Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom’ was a fantastic show hosted by Marlin Perkins that introduced American viewers to fascinating animals. The show was aided by naturalists Jim Fowler and Stan Brock.
Many of the shows were filmed in the animals’ natural habitat from 1963 to 1971. In this episode, Marlin sits next to an eagle and says, “Eagles have captured man’s imagination since early times. To me, this is one of the most spectacular faces in all the wild kingdom.’
‘The Romans used the golden figure of an eagle to stand for strength, skill, and bravery.’ He informs the TV audience that an eagle’s talons are as strong as the teeth of a big cat, and its wings are made for soaring. It enables eagles to float on air currents for hours, searching for their prey.
It is also called the ‘Mountain Eagle’ and is found throughout the Northern hemisphere. In Southern Idaho, along the Snake River, there is a family of eagles the show focuses on. It has the heaviest population of golden eagles in the world.
They named it ‘The Valley of Eagles,’ and huge cliffs by the Snake River allow the eagles to have great nesting places. Also, the broad valley of cliffs helps with updrafts so the eagles can glide more easily.
This is where the eagles do most of their hunting. The family the show focused on had three eggs hatched and a father and mother who were raising them. They stayed and watched the eagles; three tiny white puffs started moving in the nest, and the baby eagles were born.
The mother eagle saw a bull snake near the nest, swooped down from her children, attacked the snake, and killed it. She twisted the snake’s backbone with her beak. The footage is incredible, and viewers were treated to a rare view of an eagle family, thanks to Marlin and his team.
