Martial eagles with a wingspan of nearly 2 m target young lions on the African grassland despite the risk of being discovered and attacked by the mother lion.
In December 2012, guides in the Maasai Mara national reserve in Kenya witnessed a series of killings targeting one of the grassland’s top predators. An adult martial eagle followed a herd of lions for weeks, waiting for the right opportunity to swoop down and kill a total of three young lions. “The eagle was actually targeting the lion,” said R. Stratton Hatfield, a doctoral student at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
Although lions can dominate the territory around them, this incident and many similar cases show that African lions (Panthera leo) are not always at the top of the food chain. In fact, the martial eagle (A warlike Polemaetus) are more likely to hunt young lions when given the opportunity, according to research by Hatfield and colleagues published in the journal Ecology and Evolution.
The martial eagle’s wingspan can be more than 1.8 meters long. Adult female eagles weigh more than 4.5 kg while males usually weigh about 3.2 kg. Although similar in size and ecology to golden eagles, martial eagles often kill larger prey. They swoop down and sink their sharp claws into the spine behind their prey’s skull, sometimes taking down young impalas or gazelles that are heavier than they are.
Only recently did Hatfield’s team discover that martial eagles also hunt other predators. The research team collected information on seven cases, including a 2012 incident that depicted a martial eagle hunting young lions, leading to the deaths of seven cubs and one near-fatal death. Hatfield suspects the majority of cases involved adult female eagles, although two cases involved juvenile eagles. The earliest case occurred in 2008, when a photographer photographed an eagle eating a freshly killed young lion, while the most recent case occurred in 2023, when a safari guide saw a juvenile eagle The city killed a lion so big that it could not be released.
Despite their aerial hunting skills, martial eagles are often at risk of being counterattacked. In one failed attempt, the martial lion swooped down to capture the 6-week-old lion right next to its mother. The female lion sensed danger and jumped up to attack the eagle. The eagle dodged the attack and failed to catch the young lion. Hatfield speculated he did not see the lioness.
Amy Dikeman, a conservation biologist at Oxford University in the UK, is not surprised that eagles continuously target young lions if the tactic is successful. Dikeman is the head of Lion Landscapes, a nonprofit organization focused on harmonious coexistence between humans and wildlife in Kenya and Tanzania. She thinks that the conclusions of Hatfield and colleagues are quite reasonable. According to her, eagles are just a threat that lions have to confront just like hyenas or male lions from rival prides. Eagles are not a conservation threat to big cats. Martial eagles are not picky about their prey. Some even capture the young of cheetahs and leopards. Risks often come from both sides. Lions can also hunt adult or young eagles in the nest.
The martial eagle is an endangered species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Like other large birds of prey in Africa, they suffer from habitat loss, poaching, electrocution and persecution.