May 18, 2025 • 52 mins
Australia’s largest bird of prey, the wedge-tailed eagle , is a creature of raw power and mythic presence. With a piercing gaze adapted for hunting across vast landscapes, these raptors are found soaring over deserts, forests, and farmland alike.
Once hunted by farmers who saw them as threats to livestock, wedge-tails are now protected. Revered in local lore and feared by foxes, drones, and the occasional unlucky hang-glider, the wedge-tailed eagle is a symbol of survival, adaptability, and the wild spirit of Australia.
Join Holly & Matthew as they explore the biology, history, and cultural legacy of Australia’s wedge-tailed eagles.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/weird-crap-in-australia--2968350/support.
Once hunted by farmers who saw them as threats to livestock, wedge-tails are now protected. Revered in local lore and feared by foxes, drones, and the occasional unlucky hang-glider, the wedge-tailed eagle is a symbol of survival, adaptability, and the wild spirit of Australia.
Join Holly & Matthew as they explore the biology, history, and cultural legacy of Australia’s wedge-tailed eagles.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/weird-crap-in-australia--2968350/support.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
A strange, spiraling white light was spotted in the early
morning sky over Sydney, with even skeptical witnesses wondering if
it was a UFO. They were last seen on the
beach with the tall man and that's the best description
police have ever had of it.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
More than seventeen years after Harold Holt disappeared into raging
surf at chevy A Beach, his widow has finally revealed
his last romantic words.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Docky, terrifying, mesmerizing.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
That's the way a number of Australians have described the
alleged encounter with the Yowi.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
It's time for the Weird Crap In Australian Podcast. Welcome
to the Weird Crap In Australia Podcast. I'm your host,
Matthew sol This is episode three hundred and sixty three.
Ladies and gentlemen. We are going back into the world
(00:53):
of fauna, specifically the Badassory that is the Australian Catalog
of Fauna aka animals Pace. I was being too scientific?
Was they being too scientific? Researcher Extraordinary and fellow podcast
post holy soul.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
I mean there are some people who will speak like
that to me. Normally, and I'll just be like, yeah,
that's a normal conversation. Then there are some people who
speak late that to me and they're like, why are
you using big words? So I can't really be a judge.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Well, yeah, one of my favorite sayings is that's a
very big word for this time of night. Very big word. Well, yesterday,
we are going back into the animal kingdom to do
another fun one for you, and we are doing one
that we've threatened for quite some time, which is one
of the most badass raptors in the animal kingdom belongs
here in Australia, and that is the wedge ail eagle.
(01:45):
And yes, our American listeners, we are going to compare
and contrast with your national bird and national emblem and
you're not going to like it. So, without further ado,
Holly take it away, the wedge tael eagle.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
There are birds and then there are birds that fly
so high they make the horizon look like a suggestion.
The wedge tailed eagle is the latter. It's not just
Australia's largest bird of prey, it's one of the biggest
true eagles in the world and it hunts like it
knows it yes to our American listeners, the wedgetail eagle
put in a bald eagle and have space for dessert.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
While wedgetail eagles there are a similar sized to bald eagles,
they are able to kill slightly bigger prey. Bald eagles
tend to feed on fish and small mammals, as well
as reptiles and carry into an extent, but they rarely
target anything bigger than they, say, a raccoon or beaver.
While wedgetail eagles regularly eat similarly sized mammals such as rabbits,
(02:42):
they will also attack kangarooshualas and even goannas. This might
make them more accustomed to targeting diverse and large prey.
Quote from who would win in a fine between a
wedge tailed eagle and a bald eagle? Where's Mountain? August
twenty seven, twenty twenty one the conversation. Now, you may
recall I believably we talked about ol. We talked about
(03:06):
this story when we did the Dingo episode where a
Dingo pup dropped from the sky.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yes, then one of our listeners sent us in a
wonderful little picture of running around with a net waiting
for a puppy to pull out sky for it.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Absolutely send that through some fan art to the Weak
rap in Estralia at gmail email address, So if you
want to send anything through, go for it. Yes, And
it was postulated that this dingo pup had been dropped
from a bird of prey, most lightly a wedged tail eagle,
so we do have incidences of this happening. They will
go through. They will target lambs as well, smallish sheep
(03:42):
as that article just said, also targeting kangaroos. So in
our first of various smackdowns, here would the Australian wegged
tail eagle attack and eat a bald American eagle? Absolutely
it would.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
The wedge toowled eagle Aquila ordux has been part of
the Australian story for tens of thousands of years. First
Nations people have long known and respected the eagle out
of pime Me memorial. For some groups it's a messenger,
in others it's a sky spirit, a judge, or the
bringer of the winds.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
To others, they're the lazy bastards who don't rock up
quickly enough to get gandolf on the Big Tower, or
they're so slow that they don't get to mountain doom
to rescue the tiny little hobbits hanging off the side
of the thing. Isn't that interesting too when you think
about the fantasy depiction of eagles. And I don't know
(04:39):
enough about the behind the scenes production of Lord of
the Rings. So if I get this wrong, you can
come and attack me in the comment section or send
me an email tell me how wrong I am. But
I'm pretty sure that the eagles modeled off of the
wedgetail eagle in the Lord of the Rings.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Well, they're definitely not modeled off the bold eagle.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
No, they're not, absolutely not. And whenever they like giant
eagles in fantasy films and television, I'm pretty sure it's
always modeled off our eagle, says so cool.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I'm just pulling up one of the fan arts for Matthew.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
See that looks to me like the wedgetail eagle. Right,
it's either about you, do you think so?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I feel like it's either a wedgetail or a red
what's Tobias in animals is a falcon?
Speaker 1 (05:24):
No? Isn't?
Speaker 2 (05:25):
No, that's Jakesmore. He's a red redtailed hawk, That's what
he is. So it's either a redtail hawk or it's
a wedge tail eagle. Either way, it's not. The wedgetail
eagle's image appears in Rocker ceremony and oral tradition, and
here is one for Matthew to read.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
This side is one of the most, if not the
most significantly spiritual place along the East coast of Australia.
For the wannarooa people of the Hunter River Valley in
New South Wales, it was created by the all powerful
father figure Byome Picks by me in his human forms,
standing at the head of the valley with his elongated
(06:02):
arms outstretched, indicating to all that what lies before him
he has created and will protect. In Biomi animal form,
he is hey wal the powerful wedge tail eagle totem
of the Winaruru, who watches over his subjects at all
times during the daylight hours. Quote from biomy Cave Conservation
(06:24):
Management Plan, October twenty nineteen GML Heritage.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
The Wilpirie people call it Waloo and associate it with
power movement in the upper world. It was never considered
just an animal. It was a force of nature.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
The Warren Jerry people believed an ancestral wedge tail eagle
called Bungeil created the land. Bungjill originated from a falling star,
and as he fell from the sky, he blew air
from his beak to create the earth we live on today.
He scratched in the soil with his talons and the
first trees and plants started to grow. Took off back
(07:00):
into the sky, and as he was flying, he saw
a small branch from the managum tree lying on the ground.
He swooped on the branch and shook it, creating his brother,
Mindy the snake. Mindy became the law of the land,
and together Mindy and Bunjil created all the animals, including
the kangaroo, koala, hudipus, and echidnap. The last animal to
(07:22):
create it was the Palian, the bat. Palian flew up
into the managum tree, stuck his claw into the trunk,
and slid down to the ground. This cause bark to
fall from the tree, creating the first man, known as Kalim.
After stripping the bark, Paliyan jumped onto a log floating
down the Arrow river, and he called on all the
(07:42):
animals to come in. As he approached the waterfalls around
the Warrandite, he noticed a sapling floating downstream, which he
stuffed into the bottom of the river. All of a sudden,
the mud started to rise, creating a figure of a
human which the animals dragged up onto the bank of
the river. Bungeill the Eagle then blew air upon the figure,
(08:02):
creating Lubra the first woman, and so Callin and Lubra
came together to live as man and wife. When Bungjill
the Eagle passed away, was buried on the land where
Healesville Santry is today. Thousands of years later, a sacred
mountain rose from bung Jill's resting place so his spirit
could return to the sky and he became a star
(08:23):
once again. This dar is called Dara. It comes out
every year to travel across the sky and is most
visible in early spring. If you look closely behind the
Australian Wildlife Health Center at Heelsville Sanctuary, you can still
see the form of Bungjill's wingspan in the curve of
the mountains Mount Riddle. Quote from Bungjill the Eagle Zoo's
(08:45):
Victoria issue. It's interesting there just very very quickly, Holly,
that some of the immigrants that I've spoken to who
have come across from India and who have worked with
indigenous people here in Australia. Yeah, did you know that
they do believe that they share common ancestry.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I mean, if you look at the way the world
works and the way that genes work, yes, that is true.
So I understand that. Yes, But usually most people don't
like to be associated or to be compared to other people.
They like to have their people and their world and
their culture.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
But it's sort of interesting just going through that little
story there that I recognize some similar syntax. Is that
the right word in some of the words, some Indian words,
and some of their words in that story sound very
very similar in the way they're pronounced.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
I mean, I believe that the Aboriginal people's root language,
like all of them, have shared a language and begin
with I believe that came down through India. So it
wouldn't surprise me if they're associated, just like German English
and Polish or all the same.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, that's what I was sort of thinking, that a
similar root language there. Now look to be perfectly honest
with everyone, as you guys are would know, I'm an atheist.
I hold everyone's religion.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
In it's equal level yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
It's all equal to me. You know, everyone has their
own life philosophy. I have mine, you have yours. I'm
happy as long as everyone's happy. But I will always
approach those sort of things from an outside perspective, whether
I'm talking about Catholicism or indigenous beliefs or Indian Hinduism
or whatnot. I look for the links that join up
(10:29):
our culture. So just bringing that up so you don't
take offense. It's not meant to be intended as an
offensive thing. I'm not dismissing anyone's religious beliefs, but based
on my own life philosophy, I look for those interesting
links because I find it interesting. It's definitely not something
where I'm trying to offend anyone, just in case anyone
was offended.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
There is also the element of the first Man and
the first Woman, which is in a lot of stories
all over the world.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
That I found interesting as well, because then you would
draw obvious comparisons to Adam and Eve and the Garden
of Eden in.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
The creation of the First Woman.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
So no, it was Lilith. Lilith was eventually expelled from
Eden and she became one of the Denzians of Hell
with her two sons, multiple sons, multiple sons. They were
the sons of Adam. Yeah, yes, very interesting. If you
ever watched the anime, even Gallian, there's plenty of stuff
in there that they incorporated from those quieter or more
(11:28):
forgotten aspects of religion.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Those supernatural everyone's done it.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
The reason that you find the commonalities of first man,
first woman in all sorts of religious belief systems is
because of the need to simplify origins for understanding. Religion
was a fantastic learning tool for humanity, and in my opinion,
(11:55):
as someone who has delved into looking at you know,
from again educational understanding point of view on it. If
you look at the you know, the Testament of Jesus Christ,
you look at Hinduism, Buddhism, you look at a range
of religions and philosophies, there's always something interesting to take
(12:17):
out of them, because at the end of the day,
religion also functions as a life philosophy, and you can
take bits and pieces from all of them and create
your own philosophy that your own set of morality, as
it were. Pop culture also functions in very similar.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Fashion, and that's how you start a cult.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Yeah, absolutely. So you know, when I'm ready to start
that eventual cult, Holy, I'll let you know. I'll incorporate
a little bit of comic book law into there as well,
which happens now all the time too. We're starting to
see the rise of artificial intelligent cults too. It's fun. Yeah. No,
his name's not Jesus, it's that Salvation figure two point zero.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
European colonists didn't share that respect for the eagle at first.
