Never seen anything like it!!!

[Michaelr]

the second weekend of deer season here in Idaho my wife spotted a gold eagle attacking a cow. I have never seen anything like it, we watched for about 15 minutes. not sure if it was just having a good time playing with the cow or was seriously trying to take it down.
It nailed the cow in the head 4 or 5 times and along the back several times, the cow finally got into a patch of quakees and the eagle gave it up.

 

[Calif. Hunter]

Wow. I've heard ranchers tell me of eagles killing calves and sheep, but never attacking a grown cow. Bub used to say that they would go for the eyes.... I always wondered about it, but Bub was a man of few words and was prone to minimize things rather than exagerate. (Bub was a rancher friend that passed away a few years ago.)

 

[1_pointer]

Wonder if the that was a ninja eagle and just flipped out for no reason!!!! That'd be a cool sight to see. A bird kicking the ass of something many times it's size! Guess the cow asked for it, it ate the grass that the food for the eagle needed.

 

[csutton7]

on another site a guy said he watched an eagle attack a mature doe--it ran over the hill and he went to see what happened and he came upon the eagle eating the doe--the eagle had somehow ripped the guts out the doe as they were strewn over some distance---chris

 

[ELKCHSR]

Maybe it was near sited and thought it was trying to pick up some sort of brown rodent..Not realizing there was hundreds of pounds of living animal under it....

 

[Muledeer4me]

What a thing to get to witness.
That would have been a good time to have a camera along.

 

[Elkhunter]

That must have been pretty cool to see. I have seen one drag a deer, but never attack a deer or a cow. Imagine what was going on in the mind of the cow at the time

 

[Ithaca 37]

Magpies know if they can peck the eyes out of a newborn calf they'll get to eat it eventually. Maybe the eagle has figured out the same thing.

 

[Big Sky]

About 6 or 7 years ago I watched a golden eagle and a coyote do battle similar to what you described except it appeared the coyote was digging the chance to have a little eagle meat. Everytime that bird would dive at him he would leap up mouth wide open and take a chunk out of the bird. Never did figure out who was trying to eat who. Eventually the eagle gave up and flew off, although a few pounds lighter I'm sure.

 

[ELKCHSR]

Now that would have been very fun to watch!!