This video comes to us from our good friend and MeatEater contributor Pat Durkin, who covered the story in 2017 for the Wisconsin State Journal.
According to Durk, as we fondly call him, a woman captured this footage from her deck on Lake Noquebay in Marinette County, Wisconsin. The eagle flew away after drowning the fawn and dragging it to shore. The raptor returned to feed on the deer over the next four days until the only thing left was tufts of hair.
Stan Temple, professor emeritus in conservation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Durk in an interview that this certainly isn’t the first time that eagle killed a fawn. “Birds of prey learn quickly,” Temple said. “In falconry, falconers often encourage their birds to go after prey that’s a little bit bigger and more difficult to capture in the wild. Once they learn how to do it, they’ll keep doing it.”
The most amazing part of the video, though? How the woman filming kept her composure the entire time. The camera never wavered and she never made a peep, even as the bird brutally drowned the bleating fawn. That’s the sort of Nature is Metal material we’re into.