Early records described wedgetails as a menace to livestock, and
they were treated accordingly. The eagle was officially first described
in eight and oh one by English ornithologists John Latham
under the name volter Odux the bold vulture, marking it
as a member of the same genus which now only
(13:19):
holds the Andean condor. The eagle was later revised into
its own genus Oroatus, and was later reclassified again.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Trouble because the broad classification of all these birds is
a raptor.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Right, Yeah, so they're all eagles, But there are true eagles,
which are the wedge tails, and then there are not
true eagles, which is the bald eagle.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Oh okay, all right, well, strike.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Trouble for the birds started almost as soon as the
Europeans arrived. With a sheep. Wedge tails have been known
to fly off with baby lambs weighing up to fifteen
kiloes and sometimes even fully grown fifty kilo sheep with
a help from their mate.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
That's that's a lot of lift power of brew. You
can't trust farmers.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Drag it across the ground. Yeah, you can do that,
lifting it up and flying away with it. Probably not
so much.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Yeah, because I mean, we've been to plenty of zoos
where they've done the bird shows, and you really do
get a feel for these animals.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Some of them are a lot bigger than you think
they are.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Because let me, while you're continuing there, Holly, let me
see if I can find a little bit of information
on its lift capacity.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
This of course led to the eagles to conflict with
the farmers of the settlements. This hasn't stopped since.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
So according to the Internet Polly, they do have a
maximum lift capacity estimated to be up to six kilos.
So that's full flight.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah, So it's actually getting it up off the ground,
over the freeze and ye down the hill.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yeah, absolutely so. There are reports, of course, of lambs
of wallabies weighing six to seven kilos, but that is
likely involving dragging rather than sustained flight.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Bord eagles can lift at most four pounds, with eight
pounds being zero point four to four of kilo one
point six killers.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Well, actually, what's interesting, Holly, is I've got here that
they can lift to four kilos, which would still be
which is still not enough for the Yeah, the Australian
wedgetail they're doing a six to seven kilo lift. So
again I would chalk up the idea to them lifting
up a full grown sheep ala a farmer's dragon. Yeah,
(15:30):
you know, and farmers exaggerate. We all know farmers exaggerator.
I grew up around farmers. Don't tell me they don't.
I grew up with them, all right. And we have
a quote here. When lambing season is underway in South Australia,
a predator from the sky looks likely to add to
the challenges facing sheep farmers. Wedgetailed eagles and Australian native
bird and protective species are swooping to prey on young lambs.
(15:52):
Farmers say the eagles are smart and determined. I watched
a pair of eagles separate a u from one of
per twins said, we're a user. Ellen was protecting one
lamb while trying to work out how to rescue the other,
summarizing and horrifying to what I ended up intervening so
that you could get her lamb safely to the shelter
of the creek. How do you rob that poor eagle
(16:13):
of whose launch determined? Wedge tailed eagles are hunting coffee lambs.
Farmers morn Penny Moorehouse, Norell Graham, and Patricia Ladgrove ABC
R ALL twenty fifth of September twenty one says, and
I'm pretty much I think we side together on this.
They're the native animals in animals or animals, and we
should really not outside of if you're a farmer and
(16:36):
you're protecting your livestock, I can understand that because livestock
is going to be very important for the future of
your family and your farm and your financial solvency. So
in those regards, I understand when farmers intervene. As far
as other people intervening in the predation of animals, I
think it's best just to leave nature big nat leave
(16:58):
it be.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Across the nineteenth and up to the twentieth century, eagles
were hunted, shot and poisoned in large numbers. Now these
were issued in several states, especially in sheep country.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Makes me sad how how so short sighted humans are.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
One day, I'm going to do a table of how
many bounties they were in Australia.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
We're such a rude, aggressive species on our planet. Where
as soon as anything slightly upsets or a fends or
you know, the eagles were there first, we put a
bunch of prey in front of them, we get upset
that they eat the prey, so then we stoot the
(17:36):
animal or poison the animal. And it's exactly the same
as you know, we decide that we're going to go
swimming in the beach, even though we've got plenty of pools,
but we want to go swimming on the beach, and therefore,
if a shark attacks someone in its own environment, we
streot fifteen sharks. And it's really what you know. I've
often been described as what's called poly miss and throat.
(17:58):
That's someone who doesn't have a very positive regard of humanity,
are very positive opinion of humanity. To be fair, they
burned that I think we have and this is a
micro example of much bigger macro aggressions that humans have
perpetrated against the natural world. And it really upsets me
because I, while I am a person who really has
(18:20):
an affinity for animals, I really enjoy animals, I also
understand that they exist in closed system where they have
to eat to survive, and just because they inconvenience us,
that doesn't mean we should go out and murder them.
I mean, it's an old fashioned point of view, I think,
but yeah, I like people.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
No, the old fashion point of view is killed them.
The new fashion point of view is leave them alone.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Yeah, the modernistic view, Yes, you're right.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
We have come forward. Thousands of wedge tails were killed annually.
Has Man Near declared open season. Queensland then followed suit.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
What a shock.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
It wasn't until the nineteen seventies that the eagle gained
illegal protection across most of Australia.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Wedgetail eagles were persecuted for many years for supposedly killing lambs.
Boundaries were offered for dead eagles, and large numbers were
poisoned or shot one hundred and forty seven two hundred
and thirty seven in western Australia in nineteen twenty eight
to nineteen sixty eight, one hundred and sixty two thousand,
four hundred and thirty in Queensland in nineteen fifty one
to nineteen sixty six. Indirect poisoning through dingo, baits and
(19:26):
pesticides continues to be a major hazard. In Tasmania. The
wedgetail eagle is threatened by habitat lost and deliberate persecution.
Quote from wedgetail Eagle, Australian Museum, Melissa Murray, eighth of
February twenty twenty three. I have to ask all of
our residents at Tasmania why the fuck do you hate
your natural environment so fucking much?
Speaker 2 (19:45):
If you didn't like all the animals living there, maybe
grouse of.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
The mainland, why you come here if it's such a
fucking problem. The amount of extinction is terrible both on
mainland in Tasmania. But there's been a lot of fucking
extinction in Tasmania.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
There's a lot further for animals to run to get
out of the way on the mainland.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
So it's fucking terrible. It's tragic.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
The wedge tailed eagle gets its name from its distinctive
pale shape, long and diamond pointed. Unlike any other eagle
on the continent, it's covered in dark brown feathers, often
appearing almost black at a distance. Every time we go
driving and we see one, Matthew goes look an eagle.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
I love it. I love seeing them.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Yeah, juvenile, a little lighter and scruffia gradually darkening as
they ate. Full immature birds are sleek and formidable, with
feathered legs that run right down to the toes, which
is a feature typical of true eagles. So your bald
eagle is bald from the knee down, and your regular
wedge tailed eagle is feathered all the way to the toes.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
You have never quite understood what bald eagle meant because
it has feathers on its head, so I always assume
that the baldness was on the head, but obviously on
the legs.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
It's implied because he's got a white haired hees bald ah.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
That's right, okay.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
I can see that wedgetails are found undercross Mainland Australia,
Pasmania and in southern New Guinea. Their range is vast deserts, forests, grasslands,
mountains and even coastal cliffs if their sky and pray.
Wedgetail eagles will find a way. They're strong flyers, often
seen soaring on thermals for hours at a time, using
(21:17):
hardly a winger.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
We may need to explain thermals as well. Thermals pockets
of hot air that rises up. That's what most birds
use to help them fly, So their wings go out,
the hot air hits the wings, and that helps them
to maintain their elevation. That's right, isn't it? Holy?
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Yes, you animals. I was going to say, any millennial
in the right age group knows exactly what a thermal is.
Wedge showers can reach altitudes over two thousand meters, and
their eyesighters among the sharpest in the animal kingdom. They
have been known to cause birds strike on aeroplanes.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
The wedge tail eagle has long wings. Its wingspan is
two point three meters, a characteristic long wedge powel shaped tail,
and legs that are feathered all the way to the
base of the toes. The bill is pale pink cream,
the eye brown to dark brown, and the feet off whye.
Young wedge tailed eagles amid brown in color with reddish
brown wings and reddish brown heads and wings. They become
(22:15):
progressively blacker for at least the first ten years of
their lives. Adults are mostly dark blackish brown. The only
difference in plumage between the sexes is that a female
adult is generally slightly paler than her mate. Females four
point two kilos to five point three kilos are also
larger and heavier than males at three point two kilos
up to four kilos. Can you imagine something that weighs
(22:38):
five kilossolutely dive bombing from two thousand meters in the
air and hitting you in the head.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Imagine someone dropping your cat on.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
You at velocity speeds by the way, like very very
fast moving animals hitting you in the head with.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Their claws out. So yeah, like someone dropped a cat
on you.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so exactly that. Imagine that I threw
a cat at you from two thousand meters in the sky,
high terminal velocity, and it knows how to target the
softest point on your head.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Yeah, you're going down wedge tails, hunt, live, prey, and
scavenge depending on what's available, which is pretty good when
you're in a drop prone area. Rabbits are a favorite,
so are wallabies, reptiles, birds, and young livestock. If they're
left unguarded. Wedge tails have been known to work in
pairs or even small groups to bring down larger animals,
(23:33):
one bird driving to a flush, the other striking. Basically
one to faint, one to hit. They'll also feast on parion,
particularly roadkill. It's not uncommon to see one hunched over
a kangaroo carcass on a rural highway verge, daring traffic
to blink first.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Going to that dive speed there, Holly, that we're talking about.
Do you know what their dive speed is?
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Somewhere in the vicinity of two hundred and fifty k's
That was a guess animals.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
No, no, you've done. You've done pretty well. It's two
hundred kilometers an hour, or for our American listeners, that's
one hundred and twenty four miles per hour, which is
comparable to the peregrine falcon, which is the world's fastest
bird in a dive. Their average hunting dive is anywhere
between one hundred and fifty to one hundred and eighty
(24:21):
kilometers an hour. So yes, they can see you from
very high up and they can hit you in the
back of the head at one hundred and eighty kilometers
an hour, which is faster than all of the cars
on Australia's roads.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Almost as fast as a motorcycle down a rural highway.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Yeah and then yeah, and then they can pinpoint their attack.
So absolutely brutal, absolutely brutal.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
And we have another quote here.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
The bare facts of these. The wedgetowel eagle is peculiar
to Australia, but it occurs throughout the Commonwealth and neighboring islands.
