A motorist in western North Carolina escaped injury when the carcass of a cat crashed into the passenger side of her front windshield along a highway near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.<\/p>\n
In a call to 911, the unidentified driver on U.S. Route 74 in Swain County, near Bryson City, told a dispatcher that a bald eagle dropped the cat. Bryson City is about 65 miles (104 kilometers) southwest of Asheville.<\/p>\n
It’s not clear if the feline slipped from the eagle’s talons or was discarded simply because the big bird didn’t have a taste for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou may not believe me, but I just had a bald eagle drop a cat through my windshield,\u201d the incredulous driver said on the recorded 911 call. \u201cIt absolutely shattered my windshield.\u201d<\/p>\n
Any reservations about calling in such a story were put to rest when the dispatcher calmly responded, \u201cOK. I do believe you, honestly,” then laughed.<\/p>\n
The driver relayed that another person also saw the cat drop, remarking, “He’s like, \u2018That is the craziest thing I\u2019ve ever seen.’ I’m like, \u2018Really?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The dispatcher offered some assurance, saying, \u201cOh my goodness. Let’s see. I’ve heard crazier.”<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, that’s terrifying,” the caller said, to which the dispatcher replied with more nervous laughter, \u201cYeah.\u201d<\/p>\n
After getting the driver’s location, the dispatcher said she would send the Highway Patrol to do a report. \u201cAnother question,\u201d the dispatcher asked. \u201cIs the cat still alive?\u201d<\/p>\n
The caller said it wasn’t, but noted that the cat was on the side of the road and not in her car.<\/p>\n
\u201cOk, I have to ask just to make sure,\u201d the dispatcher said.<\/p>\n
Kendrick Weeks, Western Wildlife Diversity Program supervisor for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, said the cat dropped on the car could have been roadkill scavenged by the eagle.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut they can take animals the size of a cat,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is much harder for them to take a live cat than a dead cat. They usually don\u2019t prey on something they don\u2019t find palatable. And, scavenging is a common behavior in bald eagles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eagles and other raptors can drop prey for several reasons, including having a poor grip or if the prey is struggling and the birds are trying to prevent injury to themselves, Weeks added.<\/p>\n
Prey can also be dropped if a raptor is being harassed by another raptor or the prey becomes too heavy to continue carrying.<\/p>\n
Bald eagles are native to North Carolina and most of North America.<\/p>\n
Their populations have been increasing, and there are more than 200 nesting pairs in North Carolina. The birds can weigh anywhere from 6 1\/2 to 13 1\/2 pounds (3 kilograms to 6.3 kilograms) and have wingspans of 6 to 7 feet (1.8 meters to 2.1 meters), Weeks told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A motorist in western North Carolina escaped injury when the carcass of a cat crashed into the passenger…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,31659,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-315336","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-north-carolina","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}