…and this is a 
Join me in feeling some taxonomic loyalty to our class in defiance of our ancient enemy, those feathered reptiles, the birds. The BBC has footage of eagles hunting and killing young reindeer — they swoop down and stab their talons into their lungs, and then wait for them to die. Ouch. Poor Bambi Rudolph.*
I will also note that this is yet another shot in the great War on Christmas. They're killing Santa's livestock! I suspect the Christian toy-god also has to fret over bird strikes in flight.
*Apologies. My prior secular metaphor was in error, and I have replaced it with the name of a true Christian saint who, now having been tortured and killed, may now be worshipped. Rudolph died for your sins in this video.
Life Science
Comments
Posted by: SciencePundit
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October 22, 2009 12:01 PM
Bambi wasn't a reindeer. Shouldn't you have said "Poor Rudolph."?
Posted by: Alcari
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October 22, 2009 12:02 PM
PZ, such a missed opportunity.
Don't you mean: "Four legs good, two legs bad!"
Posted by: Brian
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October 22, 2009 12:03 PM
It's all just one big allegory. For what, I'm not quite sure yet. Something about America and Santa Claus, I expect.
Posted by: Matt Penfold
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October 22, 2009 12:07 PM
The BBC us currently showing a major nature series, entitled Life. This week's program showed Komondo Dragons attacking a buffalo and waiting for it to die from infection. The process took over 2 weeks. There was a mini-documentary at the end where the film crew said that the filming was not only physically gruelling but emotionally gruelling as well.
Posted by: Janine, Vile Bitch, OM | October 22, 2009 12:11 PM
I DEMAND THAT STEPHEN COLBERT REMOVE THE BALD EAGLE FROM THE OPENING CREDITS OF HIS SHOW! KEEPING THE EAGLE SHOWS HIS SUPPORT FOR THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS!
Posted by: arrakis
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October 22, 2009 12:25 PM
If you think this is bad, you should see what an eagle attack does to one of Santa's elves.
Posted by: fishyfred
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October 22, 2009 12:26 PM
Bird strikes in flight. AFTERNOON DELIGHT
Posted by: Sili
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October 22, 2009 12:27 PM
Yeah, but can they field dress a moose?
Speaking of meese.
Posted by: furtim
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October 22, 2009 12:29 PM
You know, there's an ongoing debate about how Dromaeosaurids used their "killing claws". The traditional view being that the claws were used to slash through the skin and expose the innards, with the dissenting view being that the claws were used to anchor the dinosaur while it slashed with the hand claws.
The comment about the eagles puncturing the reindeer's lungs with its talons, though, makes me wonder whether that might have been the true purpose of the "killing claw". Even if they weren't quite right for slashing, they'd be pretty good at puncturing, and the length and curvature might help the attack dig in deep enough to hit the victim's lung...
Posted by: Bob O'H
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October 22, 2009 12:32 PM
Having lived in Finland, I can tell you that those aren't birds - they're mosquitoes.
Posted by: Janine, Vile Bitch, OM | October 22, 2009 12:34 PM
Fishyfred, you deserve a fish slap for that.
Dammit, my brain hurts.
Posted by: JSW | October 22, 2009 12:45 PM
Don't listen to him! He's just trying to turn us chordates against each other! We must stand united to repel the cephalopod menace!
Posted by: flightpapers.org
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October 22, 2009 12:50 PM
So, wait, if an eagle kills a reindeer, what's a nationalistic, red-white-an'-blue loving Christian to do? Shoot the eagle, then eat them both?
Posted by: Brock | October 22, 2009 12:55 PM
Uh, PZ, try again. Rudolph is noteworthy for his red nose. At best this was like Prancer or Vixen.
Santa sure gave weird names to his sleigh team. Is "vixen" somehow implying that he found his four-legged companion to be sultry? I guess if you live at the north pole for long enough your standards start to sink...
Posted by: s.k.graham | October 22, 2009 12:56 PM
It doesn't have the war-on-christmas angle... but here is much more dramatic footage of eagles hunting mountain goats:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz7FFlFy8eM
Posted by: Desert Son
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October 22, 2009 1:00 PM
Or that he mistook a reindeer for a Canidae vulpini?
No kings,
Robert
Posted by: nemryn | October 22, 2009 1:05 PM
Brock @ 14:
'Donner' and 'Blitzen' make a certain kind of sense, though; they're German for 'Thunder' and 'Lightning'. I presume Santa has them on loan from Thor.
Posted by: Desert Son
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October 22, 2009 1:05 PM
"Red in tooth and claw," indeed.
Was it bad that when I first read the post, I couldn't help but think of the Far Side cartoon that shows the eagles in the tree wearing sunglasses and listening to portable radios, with the caption, "Birds of prey know they're cool."?
No kings,
Robert
Posted by: Glen Davidson
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October 22, 2009 1:29 PM
That's what happens when you have no god in your life, as those damn atheist eagles don't. Of course they hate God, Santa, and reindeer.
