>From the "Offbeat" section of the ABC News website.
The 4.6 metre wingspan exceeds that of the largest known eagle, the Pouakai
(Harpogornis moorei - aka Haast Eagle or New Zealand Eagle) which had a 3m
wingspan and weighed 13 kg. Giant eagles also feature in mythology - the
Thunderbird of North America; the Roc in "Arabian Nights"; Garuda, the
mount of Vishnu; Gwaihir, the eagle that rescued Gandalf from Isengard. ;-)
An interesting story, even if it's "just" a Steller's.
----
Saturday, October 19, 2002. Posted: 17:17:32 (AEDT)
Mystery giant bird spotted in Alaska - paper
A bird the size of a small airplane has been spotted flying over south-west
Alaska, puzzling scientists, the Anchorage Daily News reported this week.
The newspaper quoted residents in the villages of Togiak and Manokotak as
saying the creature had a wingspan of 4.6 metres, making it the size of a
small airplane.
"At first I thought it was one of those old-time Otter planes," the paper
quoted Moses Coupchiak, 43, a heavy equipment operator from Togiak,
as saying.
"Instead of continuing toward me, it banked to the left, and that's when
I noticed it wasn't a plane."
The Daily News, the largest daily paper in Alaska, said scientists had
no doubt that people in the region, west of Dillingham, had seen the
winged creature but they were sceptical about its reported size.
"I'm certainly not aware of anything with a 14-foot wingspan that's been
alive for the last 100,000 years," the paper quoted raptor specialist
Phil Schemf as saying.
Coupchiak said the bird disappeared over the hill and he then radioed
Togiak residents to tell them to keep their children in.
Another local resident, a pilot who had initially dismissed the reports,
said he recently saw the bird from a distance of just 300 metres while
flying his airplane.
"The people in the plane saw him," John Bouker was quoted as saying. "He's
huge, he's huge, he's really, really big. You wouldn't want to have your
children out."
Schemf and Rob Macdonald of the US Fish and Wildlife Service said there had
been several sightings over the past year and a half of a Steller's eagle,
a fish-eating bird that can weigh 10 kilograms and have a wingspan of
2.6 metres, the newspaper reported.
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Paul Taylor Veni, vidi, tici -
I came, I saw, I ticked.
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