The driver was going down U.S. Route 74 in Swain County recently when the shocking incident happened, the Associated Press (AP) reported on Friday.
She called 911 and told a dispatcher a Bald Eagle had dropped a dead cat on her car.
“You may not believe me, but I just had a bald eagle drop a cat through my windshield. It absolutely shattered my windshield,” she explained to the dispatcher, who assured the woman she did believe the story. The motorist was not hurt when the dead animal smashed into her windshield.
An image shows the driver’s broken windshield, which looks as though something huge smashed into it:
The driver later told reporters:
I drive that road every single morning. I did see the Bald Eagle coming from a distance, and I’m not used to seeing them there, so I’m like ‘Wow, that’s amazing.’ I realized it had something with it. Once I realized it was a cat that it had — it barely had a hold on it — and it dropped it right on my windshield. It sounded like a bomb went off.
“I could see the cat in my passenger seat. I have guts all over me. There was glass everywhere. Thankfully the cat was dead long before it ever hit my windshield. I could tell its insides were outside,” she added:
According to Kendrick Weeks, who is the Western Wildlife Diversity Program supervisor for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, it was possible the Bald Eagle had scavenged the cat.
He explained, “But they can take animals the size of a cat. It is much harder for them to take a live cat than a dead cat. They usually don’t prey on something they don’t find palatable. And, scavenging is a common behavior in bald eagles.” Weeks also noted that sometimes Bald Eagles drop their prey if their grip is not strong enough or if their catch is struggling.
Bald Eagles typically eat fish but sometimes do eat roadkill, per the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy.
“An eagle can carry food that is about one-third of its body weight, which equates to approximately two to three pounds. They normally eat one-half to one pound of food per day,” the site read.
Video footage shows the power and precision Bald Eagles have while fishing for their next meal:
“The eagle has a strong beak made for tearing the food into manageable pieces. The tongue contains two backward facing barbs that assist swallowing by moving food from the front of the beak and tongue to the back of the tongue,” the conservancy’s website reads.
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