Time for some forced conversions and ID instruction.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p
Posted by: Brock | October 22, 2009 1:32 PM
@nemryn (17): Oh sure, those are cool. I even kinda like Dasher and Comet. But Dancer and Cupid? Come on. If Santa wanted to confuse everyone with an ancient god angle, he could have at least picked Hermes/Mercury (the swift messenger), or Artemis (deer were sacred to her).
Posted by: Brian English
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October 22, 2009 1:52 PM
This got me thinking how cool it would be if the Moa hadn't been extirpated with resultant death of Haasts Eagle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haasts_eagle
Posted by: Darren Garrison
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October 22, 2009 2:01 PM
On a similar note, they also disincliffify goats:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XafAdkZIYKA
Posted by: Naked Bunny with a Whip
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October 22, 2009 2:06 PM
This is exactly what Bill Donohue sees in his mind every time he publishes another screed.
Posted by: Cat's Staff | October 22, 2009 2:20 PM
At the speed Santa travels, a bird strike would be messy.
Posted by: Brownian, OM
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October 22, 2009 2:47 PM
I can't participate in this thread.
I've had a rough night, and I hate the fucking eagles, man!
Posted by: Vernon Balbert | October 22, 2009 2:50 PM
I always side with the predators, being from a predatory species.
Posted by: Brownian, OM
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October 22, 2009 3:07 PM
Anyone who's ever owned cats would suggest they may have used the foreclaws to grasp and anchor while they scratched the living shit out of whatever they've grabbed on to. Cretaceous leather couches, probably.
Posted by: Nebula99
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October 22, 2009 3:13 PM
I too tend to side with the predators. On average, most predator species only kill about once in 10 tries (or somewhere in that ballpark). The rest of the time the prey gets away.
Alcari at #2, the wing is meant for motion rather than manipulation, and as such is counted as a leg. OTOH, looking at this vid from a social Darwinist perspective justifies the later version, "Four legs good, two legs better."
Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | October 22, 2009 3:17 PM
Except they don't have the same shape as eagle claws. Eagle claws are round in cross-section. Sickle claws are actually sickle-shaped – flattened from side to side, and probably with a cutting edge at the bottom.
I think that's the faked one.
Except that blitzen is a verb. The noun "lightning" is just Blitz.
That's Donar in Old High German. Þórr is the Old Norse version.
You mean Vulpes vulpes. Vulpini and Canidae are larger groups.
Posted by: llewelly | October 22, 2009 4:39 PM
JSW | October 22, 2009 12:45 PM:
There is no "cephalopod menace". Cephalopods just want to wrap their arms around us and give us hugs and kisses. Just because the sharks and crabs tell defamatory lies about cephalopods doesn't mean we have anything to fear.
Posted by: Notagod | October 22, 2009 5:13 PM
Hey, there's no proof that the birdies didn't start doing that only because, the christian god-idea rammed a jet into an innocent flock of geese.
Posted by: Andyo
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October 22, 2009 5:41 PM
Those rascals at the BBC have some sense of humor. The volume slider goes up to 11!
OK, if this comment appears twice, I freaking waited for a full 30 minutes and refreshed multiple times to be sure the previous time it didn't get posted.
Posted by: ice9 | October 22, 2009 8:42 PM
Okay, first, "disincliffify"--if you all weren't scientists, I'd say that's a made-up word, like "defenesangulate," which is to let the blood out of an antelope, then throw it out a window at a sharp angle. I just learned that one.
Santa's Reindeer are all trochees--that's why no Mercury or Artemis, and weak regard for accuracy in the foreign tongues. Donner was originally Dunder and Blitzen started out as Blixem. The author dropped the other original four: Saturn and Venus and Booger and Penis. And Rudolph is the second-most recent addition to Olive.
And finally, that stooping behavior in goldens is just plain cool. The reindeer scientist says it's odd, but there it is in the disincliffification scenes. I saw a golden do it once. I see lots of bald eagles but I never saw them do anything like that, except the whole flying swirling air-sex thing they do, which is also cool but in a different way. Plus those are big dang birds to be 'immature.' I wonder why only immature goldens eat reindeer. I bet they mean goldens only eat immature reindeer cause those are some big dang birds.
ice9
Posted by: stellar ash | October 22, 2009 9:06 PM
Well, of course its the part of the "War on Christmas": The eagle is an "unclean" animal per Leviticus 11, 13 along with just about every bird of prey.
That proclamation is just after the bits about pork and shrimp.
I'm sure that all those good xians are clamoring for the removal of the Bald Eagle as the national symbol of the USA as well as avoiding bacon and shrimp.
Posted by: Horwood Beer-Master
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October 22, 2009 9:32 PM
Yay birds! Who needs these ugly synapsids!
Posted by: Desert Son
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October 22, 2009 10:02 PM
David Marjanović, OM,
Woops! Thanks for the correction.
No kings,
Robert
Posted by: antaresrichard
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October 22, 2009 10:06 PM
Now we knowses why the red in Rudolph's nose!
Posted by: Libbie, the Bird Overlord | October 22, 2009 11:45 PM
THAT'S RIGHT!
THE BIRDS WILL CRUSH YOU, PUNY PLACENTALS!
AAAAA!!
Posted by: DLC
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October 23, 2009 12:23 AM
Eagle FTGN! worship the Avians and you will be consumed last!