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This is so unbelievably lazy. You even say this in reference to Eagles, which are a migratory species whose range crosses hemispheres, as if the contiguous Uni
by willturman 2y ago
This is so unbelievably lazy.
You even say this in reference to Eagles, which are a migratory species whose range crosses hemispheres, as if the contiguous United States is some small aside on that path.
“Don’t worry about the regional extinction of a migratory apex predator because they’re conveniently thriving in dumpsters behind the McDonalds in a town in Alaska.”
- shutupnerd0000 2y agoCan you blame them though? Big Macs are quite tasty
- willturman 2y ago> “We’re used to seeing America’s national bird depicted as a majestic hero plucking wild salmon from pristine streams. But here you can see eagles for what they really are: scrappy, opportunistic feeders. If fresh fish isn’t available, the birds will eat seagulls, ducks, squirrels, mice, the occasional raven, bits of rotten meat dug out of the trash—or, in one case, a piece of pepperoni pizza snatched out of a teenager’s hand. Like us, eagles are adaptable. We should be proud.” [1] America’s national symbol reduced to dumpster diving and fast food. It scans. [1]https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/explore-bird-bald-eagle-dirty https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/explore-...
- bluedino 2y agoDidn't Benjamin Franklin suggest the Turkey instead?
- beeflet 2y agoIDK how comfortable people would be eating the national bird every thanksgiving
- mikestew 2y agoConsidering that the taste is much like bald eagle, I think folks might be comfortable reversing the two.
- zoky 2y agoReminds me of that joke about the guy who is on trial for killing a bald eagle, and he tells the judge that it was a life-or-death situation: He was lost in the woods, and after several weeks without food he luckily happened upon a bald eagle that he managed to trap and eat to avoid starvation. The judge says, “Well, in that case, we can let you go. But tell me, what does a bald eagle taste like?” “Oh, sort of a cross between a spotted owl and a California condor.”
- kulahan 2y agoSurely the primarily meat-eating eagle would taste different from the primarily bug/seed eating turkey, no?
- mikestew 2y agoNot in the universe in which this joke takes place, no.
- shermantanktop 2y agoWhen given a choice between universes, choose the funnier one. Unless the joke is on you…
- kulahan 2y agoIf only there was a universe where I got it lol…
- yen223 2y agoAsk the French, who has the rooster as the national bird
- lupusreal 2y ago
- dekhn 2y agoNot exactly: https://fi.edu/en/science-and-education/benjamin-franklin/national-bird https://fi.edu/en/science-and-education/benjamin-franklin/na... I used to think this was crazy, but after I met a few turkeys and bald eagles I concluded he was right (and further, that it would have made a great national bird0.
- mikestew 2y agoProbably a myth: https://fi.edu/en/science-and-education/benjamin-franklin/national-bird https://fi.edu/en/science-and-education/benjamin-franklin/na...
- Loughla 2y agoWhere I live the bald eagle takes the place of the black vulture in the winter. There is something kind of wrong about watching a bald eagle eat a road kill raccoon.
- whythre 2y agoI don’t really think it is ‘wrong,’ or even really unexpected. In the winter, fish may not a viable food option for the eagles due to ice or fish lifecycle. Birds of prey have to keep their weight low, and they don’t have the option to gorge themselves on a kill like a wolf or a lion can. Most birds of prey are only a few missed meals away from death by starvation. Winter’s scarcity is deadly for predators, and nature doesn’t care about maintaining nobility or the optics of a dead raccoon lunch.
- gerdesj 2y ago"There is something kind of wrong about watching a bald eagle eat a road kill raccoon." Why? The bald eagle is a ... bird wot eats meat. If the meat dies by other means and involves no effort then cool - dive in and tuck in. I'll grant you - its not for me! Look at the constraints and restrictions and opportunities for birds. Yes they can fly (why do they fly). Flying requires huge amounts of energy. It needs the body to be "light" which isn't helpful for a predator that might encounter resistance - feathers turn out to be quite a good armour, along with some fancy footwork and some very fancy bone structures help with the weight issue. The talons and beak are superb adaptations too. Horrid to watch in action but that's what they do. Try and imagine yourself in the place of your hero bird. It has a sodding hard and quite short life. Now try and imagine how it strives to stay alive and be that symbol you love to think of - it does not care what you think about its diet! It strives to stay alive and that is really hard - even for an apex predator.
- wiredfool 2y agoI disturbed a bald eagle eating a road kill deer by driving by one time. You know how crows and other birds will take off and look like they're going to hit your car? Now imagine it with a bird with a 6 foot wingspan.
- enjo 2y agoI live pretty close to a couple of bald eagles in central Denver. I have seen one of them mixing it up with the other birds to get table scraps left behind by people using the park. I have no idea what they are eating generally but sometimes they are pretty happy to just grab some bread on the ground or whatever.
- dghlsakjg 2y agoThey are scavengers. They eat what is available. Up here in western Canada if you want to see A LOT of eagles you go to the dump. They love it there.
