\n 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.\n <\/p>\n
\n In a call to 911, the unidentified driver on US Route 74 in Swain County, near Bryson City, told a dispatcher that a bald eagle dropped the cat. Bryson City is about 65 miles southwest of Asheville.\n <\/p>\n
\n It\u2019s not clear if the feline slipped from the eagle\u2019s talons Wednesday morning or was discarded simply because the big bird didn\u2019t have a taste for it.\n <\/p>\n
\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\n <\/p>\n
\n Any reservations about calling in such a story were put to rest when the dispatcher calmly responded, \u201cOK. I do believe you, honestly,\u201d then laughed.\n <\/p>\n
\n The driver relayed that another person also saw the cat drop, remarking, \u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018That is the craziest thing I\u2019ve ever seen.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018Really?\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The dispatcher offered some assurance, saying, \u201cOh my goodness. Let\u2019s see. I\u2019ve heard crazier.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWell, that\u2019s terrifying,\u201d the caller said, to which the dispatcher replied with more nervous laughter, \u201cYeah.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n After getting the driver\u2019s 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\n <\/p>\n
\n The caller said it wasn\u2019t, but noted that the cat was on the side of the road and not in her car.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cOk, I have to ask just to make sure,\u201d the dispatcher said.\n <\/p>\n
\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.\n <\/p>\n
\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\n <\/p>\n
\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.\n <\/p>\n
\n Prey can also be dropped if a raptor is being harassed by another raptor or the prey becomes too heavy to continue carrying.\n <\/p>\n
\n Bald eagles are native to North Carolina and most of North America.\n <\/p>\n
\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 and have wingspans of 6 to 7 feet, Weeks told The Associated Press.\n <\/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":300254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-300253","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}