It rings with the lambergear of Europe, Stella's sea eagle
and the monkey eating eggles of the Philippines. Is one
of the world's largest eagles, exceeding the golden eagle of
Britain and the quote unquote official American bald eagle in
(25:08):
size quote from The Argus, Saturday, thirtieth of July nineteen
fifty five, page forty two. We shouldn't kill the eagle
is not such a bad character, Mister wedgetail eagle is misunderstood.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Despite the reputation, wedge tails don't pose much of the
threat to healthy adult livestock.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Adult livestock. Sorry, I thought you meant human livestock there
for a second.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Shouldn't be telling them about our farms. Back.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
There's a book about that. It's called Tender's the Flesh,
And I give you a massive, massive warning, ladies and gentlemen,
be very careful about reading that fantastic book. Beautifully written,
exceptional storytelling, terribly chilling, horrifying, disgusting, disturbing. It will break
your brain and most likely make you a vegetarian.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Wedgetails have been blamed, but sheep deaths that are more
likely due to illness, predation by other animals, or environmental causes.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Yeah. Well, I mean, as we're established, they just don't
have the lift capacity to pick up a whole layer,
a whole grown sheep and then fly away with it.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
But we have established that they can hit something really,
really hard and just feat it where it lays.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Absolutely, perception this load to catch up with science. Even now,
wedgetowels are occasionally targeted by landowners who viewed them as
a nuisance.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Earlier this century, wedgetail eagles had a campaign mounted against
them by farmers who found them feeding on dead sheep
and cattle to have them cold. Like many of our
native animals, these boundaries became their death warrant. Thousands have
been killed this century in a figure of one hundred
and fifty thousand between nineteen twenty seven and nineteen sixty
eight has given in Western Australia alone. Most of our
(26:47):
magnificent birds are prey killed or injured and left for
dead by people who see wildlife as a threat, a target,
or just a plain nuisance. This is why many of
these types of birds are becoming very scarce in numbers,
and some are now on the endangered space his list
quote from not O Thursday, the twelfth of December nineteen
ninety six, age eight the wedgetowler eagle. Of course I'm
(27:08):
being a bit forlorn, they're saying nineteen ninety six, because
that was such a long time ago and we're still
having these problems.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Wedge tails form lifelong monogamous pairs, defending large territories that
can span over one hundred square kilometers.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
It's interesting a lot of avians have monogamous lifelong pairings.
Swans do swans do? Did? I think ducks?
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Some ducks some ducks. I don't know about geese, but
it feels like they probably do. During courtship, they display
dramatic aerial acrobatics, looping dives, talent grappling, and stick climbs
followed by controlled plummets. These displayers are often visible from
kilometers away. The birds spurling and white arcs are above
their chosen nesting site.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
It's really cool to say, you see yeah, yeah, I've
seen it. Yeah. So, where I grew up in Tuma,
we had a large population of wedgetail eagles, and I
lived on a small property that back directly onto the bush,
so often when we go on big bushwalks, you could
easily look up and find the wedgetail eagles. Rurally, they
used to refer to them as chicken hawks.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Because they didn't know they were the same thing.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
They're the same thing. Yeah, so chicken hawk is not
a thing. You can actually look that up. I'm one
hundred percent positive it's a misidentification in the same way
that people talk about panthers, like there's no such thing
as a panther, right, they're just black jaguars.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Yeah, yeah, melanistic.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Yeah, And I believe it is the same instance here,
is that they refer to wedgetaniel eagles as chicken hawks.
Chicken hawks don't exist.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Chicken hawks are also labeled on a different bird, which
is a colored sparrowhawk. Apparently.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Okay, so chicken hawks don't exist. It's just misidentification.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
It's just random names, like a bunya, everything is a bunyip.
Here's a chicken hawk.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
So yeah, when I was growing up, wedgetail eagles were
referred to as chicken hawks. And because they're just fly
down and eat your chickens, they would it makes sense. Yeah,
they would predate on the chickens on the farms. So yeah,
we were backed onto at least three or four nests. Yeah,
you could look up in the sky and you could
see two of them. It's sort of like it's like
(29:16):
this choreograph sort of dance between the two of them
in the sky, and it's really amazing to see.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah, if do you doubt that?
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Yeah, I grew up around so my area that I
grew up in, we had wombats, you had kangaroos, you
had a wedge tail eagles, plenty of them. What else
was there? And you can see them from very hot
from quite high in the sky too. A kidness we had, yeah, absolutely,
(29:43):
we had a kidness. We didn't have platypus tons of snakes.
Lots of snakes. Yeah, lots of snakes. Yeah, very rarely.
Did you ever come across the platypus.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
When I was a kid, we went camping out near
Golden and I've seen koka barros but that's it.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Yeah, there were more, but we had cooker barrows as well.
Plat a pike here in Queenian than I ever saw
in Truman.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yeah, I don't think I've still seen one here.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
I'm pretty sure we have. We have at least once.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
I think you saw it, and by the time I
spun around it at gone quite probably. Yeah, we have
another quote here.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
A young wedge tailed eagle from the Maria Island has
defined expectations by taking over four years to leave his
parents' territory. Ernie is one of twenty five young eagles
being tracked using GPS devices by researchers from the University
of Tasmania who are working to better understand how to
kill the animal because that's what Tasmanians do. No, that's
not the quote. Who are working to better understand the
(30:37):
movement patterns and survival rates of the birds so they
can shorten The study has found that most leave their
parents' territory around five months after fledging. However, Ernie took
nineteen months to leave his home and another two and
a half years to reach mainland Tasmania. Quote from research
provides rare insight into Tasmanian wedgetail eagles post Tasmania, September eighth,
(30:57):
twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
If you still have a kid living in your basement,
don't worry. You're not the only parent who's dealing with
These eagles also had to deal with it. Their nests
are massive structures made of sticks and lined with leaves
or bark, built high in the fork of a tree
or in a cliff. Some nests are reused for decades,
added to year by year until they reach over two
meters across and weigh several hundred.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Helos used to go find them in the bush, a bear.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Will usually lay one or two eggs per season. Though
only one chick tends to survive the fledging, the stronger
of the two will often dominate or kill its sibling
early on, a grim but efficient strategy common in wraps.
Incubation lasts about forty five days, and both parents contribute
to feeding and protecting the chick. Fledging occurs around three months,
but young birds remain dependent for weeks afterwards. It can
(31:44):
take up to six years for a wedge tail to
reach full maturity. Their life spent in the wild is
difficult to pin down. Some estimates suggest around twenty years,
though in captivity individuals have reached nearly forty.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
The shooting of a wedgetowler eagle in the Tawomba district
is commented upon in the Nature magazine Wildlife in parts
of Australia. The journal says bounties are still page on
wedgetail eagle heads, but in more enlightened areas the tendency
is more and more towards protection as the true significance
of the birds activities is recognized. A weakling lamb or
a sheep that is down may be attacked occasionally by
(32:18):
these birds, but stories of them carrying away whole lambs apocryphal.
On the other hand, they grant the grazier round the
year protection from rabbits and also help to allay the
blowfly st and the observer clearing his mind of prejudice
and hearsay. Taking careful note of the activities of the
wedge tail from close personal observation right throughout the year,
will find for himself that the wedgetail has a healthy
(32:41):
credit balance of good for evil. Quote from Glen Inn's Examiner, Monday,
the eleventh of August nineteen forty seven, page three, in
defense of wedge tail eagle. Now basically what they're saying
here is, yes, they may pick off the occasional lamb
or two, but their overall benefit to you as a
grazier is far more beneficial than it would be if
they were not there. Of course, you cannot tell a
(33:03):
farmer that, because it upsets them.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
I would rather deal with blowfly and rabbits than have
one tiny little lamb taken.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
In the modern era, when it comes to farming, there
are far more farmers out there working on sustainable practices
because they understand the value of not only reintroducing nutrient
rich product back into their farms to make them long
term sustainable farms, but they're also well aware of how
(33:33):
the environment factors around it. It is only the worst
of the worst who still have this attitude, and you'll
find that within the farming community, most farmers do not
respect nor regard those small amount of farmers who actively
engage environmental damage just for the sake of their own convenience.
(33:53):
So most farmers are not going to go out and
kill a wombat because it is made a burrow under
a post, right, that's most farmers. A small subsection of
assholes will go out and kill that wombat for that reason.
So I am being facetious and I don't think that
all Tasmanians are environmental murderers either.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
There's a quiet pride about the wedge tail. It doesn't
squawk or show off its sores, silently for hours surveying
everything beneath it, no matter the time of year or
the heat of the air in the middle of summer.
They are dark colored birds. Remember, in ecological terms, wedge
tiled eagles are apex aerial predators. They help control populations
of rabbits and other invasive species, reduce the spread of
(34:37):
disease by consuming parion, and act as indicators of ecosystem health.
If you're seeing wedgetail eagles in a region, there's usually
enough prey space and habitat left to support them, which
is increasingly rare in modern Australia. The biggest threats to
wedgetilt eagles today aren't really strewters or poisonous, their habitat, loss,
vehicle strikes, and the impact of invasive prey control methods
(34:59):
like eight Eagles that scavenge on poisoned carcasses can die
from secondary poisoning, particularly from substances like ten eighty. Collisions
with cars and wind turbines are also recorded more frequently
now as human infrastructure expands into wild spaces.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
These birds face an uncertain future because of the introduction
of the rabbit callisi virus, as this will reduce their
food supplime. Other causes of their downfall are shooting and poisoning,
drought affected areas, and motor vehicle accidents. When one is
hit by a car, the mate will stay with it,
and this often leads to the death of both birds.
Quote from Notear Thursday the twelfth at December nineteen ninety six,
(35:36):
page eight the wedgetail Eagle.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
That said the wedgetail is a resilient species. Since gaining
protecting in the nineteen seventies, numbers have stabilized in many
areas and are now listed as least concerned in most states.
The conservationists remain wary A large bird like the wedgetail
needs a large territory and pressures on land use are
only increasing. This is especially evident when a collection of
(36:02):
juvenile eagles was found shot on a property in the
New South Wales Riverina only a few weeks ago.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Wedge tell eagles are Australia's largest bird of prey. They
have a wingspan that can reach close to three meters.
Because of their size, the bird's populations are sparse and
on average they only raise one chick to adulthood a year.
The discovery of so many dead juvenile eagles on the
Urrengilly farm has experts worried about the region's population. They
don't sexually mature until they're about seven years old. This
(36:30):
would make a massive impact on the species in that area.
We put so much work into looking after these guys
when they're injured and getting them back out into the sky,
so to find something like this is just heartbreaking. In
a statement, New South Wales Police confirmed officers attached to
Riverine a Police District and now investigating the weekend incident
and searching for those responsible. Wedgetail eagles are a protected
(36:53):
species in Australia and if convicted, offenders can face fines
are up to two years imprisonment. A police officer said
the eagles were discovered on Dollar Value Road. You're on
Gilly around twenty two kilometers southeast of Uni. Quote from
Ozzie Farmer, rocked by very unusual discovery under tree and
quite rural property. Mark L. Dalstrom Yah who Knowews tenth
(37:13):
of April twenty twenty five. So as Holly mentioned, that
only happened last month, there have been no convictions. I
believe they haven't even found out who's done it yet.
Someone is out there bragging about this. Guarantee it they're
talking about it. If you have overheard it, please report
that to crime Stoppers. You can do it anonymously and
(37:34):
that will point people in the right direction. I grew
up in rural communities. There are always going to be
that wrap bag element who think this sort of thing
is fun. So that is exactly what they've done that.
Animals are not there to simply help someone justify their
gratification for killing something. They have committed a crime. So
(37:54):
if you do know anything about it, please make sure
that you forward that onto crime Stoppers. If anyone sends
us in the emails through, don't forget, we are going
to report it back. To the authority. So if you
don't want us to do that, don't email us anything.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
If you want the reward money, do it yourself.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Is the reward money there for.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
That one, I don't know, but some of the other
cases we.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Have, Yeah, that's true, which that is absolutely true. So yeah,
I will happily pass on any information concerning that. It
is absolutely disgusting. I guarantee someone will brag, someone will
mention it on social media. It won't belong before these
people are found out. Hopefully next time they take out
their guns, the messfires and blows off.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Their big toe, only they're big toe.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
I don't want anyone to.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Die in a hand is probably better.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
I don't want anyone to be permanently maimed like that.
