Re: What would Hitchcock have thought...?

[Adrienne Mayor <Afmayor@aol.com>]

Scientific experiments to dispell myths about eagles carrying off  
children were first recorded in 1940, in Nature magazine (vol 33, no.  
4).

But I don't think the traditional stories about giant raptors are  
about today's golden eagles (or vultures or condors, which are  
chiefly carrion eaters and unlikely to carry off human-size prey in  
their talons.

Most of the Native American tales specify that these predatory birds  
lived in earlier "ages" and have now disappeared. Many scholars  
suggest that the stories refer to Teratorns of the Pleistocene- 
Holocene which coexisted with early humans until about 8,000 years  
ago and were widespread across North America; their remains are found  
along with human habitation sites. Larger species of condors lived  
then too. The largest raptor living today is the Andean condor with  
10-12 ft wingspan, but like the eagle its feet are too weak to carry  
heavy prey very far.

But, compared to the California condor with a wingspan of 9 to 10  
feet, and today's eagle with a wingspan of 7-8 feet, Ice Age  
Teratorns were heavy-bodied and had wingspans of 12 to nearly 17  
feet. They apparently picked up prey with strong beaks, not talons  
like eagles and condors, which are mainly carrion eaters.  I think  
teratorns could pick up a small child.

Refs: Nature 33 (1940); Coleman and Clark 1999, 236-38, citing Ken  
Campbell; Feduccia 1986; and refs cited in Mayor, Fossil Legends,  
367-68 notes 26-27,  374-75 notes 60-63, historical survey of  
reported avian abductions see Michel and Rickard, Living Wonders  
(Thames & Hudson 1982), 138-43.


On Jan 14, 2006, at 10:46 AM, Danvarner@aol.com wrote:

In a message dated 1/14/2006 1:18:45 PM Eastern Standard Time,
afmayor@aol.com writes:

<< This might help explain the traditional Native American  stories of
giant raptors that carried off folks to their nests, until  now
thought to be fanciful tales. >>

Well, before you get too "carried away" you may want  to read this from
http://home.sou.edu/~rible/wildlife/index.htm  :

<< Interesting notes: One of the more unusual things written about  the
golden eagle, as is sometimes written about the bald eagle, is its  
alleged  ability
to lift large prey off the ground and fly with it to their nest.  
They  have
been reported to carry off calves and lambs (Bent 1937; Palmer  
1988a), but
such prey would have to be unusually small individuals. An experiment  
performed
with one golden eagle weighing 11 pounds found that it could not lift  
a 5¼
pound  weight attached to its feet off of the ground (Arnold 1954).  
This is a far
cry  from the 10 to 11 pound capacity that one researcher had estimated
(Gilbert  1926). It is thought that the actual weight-carrying  
capacity is about
21% of  the eagle's own weight (Huey 1962). Since golden eagles,  
males and
females  combined, can weigh between six to 13 pounds this would put  
their
weight-carrying capacity at between one and three pounds. Another  
researcher  thought
that the golden eagle might be able to carry a seven pound jackrabbit a
short distance, but that most large prey would have to be  
"dismantled" before
being carried aloft (Palmer 1988a). >>

DV