the predator steals the baby right from under the mother's side.



But this baby was lucky, and he escaped from the clutches of death.

Do you think this is the limit? Not at all! If a stork brings children to families, then a martial eagle carries off the cubs and never returns them to their mother. Lions, leopards, jackals, foxes - absolutely all predators of Africa, having become parents, do not take their eyes off the sky. At any moment, their child can be grabbed and carried off by a brown-winged beast.



The photo shows a young martial eagle. You can tell by the different color of its feather. As you can see, it is already successfully hunting other people's young.

What can I say, these winged monsters even attack people! There are at least 3 known cases of eagles attacking people. 2 of them ended in serious injuries, one - the death of a boy. At this point, the eagles have gone too far. African farmers fear for their children and hate the birds because they systematically attack livestock. In a number of regions, martial eagles are systematically shot, despite bans from states. And this is fraught with danger for the species: the birds are extremely slow to restore their numbers.

Martial eagles are loyal and monogamous partners. The family couple invests as much as possible in their offspring. It takes the birds more than a year to build a nest, hatch the clutch and raise the baby! Not only that, but there will only be one chick!



To give you an idea of ​​how hard the birds work during the breeding season, here is a photo of a typical martial eagle nest.



Look, all the lands you see will be yours in 10 years!

Caring parents help their child as long as they can. A young eagle can fly to its native nest even three years after it fluttered out of there! The youngster will think about its children even later: at 6-7 years old! All this time it will practice hunting techniques, learn to terrorize the fauna of the Black Continent and strike fear into everyone who was unlucky enough to cross its path.