- jjulius 2y ago>... bits of rotten meat dug out of the trash-or, in one case, a piece of pepperoni pizza snatched out of a teenager's hand. The article makes it clear that they're inherently "scrappy and opportunistic". You can change the items to match any time period - what about snatching food from a settler's hand, or sneaking a bite of rotten meat a native might have lying around? That's fundamentally the same thing as grabbing food out of a dumpster. For as much shit as I talk about the state of this country, I'm struggling to use what is, ostensibly, just a bird eating food out of a dumpster as some kind of example of our decline.
- gosub100 2y ago> Don’t worry... that part was fiction, added by you, represented as if he said it.
- kulahan 2y agoIt is pretty clearly implied.
- gosub100 2y agoonly if you extend the definition of "endangered" , this argument/position hinges on the definition of a single word. the far left wants to extend the definition of that word to mean the most devastating, irreversible, "give-us-money-or-the-bird-gets-it" definition possible. The GP however, explains that the dire extreme doesn't necessarily reflect reality.
- lkramer 2y agoThanks for making it political... For what it's worth, the far right is perfectly capable of weaponize conservation. Think of the war on windmills.
- gotoeleven 2y agoIts always word games. The word games only work for so long before people realize they're being tricked. Environmentalists that were honest rather than sensational would probably be better for the environment in the long run.
- watwut 2y agoIt does not matter, conservatives will willify them all. And will lie about nature and about what environmentalists say. Stop this nonsense where republicans and their donors damage things, lie and then blame their opposition for not being perfect.
- jandrewrogers 2y agoMy parents lived in a small village in Alaska in the 1990s. Much too small to have a McDonalds or even dumpsters. They had resident bald eagles in the same way many cities have pigeons. That entire region of North America has always been like this. They’ve culled hundreds of thousands of the birds over the last century because they can become a nuisance, particularly if over-populated. They’ll eat anything that looks like meat. In the same way, the brown bear is almost non-existent in its native range in the contiguous US, but abundant further north. The bald eagle gets somewhat special treatment because it is a national symbol.
- jjulius 2y agoYeah, there are only a few pockets of grizzlies left in the lower 48, and one of them connects to their larger territory in Canada. They used to roam throughout Washington's Cascades but are completely gone, so much so that there are efforts to reintroduce them in the NCNP soon.
- lazystar 2y agoReintroduce.... grizzlies? I know the wolf reintroduction was beneficial, but wolves have killed a grand total of 2 humans in north america in the 21st century. Grizzlies, in contrast, have 11 kills in half a decade (2020- 2025). That's an order of magnitude higher of the danger each one poses, so I'm curious if the grizzly reintroduction yaysayer arguments are using wolve reintroduction as a positive example.
- theiebrjfb 2y ago[flagged]
- AnimalMuppet 2y agoThis is a troll (or sarcasm), but a dangerously misleading one, especially the least paragraph.
- jjulius 2y ago>This is so unbelievably lazy. >You even say this in reference to the Eagles, which are a migratory species whose range crosses hemispheres, as if the contiguous United States is some small aside on that path. And yet, according to Wikipedia... >In the late 20th century it was on the brink of extirpation in the contiguous United States, but measures such as banning the practice of hunting bald eagles and banning the use of the harmful pesticide DDT slowed the decline of their population. Populations have since recovered, and the species' status was upgraded from "endangered" to "threatened" in 1995 and removed from the list altogether in 2007. The irony of calling someone "unbelievably lazy" without maybe checking to see if there was some accuracy to what they were saying is... lol.
- willturman 2y agoIt’s unbelievably lazy to trivialize biodiversity loss given the fact that we’re in the midst of the Anthropocene Extinction. We should all be grateful to Canada for being a refuge for so many species we slaughtered with westward expansion. You’ll find a list here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_reintroduction https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_reintroduction Again, Eagles are a migratory species, that they subsisted by eating garbage in small town Alaska having been hunted and DDT’d to extinction in the lower 48 isn’t the feather in your cap you think it is. The point is that we killed all of the eagles in the lower 48 - a huge swath of territory.
- jjulius 2y ago>... that they're thriving eating garbage in small town Alaska... This is an "unbelievably lazy" and fundamental misunderstanding of how vast and unpopulated Alaska is. I mean you've even got someone else[1] in this thread with experience highlighting that your assertion is inaccurate. >... and DDT'd to extinction in the lower 48... You completely missed the part of the quote, in my comment, that very clearly states they were never extinct, and were upgraded from "endangered" to "threatened", and then removed from the list entirely in 2007. >The point is that we killed all of the eagles in the lower 48 - a huge swath of territory. It was never true that we killed all of them in the lower 48. Please go read the previously linked Wiki article. [1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43180488 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43180488
- timewizard 2y agoMan.. c'mon.. I had a rough night and I hate the fuckin' Eagles, man..