Bald eagle drops cat carcass onto driver’s windshield in bizarre incident

A driver inside North Carolina told a dispatcher that a cat carcass had crashed into her windshield on a highway after the cat was knocked out of the sky by a bald eagle.

The woman called 911 Wednesday morning to report the incident and said a bald eagle dropped the cat on the passenger side of her windshield on U.S. Route 74 in Swain County near Bryson City, about 65 miles southwest of Asheville.

It is unclear whether the cat slipped from the eagle’s claws or was dropped intentionally.

“You may not believe me, but I just witnessed a bald eagle throw a cat through my windshield,” the driver said in the 911 call. “My windshield is completely shattered.”

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The dispatcher calmly replied, “Okay. Honestly, I believe you,” before laughing.

The driver said another person also saw the cat fall from the sky.

“He says, ‘This is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.’ I’m like, ‘Really?'” the driver said.

The dispatcher replied, “Oh my God. Let’s see. I’ve heard crazier things.”

“Well, that’s scary,” the caller replied, prompting even more nervous laughter from the dispatcher.

After getting the driver’s location, the dispatcher said she would send that Highway Police create a report.

“One more question. Is the cat still alive?” the dispatcher asked.

The cat was not alive and the caller said the cat was on the side of the road and not in their vehicle.

“Okay, I have to ask, just to be sure,” the dispatcher said.

Kendrick Weeks of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission said the cat could have been a roadkill that was grabbed by the eagle.

“But they can accommodate animals the size of a cat,” he said. “It’s much harder for them to take in a live cat than one dead cat. They usually don’t hunt anything they don’t find tasty. And feeding is a common behavior in bald eagles.”

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Weeks said eagles and other birds of prey may drop their prey for several reasons, including because they have difficulty holding on or if the prey is biting or otherwise struggling and the birds want to avoid injury.

Prey may also be dropped if a bird of prey is harassed by another bird or if the prey becomes too heavy to carry.

Some birds of prey also drop their prey to kill it, but this tactic is uncommon among bald eagles.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.