‘Crazy to watch’: Kangaroos hunted by wedge-tailed eagles
An amateur photographer has captured the incredible moment eagles tried to hunt down a mob of kangaroos.
An amateur photographer has captured the “rare” wild moment at least two hungry wedge-tailed eagles attacked a “full grown” kangaroo in the Portland area of Victoria.
Darin Roos took the series of stunning photos showing one of the birds with its wings spread out in what appeared to be a standoff with a kangaroo.
The eagle then chased its prey as it tried to hop away.
It managed to use its sharp claws to strike the kangaroo on the back.
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Another image showed a pair of eagles trying to take on two roos.
The photos – taken on two separate occasions – went viral after being shared to a community Facebook page last month.
Speaking to news.com.au, Mr Roos said he spends “every spare minute” available driving and hiking through the bush to shoot images of fauna.
“I take pictures of all wildlife but have a passion for the mighty eagle. There are 12 eagles in an area I go and I try to get there for at least one full day a week,” he said.
It was eight months into his hobby that he first witnessed two eagles trying to take on a kangaroo. He saw it another three times over that period, with the most recent two days ago.
“I’m a very logical bloke so the first experience I wasn’t shocked as such but spent most of the day in my head trying to figure out why exactly the eagles were hunting like that,” he said.
“There is definitely no shortage of food here for them, so I was baffled.”
But he has since come to a conclusion as all the incidents had one thing in common.
“All the attacks I’ve witnessed were against female roos. In my opinion they are harassing the roo to have her throw her joey out of the pouch, which kangaroos will do if being chased or in distress. The mother will not come back for the joey,” Mr Roos told news.com.au.
“I have witnessed that exact thing (mother leaving the joey) two years ago where I picked the joey up under instructions, took joey home and wildlife rescue picked it up from me.”
The amateur photographer said it was unlikely an eagle could pick up an adult kangaroo, given the birds can only lift about half their body mass.
A wedge-tail can weigh up to six kilos and have wing spans of more than two metres, according to Australia Zoo.
Over the weekend Mr Roos saw the number of birds increase to 18 in the area.
“It’s coming to breeding season so I think they were trying to pair up. I know there are 10 resident eagles in this area so to see 18 was an incredible sight,” he said.
He would not divulge on the exact location due to previous “issues”.
Simon Cherriman, who has spent 25 years researching wedge-tailed eagles and has a PhD in conservation science, told news.com.au that the birds attacking kangaroos was not uncommon but observing it in person or even photographing it was “rare”.
He agreed with Mr Roos the birds would be either trying to jolt a joey out of the pouch of its mother or hunting in pairs to take down a roo.
“That’s a strategy a lot of macropods use to escape. They usually have an embryo back up so it’s better for them to drop the joey and survive themselves rather than be attacked... some birds are aware of that so they try to get her to expel the joey,” he said.
“And you do find kangaroo joeys of a variety of ages, sometimes pouched young, on nests... that indictaes they’ve captured the joey.”
The other tactic sees eagles team up with their breeding partner to hunt larger-sized kangaroos.
“What the behaviour is repetitive attacks to the head and the neck until they exhaust the animal and those hunts are rarely performed by one individual eagle,” Dr Cherriman said.
“There’s always one bird waiting in the wings and the other bird is attacking the roo and they’re swapping over and those hunts can go on for 20 to 40 minutes sometimes to try and exhaust the kangaroo as it races to get cover under the vegetation.”
One report from 2021 noted how two wedge-tailed eagles circled a mob of Eastern Grey kangaroos before it targeted a young male grazing.
It repeatedly dived and struck the roo from a height of about 20 to 30 metres, every 15 seconds, for about 30 minutes.
The injured and bleeding roo eventually collapsed, allowing the birds to feast.
A wedge-tailed eagle’s most common diet is made up of mammals, as well as lizards and other birds. They have also been known to kill lambs.
Dr Cherriman urged those bird watching or going out to take photos to keep their distance from the eagles as “humans are encorching further and further into their habitat”.
“There are less and less opportunities for these animals to behave (naturally) without humans interferring. And with eagles their eyesight is so good that you can be disturbing them, particualrly if you’re near nests, from one kilometre away.”
Eagles look for ‘sick or injured roos’
In the Facebook post, Mr Roos responded to a number of comments.
“I’ve watched the eagles, usually in pairs sometimes three actively hunt kangaroos several times now, they will choose a sick or injured roo out of a mob, round that roo up and push it away from the main mob, then attack,” Mr Roos said.
“They swoop in behind the roo and appear to aim for the back of the neck.”
The wildlife photographer said he has never seen an eagle successfully take down a kangaroo but had no doubt they could bring one down.
“Once the roo has done that (dropped the joey) she won’t be back for it, easy meal for the eagle,” he said.
“Crazy to watch.”
Originally published as ‘Crazy to watch’: Kangaroos hunted by wedge-tailed eagles
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