Red Tail Hawk unable to carry off 15 pound cat (but tried)

[Liberal_in_LA]

Eddie, the fat white cat, was carried by a hawk for 50 feet, before the hawk could carry no more.

It was dawn on the upper West Side the other day when a young woman heard a screech usually heard in the countryside: the raspy kreeing of a red-tailed hawk capturing its prey.

It got louder and more horrible as it suddenly mixed with the mews of a terrified cat. Her beloved cat, Eddie.

She ran out to her fifth-floor terrace where Eddie had been stretched out on a bench and saw nothing but "fur, broken nails, and feathers."

-----------------

Maybe the hawk thought Eddie was a plump white rabbit stretched out on the deck like a country breakfast. No way the 4-pound raptor could carry him over the brownstone rooftops to his nest in the park.

The answer is, he couldn't. Not very far, anyway. He made it about 50 feet.

"He dropped him in the garden of a building a few doors down," Eddie's amazed owner said.

"The tenant was awakened by a huge thud in his garden. He ran out and found his garden umbrella toppled over, and a cat in the corner, meowing."

Fat Eddie had been dropped at least five stories

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/07/16/2011-07-16_fat_cat_eddie_gets_snatched_up_by_hawk_but_dropped_in_neighbors_garden_due_to_we.html?r=topnews

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Well, there's one of his nine lives used up!

He did luck out!

As for the hawk? Be careful what you wish for!

:wow:

[AnneD]

2. A red tailed hawk...

Eyed our baby toy poodle pup for months before it finally gave up. We could not take her out without a leash and we had to keep lookout.

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. pic of red tailed hawk with prey

[yardwork]

10. That looks like a rat. Good hawk!

[AlecBGreen]

14. +1

[AlecBGreen]

13. what amazing predators

thanks for my new wallpaper! :hi:

[AnneD]

31. Great pic....

They are very good hunters. My brother has chickens, and they start sounding the alarm when a hawk is around. They run under the trees for protection. He occasionally loses a young one but raccoons are worse.

[Liberal_in_LA]

37. from a website found thru google image search

http://www.poyi.org/63/photos want to give credit to whoever took this pic

[AnneD]

41. Thanks....

Cool pics!!!!!!

[xchrom]

4. Glad you're alright, Eddie! Nt

[IDemo]

5. I'm very doubtful on this story

What do red-tailed hawks eat?
They can carry things that are up to about half their body weight. Our red-tailed hawk weights about 2 lbs. A can of pop weighs about one pound, so this bird weighs about as much as two cans of pop. A young rabbit weighs 2-4 pounds, which means it's too big for this hawk. A big squirrel could weigh 2 pounds. Red-tailed hawks eat lots of mice. Red-tailed hawks eat about three white-footed mice a day.

Several years ago I worked with one of the leading falconers in the state, and he pretty much said the same thing.

[susanr516]

18. I once saw a red-tailed hawk catch a squirrel in my yard

Grabbed the squirrel with one talon, and landed in the top of one of my trees. I was in my car and when I walked up to my front door, the hawk took off with the squirrel still in one talon. It didn't seem to have any trouble flying. I don't think that hawk would have had much trouble carrying off a kitten or small puppy.

[madokie]

20. I seen a red tail hawk flying about a hundred yards up with a good 4 maybe 5 foot snake in its talon

It wasn't having any problems with that snake even though the snake was whithering around a bunch trying to get loose or get a hold of the hawk. A full grown red tail hawk will have a good 3 ft wingspan at least. big bird, mean bird too. I had one land on my head once and digging at my scalp and slapping me on the shoulders with its wings telling me to get the hell away from under its mates nest. Thats been 25 or more years ago and they still nest in that same spot, not sure its the same birds but red tailed hawks anyway.
OT, Over the home place, (where the hawk incidence happened,) we have a pair of barn owls and they stand at least 2 ft tall when they're sitting on a limb. Another big bad bird.

[surrealAmerican]

23. I saw one pick a pigeon ...

... out of the air. The pigeon looked to be about 3/4 the size of the hawk. They're small, but they're strong and fast.

[kestrel91316]

19. Several years ago a Great Horned owl swooped down on a Persian cat

on the patio of a mansion in the hills above Malibu during a fancy party and disappeared with it, to the horror and dismay of all the ladies lunching on the terrace. I heard it from an eyewitness.

[IDemo]

22. Great Horned owls can carry up to three times their weight

My sister had to contain her small dog because it was being harassed by an owl. Red Tailed hawks, however, can only lift about half their weight. Not even the largest of them (up to 4 lbs.) could come close to hefting a 15 lb. cat. They will attack prey weighing more than themselves, but only if they can eat it on the ground.

Some work of mine from the 90's:

Great Horned Owl


Peregrine:

[nc4bo]

29. Warning, not for faint of heart! Here's a pic one that tried to catch a squirrel

living in a transformer in front of our house.. :*(



Humankind and his contraption got in the way but it's easy to see that that hawk had no problems going after that squirrel.

