He went for a trick: a man caught a rare eagle that terrorized fellow villagers (2 photos + 1 video)

40-year-old British man Stephen Harris managed to catch a rare bird of prey that had been terrorizing residents of his town of Flamstead. The bird had been attacking local men for several weeks, so Mr. Harris decided to act.





Journalists write that the unknown bird settled on one of the city's telephone poles, and no one could establish how the bird of prey ended up free. Subsequently, the animal began to aggressively attack local men, in particular, 75-year-old Jim Hewitt was injured, whose head was scratched by the eagle, and the man had to seek medical help.

This went on for several weeks: locals did not go outside unless absolutely necessary, and children were picked up from school as soon as possible and not allowed outside, and later everyone began to wear construction or bicycle helmets so that the animal would not injure them.

However, this bird later attacked an 11-year-old boy, who received several scratches from the bird's claws. In total, locals counted that the eagle attacked almost 50 times over several weeks, and 7 people were injured from its attacks.

After the last attack, it was then that physiotherapist and father of two Stephen Harris decided to catch the aggressive eagle. The man says that he prepared a cage for the bird, and then began to study its behavior.



At first he tried to lure the predator with "bait", but the smart bird did not "bite" at it. Then Mr. Harris decided to take a risk: he called an ornithologist he knew, with whom they decided to catch the bird.

In general, the plan looked like this: Mr. Harris had to lure the eagle to himself, so that it would then fly after him to a well-made trap. When the predator was in the man's garden, he would take the cage and raise it above his head, and when the eagle tried to attack, it would inevitably fall into the cage, which the ornithologist would close.

"I ran away from him for about a mile when I managed to lure him off the pole. And when he got into my garden, it happened as planned: I took the cage and the bird flew into it," the man said.

The locals quickly learned about the man's successful "hunt" and were able to breathe a sigh of relief. Later, ornithologists came to the man and told him that he had caught a rare representative of the hawk family - the desert buzzard, which is also known in English-speaking countries as the Harris's eagle, which is consonant with the surname of its catcher.

At the same time, experts cannot explain how the bird, which mainly lives in North and South America, ended up almost 10 thousand km away in Foggy Albion. Now there are two versions - the buzzard either escaped from an animal shelter or a private zoo, or accidentally ended up in Britain.

The bird has now been handed over to the Royal Mail ornithologists, who have a staff of ornithologists and are skilled in working with wild birds. The buzzard will then be checked by vets and a decision will be made as to where the bird can be placed - whether to send it to its habitat on the American continent or leave it under observation at an animal shelter.