It's I'm trying to be nice in my violent retribution,
but no, it's it's fucking disgusting that there's just no
need for it other than someone's gratification.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Especially because they just shot them, laid them out in
a line under a tree, and let them decay like
over time. It wasn't all at once, it was three
or four different weeks. Education around the decimation of species
in this country has helped the eagle regain its former
place in the world. There are now programs aimed at
debunking old myths about steep predation and teachinglandowners to live
(39:10):
alongside raptors, all of them aimed at farmers and in
areas in rural communities known to either subtlely or outright
hostile to the animals. Some rural communities have embraced the
wedge tail as a symbol of local prict It's also
a totem animal in many First Nations groups, a role
not just of spiritual symbolism but ecological guidance. There are
(39:31):
documented cases of wedge tails swooping at hangliders, drones, ultra
light aircraft, and occasionally people. They're not known for attacking
unprovoked lke magpies, But if you magties are provoked, you
came near them in a look, you were slightly closer
to them that you should be. But if you come
too close to a nest or drift into a defended airspace,
(39:53):
you may find yourself suddenly very unwelcome.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
Flint range from the HTD surveyors regularly use drones to
take measurements and remote locations across the state. He has
lost several drones to eagle attacks over the past four years,
and now often brings the second person on the job
to act as a spotter. Yeah, I reckon. I was
pretty lucky the first twenty times I went flying because
there was always a wedgie coming in for a look.
You said, you don't really know if they are just
(40:18):
curious or sometimes they're just really unhappy with you, so
you have to be quite aware. Some are quite targeted.
They will get up above the drone and then dive
bomb it from quite a height, just knock it clean
out of the sky. Other ones will fly straight up
to it and try and have a mid air tussle
as they would with another wedgie. Quo from birds Verse, drones,
wedge Taniel eagles and unmanned aerial vehicles competing for airspace
(40:41):
and Holly just before you wrap it up as well,
I do have a few mentions of the wedgetail eagle
in pop culture if you'll indulge me here for one second. Obviously,
the film Stormboy, both the seventy six that's funny two
weeks in a row that the Stormboy movie is cotte.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
Boy is one of those, and all Australian.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Films yeah, so nineteen seventy six twenty nineteen adaptations. While
of obviously Stormboy focuses on pelicans, the wedge tail eagle
appears as a symbol of the wild and of course
one of the most popular ones known from when we
were very, very young. Holly is one of your films
in your collection, that is The Rescuers Down Under nineteen
(41:21):
ninety though not a wedge tail eagle, Disney's golden Eagle
which doesn't exist called Marrilout Marahuti Marajute was inspired of
course by Australia's wedgetail eagle. We don't have to actually
have birds that little children can ride on with talking
detective mice. Was that where rescuers were there?
Speaker 2 (41:42):
Yes, Bernard and Deianka.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Yeah, two detective mice come to Australia for reasons.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
And the Albert Pross who I think was John Candy, but.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
Question I'm not sure.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
Yeah, it was the detective from the Blues Brothers. I
can't remember. Yeah, that's Strong Candy, ye voice of the
other dress.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
Oh, there you go. It is the official mascot of
the West Coast Eagles, which is a Perth team from
the Australian Football League. You can check out our episodes
on the AFL. They use an eagle logo, though not
fricktly a wedge pail, and I think that is about
it as far as pop culture goes.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
Yeah, yeah, they're a little bit underrepresented in pop culture,
all right.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
And just before we let you go, I did promise
a little bit of a face off here between the
Australian wedgetail eagle versus America's fake eagle, which is the
bald eagle. So wing span for the wedge tail eagle
two point eight meters versus two point three, weight five
(42:48):
point five kilos versus the bald eagle, which actually wins
at six point three. Obviously, the Australian wedge tel eagle
looks cooler and but opinion the beacon talons. The wedgetail
has a strong, deep beak and powerful grip the wedgetail.
The bald eagle has a larger beak which is more
(43:10):
adapted for fishing. So who is the winner? The wedgetail
eagle is longer winged and more agile in flight. The
bald eagle has a stronger beak for piring flesh. I'm
not sure you can determine that one you have to
catch the wordge tail before you can bite it. So
I think the wedge tail is going to just dive
on the shit out of the bald eagle because it's heavier,
(43:32):
it's harder to maneuve. When it comes down to hunting
and diet, the wedgetail eagle is the better hunter and
it takes down larger prey. The bold eagle is more
of an opportunistic feeder. In the category of strength and
fighting ability, the wedge tail eagle wins in a one
v one fight due to aggression and grip strength as
(43:53):
they have stronger talents. Cultural significance, this is an interesting one.
The winner has to be the bald eagle. It's more
tonic globally due to US media dominance. The wedge tanil
eagle is more respected in indigenous and ecological contexts servation status.
The bald eagle is actually the winner here as it's
(44:15):
one of conservation's biggest success stories, because I mean, it
makes sense that if it's your national symbol, you should
fucking protect it, right.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
Unlike us who eat ouse.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
Yeah, but there are lots of them, yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
We picked the common animals so that way we could
get away.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
With each So according to the deep seak Ai, this
is the final verdict. Stronger and more aggressive is the
wedge tail eagle? More famous and symbolic is the bald eagle?
Better hunter? Is the wedge tail eagle? Better at fishing?
Is the bald eagle? In a fine Most experts agree
the wedge tail eagles aggression and grip strength will give
it the edge over a bald eagle in a traditional class.
(44:50):
So there you go. From my hypothetical breakdown. I'm giving
it to the wedgeanil eagle just because it kicked the
ass of the ball bold headed eagle eagle who is
not bald, the white headed thing, the white headed eagle
that is not really even a true eagle. So I
hope I've upset enough Americans now with denigrating your national symbol.
(45:11):
Well that's it from us from the Weak Craft in
Australia podcast. I hope you've enjoyed another look into Australia's
fascinating animal kingdom. If you'd like to reach out to us,
don't forget wee Crap in Australia at gmail dot com.
If you have any tips or information concerning the treating
of those Eagles. You can shoot us an email we
will forward it onto crime Stoppers, or better yet, you
give crime Stoppers shout yourself. You can also let us
(45:33):
know about your stories and encounters with the Wedge Tail
Eagle on a various social media. Just piping week Crap
in Australia into the search bar of the social media
of choice for yourself and we will get back to you.
You can also help out the show with our Patreon
friendly five dollars USD a month you get four bonus
minisodes as well as early access to uncut at free
episodes of the mainline podcast. Thank you so much for
(45:56):
all the support that we've seen recently concerning our Patreon.
It really means a word to us. You can also
grab the Wee Crap In Australia book series voll you
want to find her available now in paperback from our
great mates at impact coomics dot com and if you're
an international listener you can grab that from Lulu dot com.
You can also check out the book series on the
Kindle Store if you prefer digital. And last but not least,
(46:18):
we do have shirts out there. You can find The
Wee Crap In Australia t shirts and other various merchandise
from our Red Bubble and Tea public stores, just like
social media, type in wee crap in Australia into the
search bar on those two websites, and as our custom
week with Polly the final words.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
So, Matthew, this is actually one of our landmark episodes
because it will offecially end year seven. This is the
last episode of year seven. Oh my god, because while
this is only fifty fifty one episodes for this year,
the next series will probably be two or three episodes,
and I don't like splitting them across years.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
So you're calling this the official end of year seven?
Speaker 2 (46:56):
Yes, and the year eight will start with a multi part.
Speaker 1 (46:58):
Series it Jesus Christ, it's nearly a decade.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
Yeah, we're getting there.
Speaker 1 (47:02):
Holy shit, that is insane. Look, we're you know, reflecting
back on the last seven years. I think we started
doing this podcast. As you know, the true intention was
just to basically rip off last podcast on left and
make a localized version of it. You know, they always
say that the true creative genius is the person who
steals and reappropriates. And then over time it became something
(47:24):
that we have used as a platform to you know,
discuss our social history, to discuss our cultural.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
History, reserve some history too.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
Absolutely, and I think over the last seven years it
has helped really define for me what it is to
be an Australian and I hope that it has helped
all of you define what it is to be in Australian.
And you know, after recent developments over the last couple
of years, I have to say that I have more
and more increasing pride not only in my country, but
in the people as well, who have managed to find
(47:55):
off some social challenges that have been introduced by bad
actors in other countries. You know, predominantly the influencer crowd
from America have constantly tried to influence and interfere in
Australian society and cultural values. And I'm very very proud
of my country and my people that we have managed
(48:16):
to collectively stave off those attacks. And as the rest
of the Western world seems too, you know, dalliance and
this sort of thing, every now and again, the Australian
population seems to unanimously say, especially based on you know,
last week's election, that that sort of crap is just
not going to fly here. And you know it makes
me very proud. But in the seven years that we're
(48:38):
doing the podcast, it really has nailed for me exactly
who the Australian people are, where we come from, and
where we're going. And I think that is a wonderful
benefit of having to do this for seven years. And
I think that you know, seven years of work from
any person, Holly, let alone, the amount of work you've
put into the last seven years of weird crap in
Australia is admirable in an itself. I know you've had
(49:01):
a passion for history. While I don't think you're going
to be officially recognized for your contribution to preserving Australian history,
I think you've become the history teacher for many, many,
many people, not only in an educational capacity. Of some
people have said that they have cited or used us
in their term papers, which gets the fasolute shit out
(49:22):
of us. Yes, absolutely, Holly, right there with you. I
think that you have helped to really you know, for me,
you've helped solidify what it means to me to be
an Australian in my history, and I think you've done
that for a lot of other people. So you know,
one of my biggest takeaways is look at what one person,
Holly in this case, can achieve when you know, you
(49:43):
take your passion, you take your education, and you take
a lot of hard work. As I've said before, Holly
usually puts twenty twenty five hours into every single script.
She does it herself. I, you know, occasionally glance over
a script if I have to, But you know, the
last couple of years, your writing style has just gotten
(50:03):
to the point where, you know, I don't really think
I could add anything to it, add any benefit to it.
And you know, yeah, I think it's a testament to
the amount of work that you're capable of. And I
think you should be very, very proud and what you've
put out there. So those are my biggest takeaways from
year seven. And the fact that we did a podcast
just in the middle of crisis after crisis after crisis
(50:25):
after crisis, which is both personal, professional, and environmental and globally.
You know, we've managed to continue to do this every
week for seven years. We've never missed an episode in
seven years. You have had one episode per week for
seven years, and I think that, you know, that's pretty
(50:46):
amazing that we've me produce that body of work. What
have you taken away from seven years?
Speaker 2 (50:50):
How to avoid burnout?
Speaker 1 (50:53):
Have you avoided it.
Speaker 2 (50:55):
Barely by the skin of my teeth quite a few times?
Speaker 1 (50:57):
What tips would you offer people to avoid burnout?
Speaker 2 (51:01):
Find a different aspect of the project and work on that,
because that seems to have helped most especially lately.
