A sea eagle has recorded unusual footage of Western Australia's remote
Kimberley after stealing a video camera and taking it on a 100 kilometer
(70 mile) journey. Aboriginal rangers had set up the motion-sensor
camera at a gorge on the Margaret River in May, to try and capture
images of fresh-water crocodiles. Gooniyandi ranger Roneil Skeen says
the camera disappeared not long afterwards.
"Unexpectedly our camera went missing so we thought we had lost it
because it fell into the water," he said. But a few weeks ago, they got a
phone call to say a Parks and Wildlife ranger had found the small
device at the Mary River, over 100 kilometers away. They have been able
to extract three 30-second clips that reveal the culprit to be a
thieving sea eagle.
The footage shows the juvenile eagle scooping up the recorder, and
taking to the air. Later, it is deposited on the ground and the animal
pecks at it. Mr Skeen says he and the 14-strong ranger team were shocked
to see the aerial journey play out in high-definition. "It was pretty
amazing because it's one of the first camera traps to ever get picked
up," he said. "They've had camera traps moved [by animals] before, but
not taken off, like a flying camera you know?
"It was pretty cool so we were pretty shocked. We knew it was a juvenile
eagle because the adult sea eagles, once they get their food or their
prey, they usually take it right up into the sky and drop it," he said.
"But this one was still learning because he just took it near the
cliff-side and he never dropped [it],
he just put it down and started picking at it. An
adult one would have flown it right up the top and yeah for sure it
would have smashed that camera." The rangers say they will be bolting
down their camera in the future.
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