hsntnovel Chapter 106 The Fierce Eagle
Chapter 106 The Fierce Eagle
Chapter 106 The Fierce Eagle
But this rabbit in front of him was strange. Although it was the dry season, it was still very plump. Chu Ye was immediately tempted to hunt it and eat it.
This rabbit, however, was clearly unaware of the danger before it, and continued to search for grass to eat in the patch of grass.
Chu Ye approached the rabbit step by step. The rabbit, oblivious to this, was simply searching for edible grass in the nearby bushes.
Chu Ye didn't want to attack the rabbit directly. He knew it was already someone else's prey, and he only needed to play the role of the protector. His target wasn't this rabbit, but an animal far more dangerous than it.
Meanwhile, the bird of prey in the sky had already set its sights on the hare. The hare, however, was completely unaware that it had become someone else's prey.
Chu Ye was fully aware of everything that was happening before his eyes. He knew that as long as he followed behind this rabbit, he could catch the bird of prey.
This bird of prey had no idea that a lion cub was hiding in the grass and had already identified it as its prey.
This bird of prey felt like it was at the top of the food chain, and that it was impossible for other animals to be its prey.
But today, this bird of prey has met its natural enemy. A lion cub has actually targeted this bird of prey as its prey.
This bird of prey only saw the rabbit darting around in the grass as its prey. As it watched the rabbit running around in the grass, it began to pounce on it from the sky.
The hare was initially unaware that it had become someone else's prey. However, when the raptor was only a few dozen meters above the ground, the hare naturally sensed the danger.
So the rabbit immediately started running, trying to escape the attack of the bird of prey.
The raptor, however, was unwilling to let the juvenile rabbit go and kept chasing it. The juvenile rabbit, naturally, also didn't want to become prey for the raptor.
Besides, Chu Ye had been following behind, and he could now see the raptor clearly, but he still didn't understand what kind of bird it was.
So Chu Ye scanned the large bird with his own eyes again, and soon he knew what kind of bird it was.
It turns out that this is the most powerful bird of prey on the grasslands—the eagle.
The war eagle, also known as the military eagle, is the national bird of Zambia. It is a large eagle native to sub-Saharan Africa and is the largest eagle in Africa.
A species of eagle in the subfamily Hypophytae of the family Accipitridae, it has feathers on its tarsi. They are also the only member of the genus *Eagle*.
As one of the largest and strongest booted eagles, it is a rather opportunistic predator, with its prey selection encompassing mammals, birds, and reptiles.
The hunting techniques of the eagle are unique, as it is one of the few known eagle species that hunts primarily by soaring high in the air and looking down at its prey.
As an inhabitant of forested areas in other open tropical grasslands, the species has shown a sharp decline over the past few centuries due to a variety of factors. The eagle is one of the most threatened birds in the world.
The fierce eagle is a very large eagle. Its total length ranges from 78 to 96 centimeters, with an average of about 85.5 centimeters. Compared to its wingspan, its total length is limited by its relatively short tail.
However, it appears to be the sixth or seventh longest extant eagle. The wingspan of the mammoth eagle ranges from 188 to 260 centimeters.
The average wingspan of this species is said to be 205 cm and 207.5 cm, respectively, but the average wingspan of 10 wild eagles measured in the wild is 211.9 cm.
Therefore, among living eagles, the Chinese mammoth eagle has the fourth largest wingspan on average, after the short-tailed eagle, the white-tailed eagle, and the wedge-tailed eagle. For a species with relatively uniform genetic diversity, the Chinese mammoth eagle exhibits remarkable variation in body weight.
To some extent, the variation in the species’ body mass can be attributed to considerable reverse dimorphism and the different environmental conditions of various eagle populations.
在一次研究中，未区分性别的17只猛雕平均重量为3.93千克20只鸟3.97千克，20只鸟4.23千克，而20世纪初南非狩猎管理员射杀的猛雕平均重量为4.71千克。
Within the weight range, the size of the fierce eagle is quite close to that of the golden eagle and the black eagle (and even exceeds that of the golden eagle in the largest known weight).
According to numerous studies, the average weight of the mammoth eagle appears to be slightly heavier than that of the black eagle, but (based on global average weight across different species), the average weight of both the golden eagle and the mammoth eagle is around 4.17 kg.
This makes the golden eagle and the macaque the largest eagles in Africa (by weight, excluding body length or wingspan), as well as the two heaviest booted eagles in the world and the sixth largest eagle in the world by volume, after the three great sea eagles (the Steller's sea eagle is the largest living eagle, while the other two are the fourth and fifth largest), the harpy eagle and the Philippine eagle.
The longest eagle in Africa (and the second longest booted eagle after the wedge-tailed eagle) is the crowned eagle, because of its relatively long tail, while its weight is slightly less than the three heaviest booted eagles.
The adult bird's plumage consists of dark brown covering the upper part, head, and chest, occasionally with slight borders on these feathers.
Depending on the lighting conditions, the dark feathers may appear grey, dark chestnut, or even plum. The underside of the body is white with sparse but distinct dark brown spots.
The lower wing is dark brown, while the rest is pale stripes and black, giving the adult bird a generally dark appearance to its wings. There is a similar obstruction under the tail, while the upper part is covered by the same uniform brown as the back and upper wings.
A mature mammoth eagle has saturated yellow eyes, while its cere and feet are pale green, and its claws are black. The mammoth eagle has a short, erect crest, which is usually neither prominent nor spread out (unlike the crowned eagle), and generally looks like a angular, flat head.
This raptor typically perches quite upright, with its long wings completely covering its tail, hence it is described as "standing" rather than "sitting" while perched on a branch. In flight, the raptor's long, broad wings have relatively narrow, rounded tips.