Speaker 1 (51:07):
Yeah, when you do get to that point of repetition,
it's good to change things up. That's something new, adds
more value to it. Absolutely well. Thank you so much
for joining us for seven years. Ladies and gentlemen. This
is the Week Crap in Australia podcast, signing off for
the seven years. We'll be back of course next week
for more Week Crap in Australia. Until then, please be safe,
be kind to each other. We'll see you all next
(51:28):
week for more Week crap in Australia for year eight
till then bye for now bye. The Weird Crap In
Australia podcast is produced by Holly and Matthew Soul for
(51:53):
the Modern Meltdown. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please rate
and review on your favorite podcast. Catching Up
A strange, spiraling white light was spotted in the early
morning sky over Sydney, with even skeptical witnesses wondering if
it was a UFO. They were last seen on the
beach with the tall man and that's the best description
police have ever had of it.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
More than seventeen years after Harold Holt disappeared into raging
surf at chevy A Beach, his widow has finally revealed
his last romantic words.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Docky, terrifying, mesmerizing.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
That's the way a number of Australians have described the
alleged encounter with the Yowi.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
It's time for the Weird Crap In Australian Podcast. Welcome
to the Weird Crap In Australia Podcast. I'm your host,
Matthew sol This is episode three hundred and sixty three.
Ladies and gentlemen. We are going back into the world
(00:53):
of fauna, specifically the Badassory that is the Australian Catalog
of Fauna aka animals Pace. I was being too scientific?
Was they being too scientific? Researcher Extraordinary and fellow podcast
post holy soul.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
I mean there are some people who will speak like
that to me. Normally, and I'll just be like, yeah,
that's a normal conversation. Then there are some people who
speak late that to me and they're like, why are
you using big words? So I can't really be a judge.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Well, yeah, one of my favorite sayings is that's a
very big word for this time of night. Very big word. Well, yesterday,
we are going back into the animal kingdom to do
another fun one for you, and we are doing one
that we've threatened for quite some time, which is one
of the most badass raptors in the animal kingdom belongs
here in Australia, and that is the wedge ail eagle.
(01:45):
And yes, our American listeners, we are going to compare
and contrast with your national bird and national emblem and
you're not going to like it. So, without further ado,
Holly take it away, the wedge tael eagle.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
There are birds and then there are birds that fly
so high they make the horizon look like a suggestion.
The wedge tailed eagle is the latter. It's not just
Australia's largest bird of prey, it's one of the biggest
true eagles in the world and it hunts like it
knows it yes to our American listeners, the wedgetail eagle
put in a bald eagle and have space for dessert.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
While wedgetail eagles there are a similar sized to bald eagles,
they are able to kill slightly bigger prey. Bald eagles
tend to feed on fish and small mammals, as well
as reptiles and carry into an extent, but they rarely
target anything bigger than they, say, a raccoon or beaver.
While wedgetail eagles regularly eat similarly sized mammals such as rabbits,
(02:42):
they will also attack kangarooshualas and even goannas. This might
make them more accustomed to targeting diverse and large prey.
Quote from who would win in a fine between a
wedge tailed eagle and a bald eagle? Where's Mountain? August
twenty seven, twenty twenty one the conversation. Now, you may
recall I believably we talked about ol. We talked about
(03:06):
this story when we did the Dingo episode where a
Dingo pup dropped from the sky.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yes, then one of our listeners sent us in a
wonderful little picture of running around with a net waiting
for a puppy to pull out sky for it.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Absolutely send that through some fan art to the Weak
rap in Estralia at gmail email address, So if you
want to send anything through, go for it. Yes, And
it was postulated that this dingo pup had been dropped
from a bird of prey, most lightly a wedged tail eagle,
so we do have incidences of this happening. They will
go through. They will target lambs as well, smallish sheep
(03:42):
as that article just said, also targeting kangaroos. So in
our first of various smackdowns, here would the Australian wegged
tail eagle attack and eat a bald American eagle? Absolutely
it would.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
The wedge toowled eagle Aquila ordux has been part of
the Australian story for tens of thousands of years. First
Nations people have long known and respected the eagle out
of pime Me memorial. For some groups it's a messenger,
in others it's a sky spirit, a judge, or the
bringer of the winds.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
To others, they're the lazy bastards who don't rock up
quickly enough to get gandolf on the Big Tower, or
they're so slow that they don't get to mountain doom
to rescue the tiny little hobbits hanging off the side
of the thing. Isn't that interesting too when you think
about the fantasy depiction of eagles. And I don't know
(04:39):
enough about the behind the scenes production of Lord of
the Rings. So if I get this wrong, you can
come and attack me in the comment section or send
me an email tell me how wrong I am. But
I'm pretty sure that the eagles modeled off of the
wedgetail eagle in the Lord of the Rings.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Well, they're definitely not modeled off the bold eagle.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
No, they're not, absolutely not. And whenever they like giant
eagles in fantasy films and television, I'm pretty sure it's
always modeled off our eagle, says so cool.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I'm just pulling up one of the fan arts for Matthew.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
See that looks to me like the wedgetail eagle. Right,
it's either about you, do you think so?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I feel like it's either a wedgetail or a red
what's Tobias in animals is a falcon?
Speaker 1 (05:24):
No? Isn't?
Speaker 2 (05:25):
No, that's Jakesmore. He's a red redtailed hawk, That's what
he is. So it's either a redtail hawk or it's
a wedge tail eagle. Either way, it's not. The wedgetail
eagle's image appears in Rocker ceremony and oral tradition, and
here is one for Matthew to read.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
This side is one of the most, if not the
most significantly spiritual place along the East coast of Australia.
For the wannarooa people of the Hunter River Valley in
New South Wales, it was created by the all powerful
father figure Byome Picks by me in his human forms,
standing at the head of the valley with his elongated
(06:02):
arms outstretched, indicating to all that what lies before him
he has created and will protect. In Biomi animal form,
he is hey wal the powerful wedge tail eagle totem
of the Winaruru, who watches over his subjects at all
times during the daylight hours. Quote from biomy Cave Conservation
(06:24):
Management Plan, October twenty nineteen GML Heritage.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
The Wilpirie people call it Waloo and associate it with
power movement in the upper world. It was never considered
just an animal. It was a force of nature.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
The Warren Jerry people believed an ancestral wedge tail eagle
called Bungeil created the land. Bungjill originated from a falling star,
and as he fell from the sky, he blew air
from his beak to create the earth we live on today.
He scratched in the soil with his talons and the
first trees and plants started to grow. Took off back
(07:00):
into the sky, and as he was flying, he saw
a small branch from the managum tree lying on the ground.
He swooped on the branch and shook it, creating his brother,
Mindy the snake. Mindy became the law of the land,
and together Mindy and Bunjil created all the animals, including
the kangaroo, koala, hudipus, and echidnap. The last animal to
(07:22):
create it was the Palian, the bat. Palian flew up
into the managum tree, stuck his claw into the trunk,
and slid down to the ground. This cause bark to
fall from the tree, creating the first man, known as Kalim.
After stripping the bark, Paliyan jumped onto a log floating
down the Arrow river, and he called on all the
(07:42):
animals to come in. As he approached the waterfalls around
the Warrandite, he noticed a sapling floating downstream, which he
stuffed into the bottom of the river. All of a sudden,
the mud started to rise, creating a figure of a
human which the animals dragged up onto the bank of
the river. Bungeill the Eagle then blew air upon the figure,
(08:02):
creating Lubra the first woman, and so Callin and Lubra
came together to live as man and wife. When Bungjill
the Eagle passed away, was buried on the land where
Healesville Santry is today. Thousands of years later, a sacred
mountain rose from bung Jill's resting place so his spirit
could return to the sky and he became a star
(08:23):
once again. This dar is called Dara. It comes out
every year to travel across the sky and is most
visible in early spring. If you look closely behind the
Australian Wildlife Health Center at Heelsville Sanctuary, you can still
see the form of Bungjill's wingspan in the curve of
the mountains Mount Riddle. Quote from Bungjill the Eagle Zoo's
(08:45):
Victoria issue. It's interesting there just very very quickly, Holly,
that some of the immigrants that I've spoken to who
have come across from India and who have worked with
indigenous people here in Australia. Yeah, did you know that
they do believe that they share common ancestry.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I mean, if you look at the way the world
works and the way that genes work, yes, that is true.
So I understand that. Yes, But usually most people don't
like to be associated or to be compared to other people.
They like to have their people and their world and
their culture.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
But it's sort of interesting just going through that little
story there that I recognize some similar syntax. Is that
the right word in some of the words, some Indian words,
and some of their words in that story sound very
very similar in the way they're pronounced.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
I mean, I believe that the Aboriginal people's root language,
like all of them, have shared a language and begin
with I believe that came down through India. So it
wouldn't surprise me if they're associated, just like German English
and Polish or all the same.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, that's what I was sort of thinking, that a
similar root language there. Now look to be perfectly honest
with everyone, as you guys are would know, I'm an atheist.
I hold everyone's religion.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
In it's equal level yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
It's all equal to me. You know, everyone has their
own life philosophy. I have mine, you have yours. I'm
happy as long as everyone's happy. But I will always
approach those sort of things from an outside perspective, whether
I'm talking about Catholicism or indigenous beliefs or Indian Hinduism
or whatnot. I look for the links that join up
(10:29):
our culture. So just bringing that up so you don't
take offense. It's not meant to be intended as an
offensive thing. I'm not dismissing anyone's religious beliefs, but based
on my own life philosophy, I look for those interesting
links because I find it interesting. It's definitely not something
where I'm trying to offend anyone, just in case anyone
was offended.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
There is also the element of the first Man and
the first Woman, which is in a lot of stories
all over the world.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
That I found interesting as well, because then you would
draw obvious comparisons to Adam and Eve and the Garden
of Eden in.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
The creation of the First Woman.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
So no, it was Lilith. Lilith was eventually expelled from
Eden and she became one of the Denzians of Hell
with her two sons, multiple sons, multiple sons. They were
the sons of Adam. Yeah, yes, very interesting. If you
ever watched the anime, even Gallian, there's plenty of stuff
in there that they incorporated from those quieter or more
(11:28):
forgotten aspects of religion.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Those supernatural everyone's done it.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
The reason that you find the commonalities of first man,
first woman in all sorts of religious belief systems is
because of the need to simplify origins for understanding. Religion
was a fantastic learning tool for humanity, and in my opinion,
(11:55):
as someone who has delved into looking at you know,
from again educational understanding point of view on it. If
you look at the you know, the Testament of Jesus Christ,
you look at Hinduism, Buddhism, you look at a range
of religions and philosophies, there's always something interesting to take
(12:17):
out of them, because at the end of the day,
religion also functions as a life philosophy, and you can
take bits and pieces from all of them and create
your own philosophy that your own set of morality, as
it were. Pop culture also functions in very similar.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Fashion, and that's how you start a cult.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Yeah, absolutely. So you know, when I'm ready to start
that eventual cult, Holy, I'll let you know. I'll incorporate
a little bit of comic book law into there as well,
which happens now all the time too. We're starting to
see the rise of artificial intelligent cults too. It's fun. Yeah. No,
his name's not Jesus, it's that Salvation figure two point zero.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
European colonists didn't share that respect for the eagle at first.
