Two of North America's more impressive predators are the coyote and the eagle. They are two very different animals that just happen to have diets that are nearly identical. But that's about where the similarities end. Most people admire and love the bald eagle while they loathe the sneaky coyote. It's not often you see these two species interacting with one another in the wild. Both animals are more than capable of capturing their own prey. However, they are also both noted and unashamed scavengers that will not turn down a free meal if it just happens to be laying in the open for the taking.
In this amazing piece of trail camera footage out of Montana, both an eagle and a coyote have stumbled upon the same deer carcass. Both have a real hankering for some venison and who could blame them? In fact, it turns out they were more than willing to fight over it. What results next is two minutes of fascinating footage two very different animals try to gain an edge over one another for the meal. The eagle has adopted a strategy of wanting to eat the deer on site. The coyote simply wants to steal the carcass and take it somewhere the eagle can't reach. It's fascinating to watch how each approaches this situation.
That is one brave coyote to be bold enough to try and steal an eagle's snack like that. The coyote's size may have made it more willing to try and stay and fight for his meal. Still, it was a gamble. Mostly because eagles have shown themselves to be more than capable of killing coyotes in the past, so the predator was taking a chance running in there and stealing away with the whole carcass like that. It seems a little unclear who ended up with the carcass, but it looked like the eagle was relenting towards the end of the video. We suspect it decided tangling with the coyote was not worth the risk of injury. It is summer after all, and this is not a struggle to survive the colder months just yet.
This is yet another reason why we love trail cameras. In the past, an encounter like this would have gone unseen and unknown to humans. Now, we get a little extra peek into the lives of wild animals that we would not have enjoyed previously. It is a great way to learn more about the creatures we share this world with.
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and Instagram For original videos, check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