Depending on how the eagle raises its wings, they sometimes appear pointed and narrow. It can flap its wings flexibly, glide on its flat wings, or slightly raise them on a dihedral surface.
This species typically spends most of its day soaring, more than any other African eagle, and often at very high altitudes.
The plumage of a juvenile eagle is distinctly different, with a pearly gray upper body, a considerable amount of white at the edges, and gray spots on the crest and nape.
The entire underside is distinctly white. Juveniles have wings with a mix of grayish-brown and white, and newborns and their tails have striped patterns similar to, but lighter and grayer than, those of adults.
In the fourth or fifth year, the brown spots on the feathers gradually increase, but the back and crown remain a fairly light gray. At this age, more and more spots may appear on the throat and chest, merging into patches, and some different spots may also appear on the abdomen.
The eyes of subadults are dark brown. This species develops full adult plumage in its seventh year, and the transition to adult plumage is very rapid after some changes occur in the juvenile plumage.
This species presents few serious identification challenges. The overall coloration of the Black-breasted Serpent Eagle is similar to that of the Wild Eagle (although its name indicates a light brown chest and back, not as dark as that of the adult Wild Eagle), but it is significantly smaller in size, with a relatively prominent, round head, large eyes, a flat, spotless abdomen, and bare, whitish legs.
In flight, the serpent eagle's appearance is quite different; its flight feathers are almost white (rather than dark brown), its wings are smaller and narrower, and its tail is relatively large. Potential identification confusion for subadult crested eagles mainly stems from subadult crowned eagles, which also frequently perch in an upright position.
The crowned eagle's body proportions differ significantly from those of the mammoth eagle, as their wings are much shorter and their tails are noticeably longer. Subadult crowned eagles have a whiter, smaller head and lack the markings on their legs found in mammoth eagles.
Aside from the different proportions of wings and tail in the flight silhouette, the crowned eagle's flight feathers and tail are whiter and more prominent. Subadults of other large African eagles are often darker and have more pronounced upper and lower markings than the great eagle.
Inhabiting deserts, grasslands, and woodlands, they prey on hyraxes, hares, antelopes, baboons, snakes, mongooses, honey badgers, monitor lizards, and other birds. They even hunt small carnivores such as jackals, foxes, and servals, as well as the cubs of various large felines. The hunting range of an adult eagle is approximately 50 square miles.
The presence of eagles in sub-Saharan Africa is due to the region's abundant food resources and favorable living environment.
The mammoth is found in parts of southern Africa, particularly in Zimbabwe and the Republic of South Africa.
Reserves like those in the North Province and Mpumalanga Province of South Africa, the Kimberley Kalahari National Park and Itosha National Park are more attractive to eagles for foraging and living because of their abundant resources.
After scanning the raptor, Chu Ye knew what kind of raptor it was. Meanwhile, the raptor was still chasing the hare, completely unaware that it had become prey itself.
And so, the bird of prey and the hare began a chase across the grassland. However, four legs could never outrun two wings.
Although the hare was running as fast as it could, it was no match for the bird of prey. It was quickly overtaken by the bird of prey.
The bird of prey was also very happy. It felt like it was about to have a rabbit feast.
Just as the raptor pounced on the rabbit, a lion suddenly sprang out from behind and seized the raptor.
The hare thought it was about to become prey for a bird of prey. It had already been caught. The bird of prey only needed to stop to subdue the hare.
But just then, a lion suddenly appeared, disrupting the bird of prey's plans. It never expected that a lion would appear at this crucial moment.
However, the raptor thought that even if the lion appeared, it would be after the rabbit. Even if it didn't eat the rabbit, it wouldn't be a big problem.
After all, birds of prey are very good hunters; even if they don't hunt this one hare, they can hunt other animals.
But things didn't go as the bird of prey expected. Instead of hunting the rabbit, the lion went straight for the bird of prey.
This raptor was careless. If it had known that the lion had targeted it, it would have already taken to the sky, and the lion would have had no chance of catching it.
This bird of prey had no idea that the lion would target it, intending to attack it instead of catching the hare.
The hare was quite surprised; it thought it was doomed today. It wasn't just one bird of prey trying to catch it. Behind it, there was also a lion. If that was the case, it would either become prey for the bird of prey or prey for the lion.
But things didn't go as the hare had imagined. The lion wasn't after the hare, but rather after the bird of prey.
This rabbit got a great deal. When it realized that the lion didn't intend to catch it, it took the opportunity to slip away.
This bird of prey was completely careless. It thought that no matter what, the lion wouldn't attack it, but would only try to catch the rabbit.
But to the bird of prey's utter surprise, when the lion pounced, it pounced directly on the bird of prey and immediately bit its neck.
This bird of prey had no idea how it had become the lion's prey.
The hare itself wasn't injured. Although the raptor had caught the hare, it had only caught it and hadn't yet begun to eat it.
In this way, the rabbit had a chance to escape. It took advantage of the moment when the raptor was caught by the lion to run away immediately.
This raptor became Chu Ye's prey; it was clearly no match for Chu Ye's powerful bite.
Although birds of prey are the rulers of the skies, they are not very large, weighing only four or five kilograms. Such a weight is utterly insignificant compared to a lion weighing over one hundred kilograms.
Chu Ye killed the raptor in one bite. Before the raptor could even understand what was happening, it was already on its way to the afterlife.
After catching the eagle, Chu Ye naturally began to savor its flavor.
He had never eaten any raptor meat before, but in the past two days, he has finally tasted raptor meat, having eaten two kinds of raptor in a row.