Wildlife expert explains bald eagle behavior after cat dropped through windshield
By Marisa Sardonia
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SWAIN COUNTY, North Carolina (WLOS) — A recent incident involving an eagle dropping a cat through a driver’s windshield in North Carolina has raised questions about bald eagle behavior.
On the morning of Wednesday, Nov. 19, Melissa Schlarb was driving on US-74 in Swain County when she looked up and saw a bald eagle. The 28-year-old driver quickly realized the bird had something in its grip: a deceased cat.
Just seconds later, Schlarb said, the cat fell directly into the passenger side of her car’s windshield, shattering it.
“Okay, you may not believe me, but I just had a bald eagle drop a cat through my windshield,” Schlarb said in a 911 call. “It absolutely shattered my windshield.”
Schlarb was uninjured in the bizarre incident, the North Carolina State Highway Patrol confirmed.
An official from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission said the cat, described as a juvenile domestic, appeared freshly killed and had been fed upon. According to Kendrick Weeks, wildlife diversity supervisor for the commission, bald eagles can take animals the size of a cat, but it is more challenging for them to capture a live one than a dead one.
Bald eagles, which are native to North Carolina, have been increasing in population, according to Weeks. In North Carolina alone, there are more than 200 nesting pairs.
Eagles may drop prey for several reasons, Weeks said, including if the prey becomes conscious and struggles, the bird is harassed, the prey is too heavy, or the bird doesn’t get a good enough grip. Scavenging is also common among bald eagles.
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