An eagle's eye

Spectacular footage of Australia's north west desert region has been captured, inadvertently, by a sea eagle that 'stole' a video camera and took it for a 70-mile flight.The lens recorded the bird's flapping wings - in sound and vision - the crevasses it flew through, the desert it crossed and finally the amusing moments when it landed and began pecking at the device.The motion-sensor camera had been set up by Aboriginal rangers in a gorge near the Margaret River last May in the hope of capturing images of fresh-water crocodiles.But within weeks the camera had disappeared. No-one, they agreed, would dare to steal it from croc territory, so they believed it had somehow fallen into the water.Then, just a few weeks ago, ranger Roneil Skeen and his colleagues received a message from a Parks and Wildlife ranger saying a small device had been found near another river more than 70 miles away.The video camera revealed the identity of the thief and just where the scoundrel had taken it.Rangers were able to extract three 30-second clips that showed the juvenile sea eagle scooping up the camera and taking to the air with it, capturing amazing scenes of the Australian outback.When the camera was eventually deposited on firm ground, the eagle can be seen approaching the lens and pecking at it.'There are 14 of us rangers and we've been pretty amazed at what we've seen on the camera,' said Mr Skeen, a member of the Gooniyandi Aboriginal tribe.'We've had camera traps moved by animals before, but none of them have taken off - a sort of flying camera. It was quite incredible to see it'.Mr Skeen told the ABC: 'We knew this was a juvenile eagle because the adult sea eagles, once they get their food or their prey, they usually take it right up into the sky and drop it.'But this one was still learning because he just took it near the cliff-side and he never dropped it. He just put it down and started pecking at it.'An adult one would have flown it right up the top and yeah, for sure, it would have smashed that camera.' It won't happen again, said Mr Skeen. He and his colleagues have resolved to bolt their camera down next time.(dailymail.co.uk)ANN.Az