{"id":276306,"date":"2025-11-21T23:51:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T23:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/276306\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T23:51:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T23:51:08","slug":"motorist-tells-911-bald-eagle-dropped-cat-smashing-car-windshield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/276306\/","title":{"rendered":"Motorist tells 911 bald eagle dropped cat, smashing car windshield"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\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.<\/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,\u201d then laughed.<\/p>\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<\/p>\n

The dispatcher offered some assurance, saying, \u201cOh my goodness. Let\u2019s see. I\u2019ve heard crazier.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, that\u2019s terrifying,\u201d the caller said, to which the dispatcher replied with more nervous laughter, \u201cYeah.\u201d<\/p>\n

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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<\/p>\n

The caller said it wasn\u2019t, 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":276307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[2851,178,7080,11531,10051,27602,232,113161,113160,6420,14507,90,6943,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-276306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-animals","tag-cats","tag-climate","tag-climate-and-environment","tag-domestic-news","tag-eagles","tag-general-news","tag-local-news-for-apple","tag-nc-state-wire","tag-north-carolina","tag-oddities","tag-science","tag-u-s-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}