A “unique” case: a golden eagle that has gone completely mad is terrorizing the skies of Norway and multiplying attacks

A golden eagle has attacked several people in a matter of days in Norway. (illustration) Jeremy Hynes on Unsplash

The eagle shot dead last weekend in Norway after attacking a young girl had previously attacked several people, Norwegian authorities announced Friday, citing “abnormal behavior” possibly due to illegal captive breeding.

On September 7, this golden eagle swooped down on a 20-month-old girl who was playing on the family farm in Orkland, in central Norway.

“A totally unprecedented behavior”

The girl's mother and a neighbor struggled to repel the bird of prey before it was killed by a gamekeeper. “The eagle came out of nowhere and grabbed our youngest daughter”, the father said.

After this attack that had earned the girl stitches, Norwegian media had reported several recent, and until then unusual, similar confrontations in different parts of Norway.

Ornithologist at Birdlife Norway, Alv Ottar Folkestad, had spoken of “completely new behaviour”. “You won't find anything about this in the literature”, he told radio and television station NRK. After examining photos, the Norwegian Environmental Directorate concluded on Friday that three incidents, including the one involving the girl, were definitely caused by the same eagle and that two others were also “probably”.

None of the victims of the encounters, which all occurred between September 3 and 7, were seriously injured. “It is quite unique to see such confrontations between golden eagles and humans, as we have seen in several locations in Norway in recent weeks,”, said a directorate official, Susanne Hanssen.

“It was not afraid of humans”

“We are not aware of any similar incidents, either in Norway or abroad. The eagle that was shot was behaving very abnormally and was not afraid of humans,”, she added in a statement. Several researchers have theorized that the eagle may have been fed by humans.

While not drawing any firm conclusions, Hanssen noted that “this behavior is similar to that seen in birds raised in captivity”. “To date, we have no other theory that explains the eagle's abnormal behavior,”, she said.

In Norway, the capture or breeding of wild animals in a domestic setting is prohibited. Golden eagles, which live in pairs on a territory that they appropriate, are the second largest birds of prey in the kingdom after white-tailed eagles.

The female weighs on average 5 kg and has a wingspan of about 2.2 meters when she spreads her wings, compared to some 4 kg and 2 meters for the male.