Wedge-tailed Eagle

Wedge-tailed Eagle

The Wedge-tailed Eagle, Aquila audax, is the biggest bird of prey native to Australia.

Female Wedge-tailed Eagles are a little bigger than the males and can weigh over 11lb (5Kg), with a wingspan of eight feet (2.3m). In captivity this bird can live for fifty years although it is believed their average life span in the wild is less than this.

The Wedge-tailed Eagle is the most common of the world's eagles but not nearly as common as it used to be. There was a belief that the Wedge-tailed Eagle killed a lot of lambs and a bounty was put on them. About Two Million Eagles were killed before proper research was finally done into the eating habits of the Wedge-tailed Eagle. It was found that the Wedge-tailed Eagle rarely killed lambs. They do not even like the taste much although they will often eat lambs killed be other things or which had died from other causes.

One of the animals that does kill some lambs is the Fox. Foxes were found to be part of the diet of the Wedge-tailed Eagle. Foxes are a major lamb killer. Killing the two million Wedge-tailed Eagles may have allowed more Foxes to survive and kill more lambs as well as things like poultry.

A major item of the diet of Wedge-tailed Eagles is Rabbits.  Possibly Australia would have less Rabbits if the eagles had been allowed to survive. Eco systems are complicated, and interference without proper knowledge is dangerous. It is sometimes said that Australia's native animals cannot compete with introduced animals. While there is some truth in that, the situation is often not quite so simple. An example of where native animals eradicated a prolific introduced species was Rabbits on Kangaroo Island.

Some early settlers deliberately introduced Rabbits to Kangaroo Island. Nowadays this would be considered an act of extreme environmental vandalism, but ideas have changed. The native Goannas of the island found they liked the taste of baby rabbits and they would go down the rabbit holes and eat the babies. Now there are no rabbits on Kangaroo Island. Possibly if the mainland native predators had not been deliberately killed, rabbits would be in a better balance with the environment.

Wedge-tailed Eagles are now protected by law. Not everyone obeys the law.

Other things the Wedge-tailed Eagle eats are carrion, including animals killed on the road, and sometimes larger prey. Dave Irwin related a case of a large Kangaroo being killed by a Wedge-tailed Eagle although this is probably very rare.  The noted poultry Breeder, Norm Thomas had one of his prized Rhode Island Red Roosters taken by a Wedge-tailed Eagle.

Sources for this article include: the extremely informative "Birds of Prey" show by Dave Irwin on Kangaroo Island, and

Norm Thomas, poultry breeder.

I have also used information from the Australian Museum. https://australian.museum/learn/animals/birds/wedge-tailed-eagle/

The information from Norm Thomas is personal communication. In addition to this is my own observation of this magnificent bird.