Raptor Captors
Category: Nature...
Posted Thursday, December 20, 2007 at 04:52 PM [GMT-6]

I'm not sure how I missed this but about a month ago, someone compiled a list the Top 30 Avian Abductions over the past 100 years.

The author had the good sense to wait until after Thanksgiving to post the list, thereby reducing the possibility of turkey-related nightmares.

I find it interesting that all 30 accounts came during the first 50 years of the reporting period. None were documented since then. How might that be explained? (It should be noted that this list wasn't intended to be comprehensive, but it's still odd that such events weren't infrequent up until the late 1940s.) Are the reports suspect? Were the birds somehow more "wild" back then? Was human encroachment into their territory more novel, and had the raptors not yet learned to fear people?

A few of the stories are pretty heartbreaking. Obviously, the victims in these attacks were invariably babies or small children, and some of them didn't survive.

While you're in the neighborhood, stick around and read the author's theories about the existence of "winged snakes."