adult or young deer. Somewhat 

 typical of the evidence concerning 

 such activities is the following ob- 

 servation made in September 1939 

 in southeastern Arizona by Glen 

 Taylor, a hunter for the former Bu- 

 reau of Biological Survey. The 

 animal under attack was a white- 

 tailed fawn. 



While huuting lions on the south end 

 of the Galiuro Mountains, I was walk- 

 ing up a very rough canj-on. As I 

 ueared the head I heard a noise like a 

 liaby crying in pain and looking up to 

 the rim of the canyon, saw a Mexican 

 (golden) eagle swoop down and then 

 rise very fast. I then noticed an old 

 doe deer standing on her hind legs and 

 ])awing at the eagle and a fawn was 

 lying on the ground under the doe. After 

 the eagle had swooped six times, the 

 doe struck it on cue wing, and it flew 

 over in the top of a juniper, where I 

 shot it. Upon returning to camp that 

 evening I came back by the place where 

 the fight took place and there lay the 

 fawn nearly dead. It could not control 

 its back legs. The eagle had injured its 

 hack and no doubt it died later. 



In contrast, is an incident observed 

 by Philip Wells of the Arizona 

 Game and Fish Commission during 

 the spring of 1945 in northern Ari- 

 zona, in which a doe was able to pro- 

 tect twin fawns from eagle attack. 



The following account from 

 Adolph S. Hamm, Cheyenne, Wyo., 

 is illustrative of eagle depredations 

 on adult deer : 



J. W. Yerplancke, and his companion 

 Arthur Vany, while running their trap 

 lines in southern Carbon County in De- 

 cember 1938, were 300 to 400 yards from 

 a small group of mule deer when sud- 

 denly a large golden eagle swooped down 

 and attacked a five-point buck in this 

 herd. The eagle caught the deer in the 

 back with its talons and within a hun- 

 dred yards in snow 2 feet deep brought 



it to the ground. In a few seconds 7 

 more eagles swarmed on the deer and 

 started ripping him open. It took the 

 boys about fifteen minutes to work their 

 way through the deep snow to where this 

 deer was down and during that time the 

 eagles had completely disemboweled the 

 deer and, of course, he was dead. When 

 the men returned 2 days later, the eagles 

 had practically devoured the entire car- 

 cass as there were no signs of any other 

 animals having fed upon it. 



These records and others indicate 

 that under certain conditions eagles 

 may kill even adult deer. Here 

 again, as in the case of the antelope, 

 the importance of this factor is diffi- 

 cult for the game manager to as- 

 certain. Often golden eagles swoop 

 at a wide variety of animals ranging 

 in size from ducks to grizzly bears 

 (Murie 1944) merely to harass 

 them. An example of this was re- 

 ported in 1948 by Refuge Manager 

 Greenwalt of the Wichita Mountain 

 Wildlife Eef uge in Oklahoma : 



On the 8th Shrader saw an eagle feint 

 three times at an adult* doe deer within 

 a distance of a half a mile while the 

 animal was running for cover. He said 

 the eagle did not strike the deer but 

 came close each time. 



The following account, narrated 

 in a letter by Jack A. Parsell, Forest 

 Service employee of the Nezperce 

 National Forest in Idaho, indicates 

 that at times these passes at prey 

 may be of more serious intent. He 

 stated : 



On one occasion, in the spring of 1936 

 I personally observed an eagle in the act 

 of separating a yearling mule deer from 

 a band of fifteen others. The eagle, after 

 thoroughly frightening the deer by swoop- 

 ing down and flagging the animal with 

 its wings, proceeded to direct the course 

 of the deer through an exceedingly pre- 

 cipitous area to the river some 1,000 or 



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