Early records described wedgetails as a menace to livestock, and
they were treated accordingly. The eagle was officially first described
in eight and oh one by English ornithologists John Latham
under the name volter Odux the bold vulture, marking it
as a member of the same genus which now only
(13:19):
holds the Andean condor. The eagle was later revised into
its own genus Oroatus, and was later reclassified again.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Trouble because the broad classification of all these birds is
a raptor.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Right, Yeah, so they're all eagles, But there are true eagles,
which are the wedge tails, and then there are not
true eagles, which is the bald eagle.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Oh okay, all right, well, strike.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Trouble for the birds started almost as soon as the
Europeans arrived. With a sheep. Wedge tails have been known
to fly off with baby lambs weighing up to fifteen
kiloes and sometimes even fully grown fifty kilo sheep with
a help from their mate.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
That's that's a lot of lift power of brew. You
can't trust farmers.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Drag it across the ground. Yeah, you can do that,
lifting it up and flying away with it. Probably not
so much.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Yeah, because I mean, we've been to plenty of zoos
where they've done the bird shows, and you really do
get a feel for these animals.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Some of them are a lot bigger than you think
they are.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Because let me, while you're continuing there, Holly, let me
see if I can find a little bit of information
on its lift capacity.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
This of course led to the eagles to conflict with
the farmers of the settlements. This hasn't stopped since.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
So according to the Internet Polly, they do have a
maximum lift capacity estimated to be up to six kilos.
So that's full flight.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah, So it's actually getting it up off the ground,
over the freeze and ye down the hill.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yeah, absolutely so. There are reports, of course, of lambs
of wallabies weighing six to seven kilos, but that is
likely involving dragging rather than sustained flight.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Bord eagles can lift at most four pounds, with eight
pounds being zero point four to four of kilo one
point six killers.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Well, actually, what's interesting, Holly, is I've got here that
they can lift to four kilos, which would still be
which is still not enough for the Yeah, the Australian
wedgetail they're doing a six to seven kilo lift. So
again I would chalk up the idea to them lifting
up a full grown sheep ala a farmer's dragon. Yeah,
(15:30):
you know, and farmers exaggerate. We all know farmers exaggerator.
I grew up around farmers. Don't tell me they don't.
I grew up with them, all right. And we have
a quote here. When lambing season is underway in South Australia,
a predator from the sky looks likely to add to
the challenges facing sheep farmers. Wedgetailed eagles and Australian native
bird and protective species are swooping to prey on young lambs.
(15:52):
Farmers say the eagles are smart and determined. I watched
a pair of eagles separate a u from one of
per twins said, we're a user. Ellen was protecting one
lamb while trying to work out how to rescue the other,
summarizing and horrifying to what I ended up intervening so
that you could get her lamb safely to the shelter
of the creek. How do you rob that poor eagle
(16:13):
of whose launch determined? Wedge tailed eagles are hunting coffee lambs.
Farmers morn Penny Moorehouse, Norell Graham, and Patricia Ladgrove ABC
R ALL twenty fifth of September twenty one says, and
I'm pretty much I think we side together on this.
They're the native animals in animals or animals, and we
should really not outside of if you're a farmer and
(16:36):
you're protecting your livestock, I can understand that because livestock
is going to be very important for the future of
your family and your farm and your financial solvency. So
in those regards, I understand when farmers intervene. As far
as other people intervening in the predation of animals, I
think it's best just to leave nature big nat leave
(16:58):
it be.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Across the nineteenth and up to the twentieth century, eagles
were hunted, shot and poisoned in large numbers. Now these
were issued in several states, especially in sheep country.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Makes me sad how how so short sighted humans are.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
One day, I'm going to do a table of how
many bounties they were in Australia.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
We're such a rude, aggressive species on our planet. Where
as soon as anything slightly upsets or a fends or
you know, the eagles were there first, we put a
bunch of prey in front of them, we get upset
that they eat the prey, so then we stoot the
(17:36):
animal or poison the animal. And it's exactly the same
as you know, we decide that we're going to go
swimming in the beach, even though we've got plenty of pools,
but we want to go swimming on the beach, and therefore,
if a shark attacks someone in its own environment, we
streot fifteen sharks. And it's really what you know. I've
often been described as what's called poly miss and throat.
(17:58):
That's someone who doesn't have a very positive regard of humanity,
are very positive opinion of humanity. To be fair, they
burned that I think we have and this is a
micro example of much bigger macro aggressions that humans have
perpetrated against the natural world. And it really upsets me
because I, while I am a person who really has
(18:20):
an affinity for animals, I really enjoy animals, I also
understand that they exist in closed system where they have
to eat to survive, and just because they inconvenience us,
that doesn't mean we should go out and murder them.
I mean, it's an old fashioned point of view, I think,
but yeah, I like people.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
No, the old fashion point of view is killed them.
The new fashion point of view is leave them alone.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Yeah, the modernistic view, Yes, you're right.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
We have come forward. Thousands of wedge tails were killed annually.
Has Man Near declared open season. Queensland then followed suit.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
What a shock.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
It wasn't until the nineteen seventies that the eagle gained
illegal protection across most of Australia.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Wedgetail eagles were persecuted for many years for supposedly killing lambs.
Boundaries were offered for dead eagles, and large numbers were
poisoned or shot one hundred and forty seven two hundred
and thirty seven in western Australia in nineteen twenty eight
to nineteen sixty eight, one hundred and sixty two thousand,
four hundred and thirty in Queensland in nineteen fifty one
to nineteen sixty six. Indirect poisoning through dingo, baits and
(19:26):
pesticides continues to be a major hazard. In Tasmania. The
wedgetail eagle is threatened by habitat lost and deliberate persecution.
Quote from wedgetail Eagle, Australian Museum, Melissa Murray, eighth of
February twenty twenty three. I have to ask all of
our residents at Tasmania why the fuck do you hate
your natural environment so fucking much?
Speaker 2 (19:45):
If you didn't like all the animals living there, maybe
grouse of.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
The mainland, why you come here if it's such a
fucking problem. The amount of extinction is terrible both on
mainland in Tasmania. But there's been a lot of fucking
extinction in Tasmania.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
There's a lot further for animals to run to get
out of the way on the mainland.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
So it's fucking terrible. It's tragic.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
The wedge tailed eagle gets its name from its distinctive
pale shape, long and diamond pointed. Unlike any other eagle
on the continent, it's covered in dark brown feathers, often
appearing almost black at a distance. Every time we go
driving and we see one, Matthew goes look an eagle.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
I love it. I love seeing them.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Yeah, juvenile, a little lighter and scruffia gradually darkening as
they ate. Full immature birds are sleek and formidable, with
feathered legs that run right down to the toes, which
is a feature typical of true eagles. So your bald
eagle is bald from the knee down, and your regular
wedge tailed eagle is feathered all the way to the toes.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
You have never quite understood what bald eagle meant because
it has feathers on its head, so I always assume
that the baldness was on the head, but obviously on
the legs.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
It's implied because he's got a white haired hees bald ah.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
That's right, okay.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
I can see that wedgetails are found undercross Mainland Australia,
Pasmania and in southern New Guinea. Their range is vast deserts, forests, grasslands,
mountains and even coastal cliffs if their sky and pray.
Wedgetail eagles will find a way. They're strong flyers, often
seen soaring on thermals for hours at a time, using
(21:17):
hardly a winger.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
We may need to explain thermals as well. Thermals pockets
of hot air that rises up. That's what most birds
use to help them fly, So their wings go out,
the hot air hits the wings, and that helps them
to maintain their elevation. That's right, isn't it? Holy?
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Yes, you animals. I was going to say, any millennial
in the right age group knows exactly what a thermal is.
Wedge showers can reach altitudes over two thousand meters, and
their eyesighters among the sharpest in the animal kingdom. They
have been known to cause birds strike on aeroplanes.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
The wedge tail eagle has long wings. Its wingspan is
two point three meters, a characteristic long wedge powel shaped tail,
and legs that are feathered all the way to the
base of the toes. The bill is pale pink cream,
the eye brown to dark brown, and the feet off whye.
Young wedge tailed eagles amid brown in color with reddish
brown wings and reddish brown heads and wings. They become
(22:15):
progressively blacker for at least the first ten years of
their lives. Adults are mostly dark blackish brown. The only
difference in plumage between the sexes is that a female
adult is generally slightly paler than her mate. Females four
point two kilos to five point three kilos are also
larger and heavier than males at three point two kilos
up to four kilos. Can you imagine something that weighs
(22:38):
five kilossolutely dive bombing from two thousand meters in the
air and hitting you in the head.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Imagine someone dropping your cat on.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
You at velocity speeds by the way, like very very
fast moving animals hitting you in the head with.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Their claws out. So yeah, like someone dropped a cat
on you.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so exactly that. Imagine that I threw
a cat at you from two thousand meters in the sky,
high terminal velocity, and it knows how to target the
softest point on your head.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Yeah, you're going down wedge tails, hunt, live, prey, and
scavenge depending on what's available, which is pretty good when
you're in a drop prone area. Rabbits are a favorite,
so are wallabies, reptiles, birds, and young livestock. If they're
left unguarded. Wedge tails have been known to work in
pairs or even small groups to bring down larger animals,
(23:33):
one bird driving to a flush, the other striking. Basically
one to faint, one to hit. They'll also feast on parion,
particularly roadkill. It's not uncommon to see one hunched over
a kangaroo carcass on a rural highway verge, daring traffic
to blink first.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Going to that dive speed there, Holly, that we're talking about.
Do you know what their dive speed is?
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Somewhere in the vicinity of two hundred and fifty k's
That was a guess animals.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
No, no, you've done. You've done pretty well. It's two
hundred kilometers an hour, or for our American listeners, that's
one hundred and twenty four miles per hour, which is
comparable to the peregrine falcon, which is the world's fastest
bird in a dive. Their average hunting dive is anywhere
between one hundred and fifty to one hundred and eighty
(24:21):
kilometers an hour. So yes, they can see you from
very high up and they can hit you in the
back of the head at one hundred and eighty kilometers
an hour, which is faster than all of the cars
on Australia's roads.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Almost as fast as a motorcycle down a rural highway.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Yeah and then yeah, and then they can pinpoint their attack.
So absolutely brutal, absolutely brutal.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
And we have another quote here.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
The bare facts of these. The wedgetowel eagle is peculiar
to Australia, but it occurs throughout the Commonwealth and neighboring islands.
It rings with the lambergear of Europe, Stella's sea eagle
and the monkey eating eggles of the Philippines. Is one
of the world's largest eagles, exceeding the golden eagle of
Britain and the quote unquote official American bald eagle in
(25:08):
size quote from The Argus, Saturday, thirtieth of July nineteen
fifty five, page forty two. We shouldn't kill the eagle
is not such a bad character, Mister wedgetail eagle is misunderstood.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Despite the reputation, wedge tails don't pose much of the
threat to healthy adult livestock.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Adult livestock. Sorry, I thought you meant human livestock there
for a second.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Shouldn't be telling them about our farms. Back.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
There's a book about that. It's called Tender's the Flesh,
And I give you a massive, massive warning, ladies and gentlemen,
be very careful about reading that fantastic book. Beautifully written,
exceptional storytelling, terribly chilling, horrifying, disgusting, disturbing. It will break
your brain and most likely make you a vegetarian.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Wedgetails have been blamed, but sheep deaths that are more
likely due to illness, predation by other animals, or environmental causes.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Yeah. Well, I mean, as we're established, they just don't
have the lift capacity to pick up a whole layer,
a whole grown sheep and then fly away with it.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
But we have established that they can hit something really,
really hard and just feat it where it lays.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Absolutely, perception this load to catch up with science. Even now,
wedgetowels are occasionally targeted by landowners who viewed them as
a nuisance.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Earlier this century, wedgetail eagles had a campaign mounted against
them by farmers who found them feeding on dead sheep
and cattle to have them cold. Like many of our
native animals, these boundaries became their death warrant. Thousands have
been killed this century in a figure of one hundred
and fifty thousand between nineteen twenty seven and nineteen sixty
eight has given in Western Australia alone. Most of our
(26:47):
magnificent birds are prey killed or injured and left for
dead by people who see wildlife as a threat, a target,
or just a plain nuisance. This is why many of
these types of birds are becoming very scarce in numbers,
and some are now on the endangered space his list
quote from not O Thursday, the twelfth of December nineteen
ninety six, age eight the wedgetowler eagle. Of course I'm
(27:08):
being a bit forlorn, they're saying nineteen ninety six, because
that was such a long time ago and we're still
having these problems.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Wedge tails form lifelong monogamous pairs, defending large territories that
can span over one hundred square kilometers.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
It's interesting a lot of avians have monogamous lifelong pairings.
