rioii they could find althoimli 

 ground squirrels were available 

 most of the time. 



An experiment conducted by 

 C. C. Sperry (field notes) in the 

 vicinity of Fort Davis. Tex., proved 

 that the carcass of a jackrabbit or of 

 a lamb which had been dead for 2 

 days or more was preferred even 

 thouoh live lambs of all ages were 

 in the immediate vicinity. As late 

 as April 12, when sheep carrion was 

 abundant and eagles scarce. Sperry 

 trapped an eagle at the carcass of a 

 stillborn lamb that had been dead 

 4S hours. This is common ]n-oce- 

 dure among stockmen in the South- 

 west in their attempts to trap or 

 poison golden eagles. A number of 

 ranchers interviewed during this 

 study remarked that when fresh 

 carrion is available, golden eagles 

 devour it instead of catching live 

 animals. 



One also oljserves. in areas of rab- 

 bit concentration in the West, a sub- 

 stantial number of golden eagles 

 destroyed along highways to which 

 these birds have been attracted by 

 rabbits killed by automobiles. 

 Also, their predilection for carrion 

 is revealed in their own misfortune 

 when they die from eating rodents 

 that have been killed by poisoned 

 grain used in rodent control. 



One might even surmise that simi- 

 lar carrion-feeding habits are re- 

 flected by the evidence found at the 

 |)rehistoric tar pools of LaBrea, 

 Calif. Howard (1930) determined 

 that in these deposits remains of the 

 golden eagle exceeded those of all 

 other hawklike birds, including the 

 carrion-eating vultures. That these 

 l)irds w^ere attracted to the area by 



the animals which died as a result 

 of miring down in the pools of tar 

 is a logical assumption. 



Thus, the conclusion is drawn 

 tliat the interrelation of the eagle 

 and game or domestic animals is 

 affected by the presence or absence 

 of carrion as emphatically as by the 

 relative populations of live buffer 

 or prey species. 



THE GOLDEN EAGLE 

 AND ITS PREY 



RABBITS AND RODENTS 



Based on the findings of qualified 

 wildlife technicians in nine western 

 States, Canada, and Alaska, rabbits 

 and rodents are the dominant food 

 of the golden eagle over its wide 

 range in North America. In a 

 study of eagle food preferences in 

 June 1943 in Colorado and Wyo- 

 ming, R. H. Imler found that at 

 nine active nests approximately 77 

 percent of the food items came from 

 these sources (table 3). 



On two study areas established 

 in northern Colorado by the author 

 in 1947 (pp. 17, 18) to determine 

 food preferences of the golden 

 eagle, many kinds of acceptable 

 prey were available to the nesting 

 eagles, yet most of the animals eaten 

 by them in that region were rodents 

 or rabbits (fig. 3). Of 138 such 

 animals recorded, 103, or 74.6 per- 

 cent, were rabbits, 32, or 23.2 per- 

 cent were prairie dogs, and 3, or 2.2 

 percent, were rats and mice. No 

 ground squirrels or pocket gophers 

 were found. 



Although these studies show that 

 the golden eagle feeds extensively 

 on rabbits and rodents, it does not 



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