The "great eagle"
No less an authority than Audubon described a giant species of North American eagle, similar in appearance to an immature bald eagle but with some anatomical differences as well as a difference in size. The now-lost type specimen, which Audubon shot himself after having seen this eagle four times in the wild, was a meter tall with a wingspan of 3.1m. As Karl Shuker recounts it, authorities contemporary with Audubon accepted the species, and some reported seeing it themselves. An occasional report of a giant eagle still surfaces. Is America's largest raptor extinct, or still, just possibly, hanging on?
2 comments:
Do they even have any feathers or something left over? DNA would probably answer this question and show that it was just a bald eagle or golden eagle.
Shuker reports there were several specimens identified as Washington's eagle, but no one can locate any of them. It may be a mystery for all time.
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