Martial Eagle Killing a Kori Bustard
We have been lucky enough to spend a good bit of time in southern Africa, most of the time in South Africa, but some time in Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. Martial eagles live throughout southern and central Africa including in Etosha National Park in northern Namibia. Etosha is one of the driest areas in southern Africa, but the occasional rain, water wells and high nutrient vegetation results in a vast array of animals: thousands of z...ebra, lots of rhinos, lions at every turn, and many species of birds. One of those birds is the martial eagle, the largest eagle in Africa. The mighty martial eagle eats a wide variety of prey, from snakes to monkeys, and a large variety of birds.
One day we came around a corner in Etosha to see a martial eagle sitting in a low acacia tree. Almost immediately it took off and attacked a kori bustard. The kori bustard is the heaviest flying bird in the world but it spends more time walking on the ground than flying. Once the martial eagle hit the kori bustard the bustard was knocked on its side and never got up again. The eagle didn’t like the cars that had gathered and held the bustard in its talons as it dragged it to the brush. Then one guy got out of his car (in many national parks in Africa, including Etosha, it is illegal to get out of your car because of the predators). That was too much for the eagle and it flew away. By that time the kori bustard was dead. All of the cars left. We drove way back where we could just barely see the spot where the kori bustard lay dead in the grass and sat there for over an hour. The eagle never came back. I know with the number of predators in Etosha the bustard didn’t go to waste but I was still sorry to see that the magnificent eagle was driven off by a thoughtless tourist, and lost its fairly won lunch.
