Foxes are not against easy food, especially in winter. But it is not always safe to take prey from an Imperial Eagle territory when the owners are at home, as the following image, which I took in 2010, shows it.
Last weekend a smart fox performed a funny action in front of me. It was an experienced one and knew that the eagles were not happy to share any food with other raptors in the core of the territory. So it sneaked to the eagle feeding place as close as it could in the bush and with a final storm tried to steal some meat from it. Since the eagles were very close, the fox was keeping its eyes on them constantly while tucking as much meat into its mouths as possible.
Actually, it was too much so the fox had dropped a big chunk twice by the time the male eagle started from the tree with obvious educational aims… All took less than two minutes. At the last moment the fox could manage to take the big piece but soon dropped the half of it when it fled the eagle in full force in my direction. Approximately 10 meters from me it spotted the front lens, got quite shocked and made a quick and sharp right turn. But during the same move it also opened its mouth in surprise and dropped the rest of the meat! Poor fellow almost succeeded! It was not eager to return…
A younger fox made a similar attempt three hours later but could not even reach the place and suddenly changed its mind somehow.
The eagle pair nicely controlled the territory as they also chased Ravens and a Common Buzzard off the area during the day. The female already incubated in mid-March last year.
March is slowly prevailing over the winter this year…
I uploaded some images into the New Images gallery.
Best regards,
Andras