Leaving the apartment complex this afternoon we found a seagull on the pavement with a badly damaged wing. While we were wondering what had happened to it, the answer flew past us to perch on a fence nearby. A bird of prey and a very attractive one too. Some research on Wiki suggests it might have been a merlin. They winter in North Africa and it may have been starting on its journey back north to its breeding grounds, stopping off in Gibraltar for a quick snack. The seagull was bigger than its attacker, but had obviously been hit in mid-flight. There was nothing to be done but to move on and let nature take its course. I was not looking forward to walking past the scene on our return, but there was no trace of anything. Could that merlin have moved its prey elsewhere to feed?
Boadicea's Chariot 
Um, yes distressing Sheona, but I have to agree, let nature take its course. The merlin could well have come back and moved supper.
Hiya, Sheona – Being rather high up the food chain myself, I’m usually in favour of letting nature take its course – except when there’s a large bear in a mask or a charging elephant around, you understand. 🙂
OZ
In the circumstances, with the Merlin (or whatever bird of prey) nearby and ready to follow through when you left, I think you made the right decision. I find it very hard to leave an injured animal, but coming between predator and prey is wrong, imo. I don’t know about a small bird of prey moving a larger bird, but I’m interested enough to look it up … later, though. Interesting post. Thanks, Sheona.
Totally off-topic, is a “bird of pray [sic]” a female vicar?
I’ll be interested to see what your research shows, Bilby. I’ve seen wild life documentaries where a leopard drags a pretty large prey animal up a tree to keep its meal safe from other predators. So perhaps larger loads can be moved if necessary.
OZ, I thought wolves moved in packs and could deal with bears, even those wearing masks, though probably not elephants. Where is your pack? Have they given up on you since you adopted a couple of kittens?
Lone wolf, Sheona.
OZ
I’ll be back tomorrow, Sheona.
It seems to be all the rage these days to call them ‘raptors’ rather than ‘birds of prey’.
In my distant past, I was a safari guide on the Zambezi river. We used to take canoe trips from Kariba Dam, down as far Kanyemba on the Mozambique border, a journey of about 9 days. We would camp out under the stars and would be exposed to all the prying and preying animals of the Zambezi Valley. Inevitably discussions would get on to such topics as politics, religion and conservation. So here is the dilemma. Human life is sacred. Man must strive to save the environment. (In this context, most concern was directed at the Black Rhino which was being poached out of existence.) Supposing you are a game warden patrolling the bush and you come across a poacher who is lining up his sights to shoot a rhino. You have to make a decision. You either shoot the poacher or allow him to shoot the rhino. That is the choice. Perhaps not surprisingly, most people said shoot the poacher. (An answer easier to say than carry out, perhaps.) But supposing the rhino is charging a chap, who may or may not be a poacher, you have no way of knowing. If you do not shoot the rhino, it will kill the other guy. (If you like, you can make the other chap a poacher, and see if your answer remains the same.)
If the Black Rhino is indeed an endangered species, it should not be shot under any circumstances. Otherwise you’re not doing your job as a game warden. Is it not possible to scare off poachers by shooting near them? Does this not work with rhinos? I assume that all game wardens are very good shots and would shoot to wound a poacher.
Good morning, Sheona
From what I have read on a few sites, Merlin’s, like all birds of prey, will take birds approaching and sometimes equal to their own weight, ie nothing heavier than a feral pigeon. It would be impossible for them to fly with prey exceeding their own weight. In the case of the bird you spotted, perhaps its eyes were bigger than its crop. We all make mistakes. 🙂
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Merlin_%28bird%29
I’m always surprised how few dead birds one sees during a winter like this. Do they go away and hide before they die, or do fewer die than I imagine? Don’t we have an expert twitcher here?
Perhaps they’re eaten by foxes, badgers etc before humans are awake, Janus.
Thank you, Bilby. Perhaps the merlin was really desperate for food or hoped that the seagull would fall on to the rock, where it could finish it off, rather than the pavement where passers-by keep disrupting the process.
Sheona, I set the parameters. ‘You either shoot the poacher or allow him to shoot the rhino. That is the choice.’
It’s certainly possible, Sheona. I don’t fancy my chances of finding out whether birds of prey tackle larger birds when they are desperately hungry, but I might try.
I wrote about poaching last year, I have a mate (Frank) who is a member of the East Cape Anti-poaching Team, the rules are simple, any person in a game reserve who refuses to stop at their command will be considered a poacher and shot. Anybody with an undeclared firearm (we declare our firearms at the gate (normally hand guns)) will be considered a poacher and if they refuse or ignore commands will be shot.
There is no such thing as ‘shoot to wound’, these guys are desperate and will shoot back.
Sipu, to answer your question I’d shoot the poacher every time!
But Soutie, would you shoot the rhino to protect an individual, say another tourist who was being charged by a rhino? Therein lies the dilemma. If human life is more important than that of any animal, then you should not shoot the poacher. On the other hand if the life of a rare black rhino is more important than that of a human is there any human that you would protect at the expense of the rhino? A poacher, a tourist, a friend, a family member, yourself?
Ha ha Sipu 🙂
That’s a no contest, of course the animal has to be shot if it is endangering any human visitor, with the exception of a poacher. Poachers are as bad as the Nigerian drug dealers that stand on the corner here in Central, the perlemoen divers who are stripping our bay along with their Chinese syndicates, I’d shoot the lot of them if I had my way!
OK, boys and girls, brickbats* at the ready. This may be a little confused, but I expect it’ll be sorted out after a few comments.
I’m not sure that I agree that human life is ‘sacred.’ It is the most precious thing that we possess, individually and as a group, but I don’t see it as sacred. I would take a life in a lot of cases; I would shoot the poacher** – especially where the facts of life are laid out so clearly. I would shoot a ‘cut-hands man;’ I would shoot a man attempting rape… I can think of lots of other cases, but it would be boring to list them all.
Missed the footnote – should have been:
* I have no idea what a ‘brickbat’ actually is. off to ‘Google.’
OK, there you go:
>Word History: The earliest sense of brickbat, first recorded in 1563, was “a piece of brick.” Such pieces of brick have not infrequently been thrown at others in the hope of injuring them; hence, the figurative brickbats (first recorded in 1929) that critics hurl at performances they dislike. The appearance of bat as the second part of this compound is explained by the fact that the word bat, “war club, cudgel,” developed in Middle English the sense “chunk, clod, wad,” and in the 16th century came to be used specifically for a piece of brick that was unbroken on one end.<
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/brickbat