Swans do swans do? Did? I think ducks?
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Some ducks some ducks. I don't know about geese, but
it feels like they probably do. During courtship, they display
dramatic aerial acrobatics, looping dives, talent grappling, and stick climbs
followed by controlled plummets. These displayers are often visible from
kilometers away. The birds spurling and white arcs are above
their chosen nesting site.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
It's really cool to say, you see yeah, yeah, I've
seen it. Yeah. So, where I grew up in Tuma,
we had a large population of wedgetail eagles, and I
lived on a small property that back directly onto the bush,
so often when we go on big bushwalks, you could
easily look up and find the wedgetail eagles. Rurally, they
used to refer to them as chicken hawks.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Because they didn't know they were the same thing.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
They're the same thing. Yeah, so chicken hawk is not
a thing. You can actually look that up. I'm one
hundred percent positive it's a misidentification in the same way
that people talk about panthers, like there's no such thing
as a panther, right, they're just black jaguars.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Yeah, yeah, melanistic.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Yeah, And I believe it is the same instance here,
is that they refer to wedgetaniel eagles as chicken hawks.
Chicken hawks don't exist.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Chicken hawks are also labeled on a different bird, which
is a colored sparrowhawk. Apparently.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Okay, so chicken hawks don't exist. It's just misidentification.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
It's just random names, like a bunya, everything is a bunyip.
Here's a chicken hawk.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
So yeah, when I was growing up, wedgetail eagles were
referred to as chicken hawks. And because they're just fly
down and eat your chickens, they would it makes sense. Yeah,
they would predate on the chickens on the farms. So yeah,
we were backed onto at least three or four nests. Yeah,
you could look up in the sky and you could
see two of them. It's sort of like it's like
(29:16):
this choreograph sort of dance between the two of them
in the sky, and it's really amazing to see.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah, if do you doubt that?
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Yeah, I grew up around so my area that I
grew up in, we had wombats, you had kangaroos, you
had a wedge tail eagles, plenty of them. What else
was there? And you can see them from very hot
from quite high in the sky too. A kidness we had, yeah, absolutely,
(29:43):
we had a kidness. We didn't have platypus tons of snakes.
Lots of snakes. Yeah, lots of snakes. Yeah, very rarely.
Did you ever come across the platypus.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
When I was a kid, we went camping out near
Golden and I've seen koka barros but that's it.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Yeah, there were more, but we had cooker barrows as well.
Plat a pike here in Queenian than I ever saw
in Truman.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yeah, I don't think I've still seen one here.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
I'm pretty sure we have. We have at least once.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
I think you saw it, and by the time I
spun around it at gone quite probably. Yeah, we have
another quote here.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
A young wedge tailed eagle from the Maria Island has
defined expectations by taking over four years to leave his
parents' territory. Ernie is one of twenty five young eagles
being tracked using GPS devices by researchers from the University
of Tasmania who are working to better understand how to
kill the animal because that's what Tasmanians do. No, that's
not the quote. Who are working to better understand the
(30:37):
movement patterns and survival rates of the birds so they
can shorten The study has found that most leave their
parents' territory around five months after fledging. However, Ernie took
nineteen months to leave his home and another two and
a half years to reach mainland Tasmania. Quote from research
provides rare insight into Tasmanian wedgetail eagles post Tasmania, September eighth,
(30:57):
twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
If you still have a kid living in your basement,
don't worry. You're not the only parent who's dealing with
These eagles also had to deal with it. Their nests
are massive structures made of sticks and lined with leaves
or bark, built high in the fork of a tree
or in a cliff. Some nests are reused for decades,
added to year by year until they reach over two
meters across and weigh several hundred.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Helos used to go find them in the bush, a bear.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Will usually lay one or two eggs per season. Though
only one chick tends to survive the fledging, the stronger
of the two will often dominate or kill its sibling
early on, a grim but efficient strategy common in wraps.
Incubation lasts about forty five days, and both parents contribute
to feeding and protecting the chick. Fledging occurs around three months,
but young birds remain dependent for weeks afterwards. It can
(31:44):
take up to six years for a wedge tail to
reach full maturity. Their life spent in the wild is
difficult to pin down. Some estimates suggest around twenty years,
though in captivity individuals have reached nearly forty.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
The shooting of a wedgetowler eagle in the Tawomba district
is commented upon in the Nature magazine Wildlife in parts
of Australia. The journal says bounties are still page on
wedgetail eagle heads, but in more enlightened areas the tendency
is more and more towards protection as the true significance
of the birds activities is recognized. A weakling lamb or
a sheep that is down may be attacked occasionally by
(32:18):
these birds, but stories of them carrying away whole lambs apocryphal.
On the other hand, they grant the grazier round the
year protection from rabbits and also help to allay the
blowfly st and the observer clearing his mind of prejudice
and hearsay. Taking careful note of the activities of the
wedge tail from close personal observation right throughout the year,
will find for himself that the wedgetail has a healthy
(32:41):
credit balance of good for evil. Quote from Glen Inn's Examiner, Monday,
the eleventh of August nineteen forty seven, page three, in
defense of wedge tail eagle. Now basically what they're saying
here is, yes, they may pick off the occasional lamb
or two, but their overall benefit to you as a
grazier is far more beneficial than it would be if
they were not there. Of course, you cannot tell a
(33:03):
farmer that, because it upsets them.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
I would rather deal with blowfly and rabbits than have
one tiny little lamb taken.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
In the modern era, when it comes to farming, there
are far more farmers out there working on sustainable practices
because they understand the value of not only reintroducing nutrient
rich product back into their farms to make them long
term sustainable farms, but they're also well aware of how
(33:33):
the environment factors around it. It is only the worst
of the worst who still have this attitude, and you'll
find that within the farming community, most farmers do not
respect nor regard those small amount of farmers who actively
engage environmental damage just for the sake of their own convenience.
(33:53):
So most farmers are not going to go out and
kill a wombat because it is made a burrow under
a post, right, that's most farmers. A small subsection of
assholes will go out and kill that wombat for that reason.
So I am being facetious and I don't think that
all Tasmanians are environmental murderers either.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
There's a quiet pride about the wedge tail. It doesn't
squawk or show off its sores, silently for hours surveying
everything beneath it, no matter the time of year or
the heat of the air in the middle of summer.
They are dark colored birds. Remember, in ecological terms, wedge
tiled eagles are apex aerial predators. They help control populations
of rabbits and other invasive species, reduce the spread of
(34:37):
disease by consuming parion, and act as indicators of ecosystem health.
If you're seeing wedgetail eagles in a region, there's usually
enough prey space and habitat left to support them, which
is increasingly rare in modern Australia. The biggest threats to
wedgetilt eagles today aren't really strewters or poisonous, their habitat, loss,
vehicle strikes, and the impact of invasive prey control methods
(34:59):
like eight Eagles that scavenge on poisoned carcasses can die
from secondary poisoning, particularly from substances like ten eighty. Collisions
with cars and wind turbines are also recorded more frequently
now as human infrastructure expands into wild spaces.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
These birds face an uncertain future because of the introduction
of the rabbit callisi virus, as this will reduce their
food supplime. Other causes of their downfall are shooting and poisoning,
drought affected areas, and motor vehicle accidents. When one is
hit by a car, the mate will stay with it,
and this often leads to the death of both birds.
Quote from Notear Thursday the twelfth at December nineteen ninety six,
(35:36):
page eight the wedgetail Eagle.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
That said the wedgetail is a resilient species. Since gaining
protecting in the nineteen seventies, numbers have stabilized in many
areas and are now listed as least concerned in most states.
The conservationists remain wary A large bird like the wedgetail
needs a large territory and pressures on land use are
only increasing. This is especially evident when a collection of
(36:02):
juvenile eagles was found shot on a property in the
New South Wales Riverina only a few weeks ago.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Wedge tell eagles are Australia's largest bird of prey. They
have a wingspan that can reach close to three meters.
Because of their size, the bird's populations are sparse and
on average they only raise one chick to adulthood a year.
The discovery of so many dead juvenile eagles on the
Urrengilly farm has experts worried about the region's population. They
don't sexually mature until they're about seven years old. This
(36:30):
would make a massive impact on the species in that area.
We put so much work into looking after these guys
when they're injured and getting them back out into the sky,
so to find something like this is just heartbreaking. In
a statement, New South Wales Police confirmed officers attached to
Riverine a Police District and now investigating the weekend incident
and searching for those responsible. Wedgetail eagles are a protected
(36:53):
species in Australia and if convicted, offenders can face fines
are up to two years imprisonment. A police officer said
the eagles were discovered on Dollar Value Road. You're on
Gilly around twenty two kilometers southeast of Uni. Quote from
Ozzie Farmer, rocked by very unusual discovery under tree and
quite rural property. Mark L. Dalstrom Yah who Knowews tenth
(37:13):
of April twenty twenty five. So as Holly mentioned, that
only happened last month, there have been no convictions. I
believe they haven't even found out who's done it yet.
Someone is out there bragging about this. Guarantee it they're
talking about it. If you have overheard it, please report
that to crime Stoppers. You can do it anonymously and
(37:34):
that will point people in the right direction. I grew
up in rural communities. There are always going to be
that wrap bag element who think this sort of thing
is fun. So that is exactly what they've done that.
Animals are not there to simply help someone justify their
gratification for killing something. They have committed a crime. So
(37:54):
if you do know anything about it, please make sure
that you forward that onto crime Stoppers. If anyone sends
us in the emails through, don't forget, we are going
to report it back. To the authority. So if you
don't want us to do that, don't email us anything.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
If you want the reward money, do it yourself.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Is the reward money there for.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
That one, I don't know, but some of the other
cases we.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Have, Yeah, that's true, which that is absolutely true. So yeah,
I will happily pass on any information concerning that. It
is absolutely disgusting. I guarantee someone will brag, someone will
mention it on social media. It won't belong before these
people are found out. Hopefully next time they take out
their guns, the messfires and blows off.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Their big toe, only they're big toe.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
I don't want anyone to.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Die in a hand is probably better.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
I don't want anyone to be permanently maimed like that.