Edit subject for warning of pic.

[Liberal_in_LA]

34. omg. n/t

[-..__...]

36. It could grip it by the husk!

[KittyWampus]

6. I hope that woman had her cat x-rayed or checked out for spinal injuries. Cats that fall

can sustain spinal injuries that go undetected until years later.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

16. She took him immediately to the vet to have him checked out. I hope her vet

did a thorough exam...no reason why he/she shouldn't have.

[grasswire]

7. guess my 27 pound tabby is safe n/t

[Ruby the Liberal]

8. Whoa. Thats a big cat!

I had a 22# maine coon once. Fancied himself a lap cat. :rofl:

[jmowreader]

25. His name wasn't Tourniquet, was it?

[Ruby the Liberal]

26. No, but probably should have been.

:rofl:

[Liberal_in_LA]

35. Yes, definitely. lol n/t

[Cleita]

9. We have plenty of Red Tail Hawks in our skies and

pastures. I've never seen one nail anything larger than a gopher or another bird. I did see an eagle flying away with a possum once about the size of a cat and he had a hard time gaining altitude. I really don't think a hawk could nail a cat without a pretty evenly matched fight. My cat though had cornered a mouse once and was playing with it when a hawk swooped down and took it away right under kitty's nose.

[badgerpup]

11. That looks like my 14lb Wimsey Whyte-Cat...

...only without the big round tummy.

Wimsey's not azackly skinny, but viewed from above, he has a waist-line...and it's a concave one.

[hedgehog]

12. Some kind of large bird took out one of my chickens one winter.

These are full grown, 8-10 lb birds. There was a little blood on the snow from where the hen had been hit, then clear markings showing it took a couple tries before the predator made a successful take-off.

[Cleita]

17. That's why they are called chicken hawks. n/t

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

15. I read this in the morning in the paper. It was page 2 news! Great story BUT

with all of what's going on this made page 2???? Oy!

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

21. My girlfriends parents assume that is how a dead jack rabit found its way to their roof

They couldn't figure out what the hell the smell drifting into their bedroom was and there it was.

[amborin]

24. was it Pale Male?

[Tesha]

27. Red-tailed hawks are magnificent birds.

Here on our hilltop, one of them arrived not too long
after we moved in 12 years ago, followed shortly by an
apparently-acceptable mate. In the passing years, the
neighbors' cat got a bit slow and then died a couple
of years ago, so there's been a noticeable upturn in
the number of chipmunks around here, aided and abetted
by a large number of peanuts handed out by us.

As a result, we now have a whole family of red-tailed
hawks; they come to sit in the birdbath on our front
lawn (filling a rather large bird-bath!) and teach their
kids to hunt along our garden borders. One of the
funniest things we ever saw was a young hawk hopping
along one of the planting beds maybe twenty feet from
us; you could practically hear the hawk kid thinking
"I *KNOW* there's something in here to eat; mom told
me so, but I sure can't find it!"

And sunny days on our hill are very often full of the
"kreeee kreee" call as the hawks circle on the wind
and thermals.

Magnificent birds!

Tesha

[AnneD]

32. I love it when they....

hover around their prey and spread their wings to shield it. I saw a hawk off the freeway here in Houston. It looked to be a young adult. It finally must have gotten a good grip and it finally took off.

[Zephie]

28. Ah, my favorite animal on the face of the earth. Red Tailed Hawks are the best.

I hope it found something else to eat.

[nc4bo]

30. They are beautiful, magnificent creatures! nt

[Mnemosyne]

33. I found a baby red-tail in the road one day, at first thought it was a rock. Fortunately for him I

stopped when I saw him move. Crazy farm guy drivers around here would have hit him soon. I had a friend that was a falconer and he took him in. Then one day he finally flew away, a couple of months later.

I named him Napoleon; he was small and puffed up thinking he would conquer the world. :)

[Rex]

38. Amazing, I can't believe he was able to get lift.

Glad Eddie is okay...cats lucky it wasn't an eagle!

[krispos42]

39. I saw a seagull try to fly away with a slice of pizza last week.

Dumb thing hits the motherlode, but he couldn't gain any altitude! Just flew along the breakers, pursued by 2 other gulls, until he got tired and plopped back down in the water. Maybe 75 feet.

[liberalla]

40. "The moral of the story is...

last paragraph-

"The moral of the story is essentially: Your flaws can be an asset," she surmised. "In Eddie's case, his chubbiness saved him."

Long live Eddie!

[BiggJawn]

42. I saw the picture and thought "that looks like Tunch"...

I need to get off teh intertubes more, don't I?

[Rabrrrrrr]

43. Makes me think of this Farside cartoon

[Poiuyt]

44. An African swallow could have carried it off but not a European swallow.