South American raptor king harpy eagle, grip up to 179 kg, strong and invincible but lost to humans

The Internet has circulated such a picture: a man sitting on a tree stump, while on the other end of the stump stood a large "bird".

This "bird" head wearing a "plume", slightly bowed, seems to be thinking about something, its eagle legs are very strong, claws also look quite sharp.

Only a side view, let people feel full of heroic, if the birds in the face of the list, how it can also be ranked in the top three it!

But after seeing its frontal photo, all the above "admiration" instantly disappeared, when it is facing you, it is like this.

The mouth is tightly closed, revealing a hint of helplessness and bitterness, eyes dull, from which you can not see any information, some majestic, but also some unspeakable funny.

Hmm? Said the good Ying Qi full of it? Said the good first face echelon it? In the words of the Internet, this is an "Iron Bean" well!

It turns out that the reason why this guy does not show his face is that the front is not as good as the side face ah, but quite self-aware, or rather quite good at choosing the angle.

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Let's put aside our worldly views and get to know this bird.

The scientific name of this bird is called the horned eagle, which belongs to the eagle family. It also has a name called "harpy hawk", but do not think that this is specifically to flirt with it, after all, this is the name of foreigners.

That "harpy eagle" this improper name how to come?

This is taken from Greek mythology because the Greek mythology there is a monster called Harpy, it looks very characteristic: human face eagle body: the

And as we said above, the front of the horned eagle looks like an "Iron Bean", so the name "Habibi Eagle" is perfect for it.

Horned eagles are mainly found in Latin America, especially in the tropics, their favorite place to stay in the rainforest, such as the Amazon rainforest is living in many horned eagles.

Don't look at the long and simple, but they are one of the most powerful raptors in South America, and even have the "King of South America raptor" title of dominance.

Their body length is more than one meter, the wingspan is amazing, can reach two meters, the heaviest weight of the female is 9 kg, and the heaviest male is 5.4 kg.

The point here is that although male and female horned eagles look the same, the females are larger and heavier than the males.

Such a large body can look down on most raptors, and the only surviving raptor larger than them is the ape-eater, which has a wingspan of up to 3 meters.

Although they do not "win" in terms of size, the horned eagles have another advantage: the grip of the eagle's claws.

Their claws are about 13 centimeters long and have a grip of 179 kilograms, while the average adult male has a grip of 40 kilograms, a simply terrifying comparison!

In the local rumors, the horned eagle's claws down, the human skull bone will also be pierced, although there is no real case, but you see its power.

Since they have such a strong grip, I think they should be hunting is also a kill, hand to hand! It is true that in the rainforest, the horned eagle is a top predator.

As carnivorous raptors, horned eagles mainly hunt small and medium-sized animals perched in the canopy, such as spider monkeys, sloths, long-armed raccoons and so on.

The hunting methods of horned eagles can be described as "invisible" because they make very little noise when flying, and their prey is often killed quickly by horned eagles without warning.

It is worth saying that in the rainforest the horned eagle's hunting style is very advantageous because the main energy of the animals in the trees is used to defend the ground or will climb the tree predators, such as the jaguar, their air defense ability is relatively weak.

Also, like the golden eagle, the horned eagle's claws sometimes reach out to larger prey, such as water dolphins and deer, and its sure-fire technique is to attack its prey with its claws at vital points.

Female horned eagles usually lay only two eggs, and when the first egg hatches, the other egg will be abandoned to hatch, so it can be said that each horned eagle is the only son in the family.

After reading the above introduction, you realize that the "Bean" is so powerful, but now there is a bad fact that the number of horned eagles is very unhealthy, in many places have not seen them.

There are two main reasons for this situation: one is the hunting and killing of local natives, and the other is the reduction of habitat.

One characteristic of the horned eagle that I consider "bad" is that they are not afraid of people and will not run when they see them, which means they will not run when greeted, nor will they run when greeted with a shotgun...

The loss of habitat has deprived many species of habitat through indiscriminate logging by local people, and the horned eagle is just one of the victims.

Today, many countries have set up specialized conservation programs for horned eagles, and hopefully, with the concerted efforts of humans, their numbers will recover soon.