From the responses it seems quite plausable that the two birds became locked
during a talon-grappling display. It just seems a bit dumb to have as part
of your display an act that could result in death. Not a good evolutionary
design.
Unless they were two males fighting? (but, one was bigger than the other
suggesting they were a pair). I don't know of any other way to tell the
sexes apart other than genetic?
It is unfortunate that the incident occured last September without my
knowledge as i would have passed the birds on to Mike Cannon (avian vet) at
Wollongong for a thorough analysis as Marian suggested. No one could tell
me what happened to the samples that were sent away for further analysis.
It seems to me that the vets performed the procedure more as a duty rather
than to find the true cause of death. They were told previous to the
autopsy that poison was suspected. The birds have been passed on for
"educational purposes". I should probably chase the issue further.
It is possible they died from poison. Perhaps they had fed on something
together a few days earlier and the toxin delivered its final fatal results
at the same time? Interestingly the folk from Foxground organised somebody
to shoot and trap the foxes in the valley rather than use 1080 poison (He
got 56 foxes in 16 nights using night vision gear, recordings of cubs, traps
and a Judas Fox!).
Has anybody ever heard of raptors plumeting to the earth during a
talon-grappling display?
cheers
mike
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