Eagle belongs to the order Hawkiformes, which is the general name of many animals in the order Hawkiformes, including eagles, falcons, vultures and so on. According to the biological classification, * * * can be divided into 9 subfamilies, such as Scarabainae, Scarabainae, Eagle subfamily, Fireturtle subfamily and so on. Hawks of different subfamilies are different in size, distribution range, living habits and food types, but in general, both golden eagles and peregrine falcons are only as big as a big cat and belong to carnivores. In addition to their proud wings, they also have keen vision, hearing and smell, so eagles are very alert and have excellent ability to lock their prey.
Once a creature becomes the top of the food chain, it means that it has no natural enemies. It is necessary to clarify a concept here. The absence of natural enemies does not mean that any other animals will not feed on it at any time. In biology, natural enemy means that in nature, an animal A preys on or hurts another animal B, so A is the natural enemy of B. ..
As can be seen from this definition, to define natural enemies, there must be two preconditions. One is that in nature, any system with human intervention cannot be called pure nature. For example, the killing of top hunters such as tigers and whales by humans does not prevent them from being top hunters. The other is "specialization". For example, eagles always catch mice, so they are natural enemies of mice. As a top marine predator, whales are sometimes killed when they prey on giant squid. But because whales don't have giant squid in their normal diet, they will only "fight" with giant squid when the food source is very scarce or threatened, so whales can't be called natural enemies of giant squid. Even if whales are killed, it will not affect their status as top marine hunters.
Then, come back to study eagles. Although they are top hunters in dense forest areas, they can be said to have no natural enemies, but it does not mean that there is no threat source. From a large number of field observations by scientists, at least two kinds of animals pose a serious threat to the safety and even life of eagles. One is a cockroach, whose size is generally between 10-30 cm, which is far from the average size of an eagle. But it is such a bird that, with its superb flying skills, especially its very sharp beak, can easily fly to the eagle's back and peck open the fur and even the skull of the eagle's head, which the eagle dare not avoid.
There is another kind of bird that eagles can't do, that is, owls, which belong to an order of birds, and belong to birds that lie down during the day and come out at night. Although the owl looks like MengMeng on the surface, it has a fierce temperament and is a typical carnivore. Owls have at least three killer weapons, one is a thick mouth, a short but powerful mouth, and the front end is barbed, which is as powerful as an eagle. Second, claws are extremely powerful. In addition to thick legs, claws are also sharp and bent inward. The fourth toe can move back and forth freely, which makes them particularly outstanding in catching prey.
The third feature of owls is that they have a low voice when flying. Because the owl is covered with soft feathers, the vibration frequency of the air when flapping is less than 1000 Hz, so it is difficult for most mammals and birds to capture such a low sound frequency. Therefore, once the prey is located by the owl's "night vision eye", when the owl flies slowly, it is often not noticed at all. In addition, the owl's feathers are dark brown, which also plays a good role in hiding at night, and there is little chance to expose itself at night.
Because eagles and owls are carnivorous birds of prey with different purposes and different ecosystems, there is no clear relationship between predation and prey in their niches. When food is relatively scarce, sometimes owls prey on eagles, or eagles prey on owls, which is an exception to the stable food chain in nature and is caused by the survival pressure under special circumstances, rather than the suppression of niche.