This is unbelievable footage. A BBC natural history film crew filmed an attack on a white reindeer calf by a golden eagle. The Sami — reindeer herders in Finland — had told researchers that this could happen but it has never been documented on film before. Although the golden eagle is not the largest eagle in the area — the white-tailed eagle is larger — the golden eagle is more agressive. The Samis say that it is usually immature goldens attacking the calves. And they usually attack the white calves rather than the tan or brown ones.
This is from BBC Earth News:
“One eagle was filmed swooping down and grabbing a calf, while another pulled out of an attack at the last minute.
A BBC natural history film crew gathered the extraordinary footage along a reindeer migration route in northern Finland.
It finally proves this eagle species does occasionally hunt reindeer, something suggested by forensic evidence and the local Sami people.
The crew filmed the behaviour while capturing footage of the reindeer migration for the BBC natural history series Life, though the images were shot at too far a distance to be included in the final cut of the high definition programme. . . (click here to read more and see the video).
Falconer on the Edge 