It's I'm trying to be nice in my violent retribution,
but no, it's it's fucking disgusting that there's just no
need for it other than someone's gratification.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Especially because they just shot them, laid them out in
a line under a tree, and let them decay like
over time. It wasn't all at once, it was three
or four different weeks. Education around the decimation of species
in this country has helped the eagle regain its former
place in the world. There are now programs aimed at
debunking old myths about steep predation and teachinglandowners to live
(39:10):
alongside raptors, all of them aimed at farmers and in
areas in rural communities known to either subtlely or outright
hostile to the animals. Some rural communities have embraced the
wedge tail as a symbol of local prict It's also
a totem animal in many First Nations groups, a role
not just of spiritual symbolism but ecological guidance. There are
(39:31):
documented cases of wedge tails swooping at hangliders, drones, ultra
light aircraft, and occasionally people. They're not known for attacking
unprovoked lke magpies, But if you magties are provoked, you
came near them in a look, you were slightly closer
to them that you should be. But if you come
too close to a nest or drift into a defended airspace,
(39:53):
you may find yourself suddenly very unwelcome.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
Flint range from the HTD surveyors regularly use drones to
take measurements and remote locations across the state. He has
lost several drones to eagle attacks over the past four years,
and now often brings the second person on the job
to act as a spotter. Yeah, I reckon. I was
pretty lucky the first twenty times I went flying because
there was always a wedgie coming in for a look.
You said, you don't really know if they are just
(40:18):
curious or sometimes they're just really unhappy with you, so
you have to be quite aware. Some are quite targeted.
They will get up above the drone and then dive
bomb it from quite a height, just knock it clean
out of the sky. Other ones will fly straight up
to it and try and have a mid air tussle
as they would with another wedgie. Quo from birds Verse, drones,
wedge Taniel eagles and unmanned aerial vehicles competing for airspace
(40:41):
and Holly just before you wrap it up as well,
I do have a few mentions of the wedgetail eagle
in pop culture if you'll indulge me here for one second. Obviously,
the film Stormboy, both the seventy six that's funny two
weeks in a row that the Stormboy movie is cotte.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
Boy is one of those, and all Australian.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Films yeah, so nineteen seventy six twenty nineteen adaptations. While
of obviously Stormboy focuses on pelicans, the wedge tail eagle
appears as a symbol of the wild and of course
one of the most popular ones known from when we
were very, very young. Holly is one of your films
in your collection, that is The Rescuers Down Under nineteen
(41:21):
ninety though not a wedge tail eagle, Disney's golden Eagle
which doesn't exist called Marrilout Marahuti Marajute was inspired of
course by Australia's wedgetail eagle. We don't have to actually
have birds that little children can ride on with talking
detective mice. Was that where rescuers were there?
Speaker 2 (41:42):
Yes, Bernard and Deianka.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Yeah, two detective mice come to Australia for reasons.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
And the Albert Pross who I think was John Candy, but.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
Question I'm not sure.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
Yeah, it was the detective from the Blues Brothers. I
can't remember. Yeah, that's Strong Candy, ye voice of the
other dress.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
Oh, there you go. It is the official mascot of
the West Coast Eagles, which is a Perth team from
the Australian Football League. You can check out our episodes
on the AFL. They use an eagle logo, though not
fricktly a wedge pail, and I think that is about
it as far as pop culture goes.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
Yeah, yeah, they're a little bit underrepresented in pop culture,
all right.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
And just before we let you go, I did promise
a little bit of a face off here between the
Australian wedgetail eagle versus America's fake eagle, which is the
bald eagle. So wing span for the wedge tail eagle
two point eight meters versus two point three, weight five
(42:48):
point five kilos versus the bald eagle, which actually wins
at six point three. Obviously, the Australian wedge tel eagle
looks cooler and but opinion the beacon talons. The wedgetail
has a strong, deep beak and powerful grip the wedgetail.
The bald eagle has a larger beak which is more
(43:10):
adapted for fishing. So who is the winner? The wedgetail
eagle is longer winged and more agile in flight. The
bald eagle has a stronger beak for piring flesh. I'm
not sure you can determine that one you have to
catch the wordge tail before you can bite it. So
I think the wedge tail is going to just dive
on the shit out of the bald eagle because it's heavier,
(43:32):
it's harder to maneuve. When it comes down to hunting
and diet, the wedgetail eagle is the better hunter and
it takes down larger prey. The bold eagle is more
of an opportunistic feeder. In the category of strength and
fighting ability, the wedge tail eagle wins in a one
v one fight due to aggression and grip strength as
(43:53):
they have stronger talents. Cultural significance, this is an interesting one.
The winner has to be the bald eagle. It's more
tonic globally due to US media dominance. The wedge tanil
eagle is more respected in indigenous and ecological contexts servation status.
The bald eagle is actually the winner here as it's
(44:15):
one of conservation's biggest success stories, because I mean, it
makes sense that if it's your national symbol, you should
fucking protect it, right.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
Unlike us who eat ouse.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
Yeah, but there are lots of them, yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
We picked the common animals so that way we could
get away.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
With each So according to the deep seak Ai, this
is the final verdict. Stronger and more aggressive is the
wedge tail eagle? More famous and symbolic is the bald eagle?
Better hunter? Is the wedge tail eagle? Better at fishing?
Is the bald eagle? In a fine Most experts agree
the wedge tail eagles aggression and grip strength will give
it the edge over a bald eagle in a traditional class.
(44:50):
So there you go. From my hypothetical breakdown. I'm giving
it to the wedgeanil eagle just because it kicked the
ass of the ball bold headed eagle eagle who is
not bald, the white headed thing, the white headed eagle
that is not really even a true eagle. So I
hope I've upset enough Americans now with denigrating your national symbol.
(45:11):
Well that's it from us from the Weak Craft in
Australia podcast. I hope you've enjoyed another look into Australia's
fascinating animal kingdom. If you'd like to reach out to us,
don't forget wee Crap in Australia at gmail dot com.
If you have any tips or information concerning the treating
of those Eagles. You can shoot us an email we
will forward it onto crime Stoppers, or better yet, you
give crime Stoppers shout yourself. You can also let us
(45:33):
know about your stories and encounters with the Wedge Tail
Eagle on a various social media. Just piping week Crap
in Australia into the search bar of the social media
of choice for yourself and we will get back to you.
You can also help out the show with our Patreon
friendly five dollars USD a month you get four bonus
minisodes as well as early access to uncut at free
episodes of the mainline podcast. Thank you so much for
(45:56):
all the support that we've seen recently concerning our Patreon.
It really means a word to us. You can also
grab the Wee Crap In Australia book series voll you
want to find her available now in paperback from our
great mates at impact coomics dot com and if you're
an international listener you can grab that from Lulu dot com.
You can also check out the book series on the
Kindle Store if you prefer digital. And last but not least,
(46:18):
we do have shirts out there. You can find The
Wee Crap In Australia t shirts and other various merchandise
from our Red Bubble and Tea public stores, just like
social media, type in wee crap in Australia into the
search bar on those two websites, and as our custom
week with Polly the final words.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
So, Matthew, this is actually one of our landmark episodes
because it will offecially end year seven. This is the
last episode of year seven. Oh my god, because while
this is only fifty fifty one episodes for this year,
the next series will probably be two or three episodes,
and I don't like splitting them across years.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
So you're calling this the official end of year seven?
Speaker 2 (46:56):
Yes, and the year eight will start with a multi part.
Speaker 1 (46:58):
Series it Jesus Christ, it's nearly a decade.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
Yeah, we're getting there.
Speaker 1 (47:02):
Holy shit, that is insane. Look, we're you know, reflecting
back on the last seven years. I think we started
doing this podcast. As you know, the true intention was
just to basically rip off last podcast on left and
make a localized version of it. You know, they always
say that the true creative genius is the person who
steals and reappropriates. And then over time it became something
(47:24):
that we have used as a platform to you know,
discuss our social history, to discuss our cultural.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
History, reserve some history too.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
Absolutely, and I think over the last seven years it
has helped really define for me what it is to
be an Australian and I hope that it has helped
all of you define what it is to be in Australian.
And you know, after recent developments over the last couple
of years, I have to say that I have more
and more increasing pride not only in my country, but
in the people as well, who have managed to find
(47:55):
off some social challenges that have been introduced by bad
actors in other countries. You know, predominantly the influencer crowd
from America have constantly tried to influence and interfere in
Australian society and cultural values. And I'm very very proud
of my country and my people that we have managed
(48:16):
to collectively stave off those attacks. And as the rest
of the Western world seems too, you know, dalliance and
this sort of thing, every now and again, the Australian
population seems to unanimously say, especially based on you know,
last week's election, that that sort of crap is just
not going to fly here. And you know it makes
me very proud. But in the seven years that we're
(48:38):
doing the podcast, it really has nailed for me exactly
who the Australian people are, where we come from, and
where we're going. And I think that is a wonderful
benefit of having to do this for seven years. And
I think that you know, seven years of work from
any person, Holly, let alone, the amount of work you've
put into the last seven years of weird crap in
Australia is admirable in an itself. I know you've had
(49:01):
a passion for history. While I don't think you're going
to be officially recognized for your contribution to preserving Australian history,
I think you've become the history teacher for many, many,
many people, not only in an educational capacity. Of some
people have said that they have cited or used us
in their term papers, which gets the fasolute shit out
(49:22):
of us. Yes, absolutely, Holly, right there with you. I
think that you have helped to really you know, for me,
you've helped solidify what it means to me to be
an Australian in my history, and I think you've done
that for a lot of other people. So you know,
one of my biggest takeaways is look at what one person,
Holly in this case, can achieve when you know, you
(49:43):
take your passion, you take your education, and you take
a lot of hard work. As I've said before, Holly
usually puts twenty twenty five hours into every single script.
She does it herself. I, you know, occasionally glance over
a script if I have to, But you know, the
last couple of years, your writing style has just gotten
(50:03):
to the point where, you know, I don't really think
I could add anything to it, add any benefit to it.
And you know, yeah, I think it's a testament to
the amount of work that you're capable of. And I
think you should be very, very proud and what you've
put out there. So those are my biggest takeaways from
year seven. And the fact that we did a podcast
just in the middle of crisis after crisis after crisis
(50:25):
after crisis, which is both personal, professional, and environmental and globally.
You know, we've managed to continue to do this every
week for seven years. We've never missed an episode in
seven years. You have had one episode per week for
seven years, and I think that, you know, that's pretty
(50:46):
amazing that we've me produce that body of work. What
have you taken away from seven years?
Speaker 2 (50:50):
How to avoid burnout?
Speaker 1 (50:53):
Have you avoided it.
Speaker 2 (50:55):
Barely by the skin of my teeth quite a few times?
Speaker 1 (50:57):
What tips would you offer people to avoid burnout?
Speaker 2 (51:01):
Find a different aspect of the project and work on that,
because that seems to have helped most especially lately.
Speaker 1 (51:07):
Yeah, when you do get to that point of repetition,
it's good to change things up. That's something new, adds
more value to it. Absolutely well. Thank you so much
for joining us for seven years. Ladies and gentlemen. This
is the Week Crap in Australia podcast, signing off for
the seven years. We'll be back of course next week
for more Week Crap in Australia. Until then, please be safe,
be kind to each other. We'll see you all next
(51:28):
week for more Week crap in Australia for year eight
till then bye for now bye. The Weird Crap In
Australia podcast is produced by Holly and Matthew Soul for
(51:53):
the Modern Meltdown. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please rate
and review on your favorite podcast. Catching Up
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