Rare Sight: White-Bellied Sea Eagles Repeatedly Throw Bats into the Sea
White-bellied sea eagles
White-bellied sea eagles are large birds of prey inhabiting the coasts of India, southern Asia, and Australia. They effortlessly soar over coastal forests and wetlands.
Researchers recently photographed white-bellied sea eagles tormenting a fruit bat, repeatedly throwing it into the waves.
White-bellied sea eagles repeatedly throwing bats into the sea
Marine ecologist Sheema Abdul Aziz and her colleagues in Malaysia were conducting research on fruit bats on the east coast of the Malaysian Peninsula’s when they accidentally captured the scene. One white-bellied sea eagle suddenly pulled a bat from a tree, the bat let out a cry. The eagle tightly grasped it with its talons, then flew to the sea. The eagle then threw the bat into the waves, and another eagle circled nearby.
The bat slowly returned to land, and the researchers witnessed the astonishing scene again: the two sea eagles patiently waited, closely tracking the struggling bat.
The exhausted bat returned to the beach, where it completely exhausted itself on the sand, with a hole pecked in its wing by the sea eagle. At that time, the research team had to leave the island, they did not see whether the bat was caught and eaten a third time by the sea eagle.
Aziz said, "Initially, we didn’t understand why the sea eagles were taking their prey to the sea. When it first dropped the bat, we initially thought it was like a fledgling eagle, lacking experience."
However, when the sea eagle grabbed the bat and threw it into the sea again, the resort owner said that this behavior often occurred near the resort, it seemed no longer an accident.
Aziz said, "At that time, we suddenly realized that white-bellied sea eagles may actually be doing this intentionally, they may be smarter than we thought."
Although researchers did not see whether the bat was killed and eaten, they believe that the sea eagle’s behavior is actually a clever hunting method. Fruit bats are dangerous prey because they are relatively large, strong, and have sharp teeth on their chins, the strong bats may be a risky prey, but after multiple swims, the bats will become exhausted and easier to kill by the white-bellied sea eagles."
Jennifer Coulson, an avian biologist at Tulane University, said, "White-bellied sea eagles are very intelligent predators, so I wasn’t surprised by these observations."
Coulson pointed out that these sea eagles found in coastal habitats throughout Southeast Asia and Australia are opportunistic predators. They drop large crabs from above to kill them and open them up. People also saw them steal fish from dolphins that forced them to the surface.
James Bednarz, an avian ecologist at the University of North Texas, agreed that the sea eagle’s repeated tormenting behavior may be a way to weaken the prey before eating it.
Bednarz said, "White-bellied sea eagles usually prey on fish and carrion, they don’t really resist, so for this mid-sized prey, they may take different strategies, this makes sense."
Bednarz believes that tormenting bats is definitely part of the predation strategy, not some scary entertainment. He said that competitions between predators are not uncommon, but they are usually limited to young eagles, not such adult sea eagles.
Aziz said, "There is a huge mystery waiting for us to unravel!"
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