The big black Hawks that I often spotted haunting the skies as a child were birds that have always fascinated me. As birds of prey, Hawks can be ruthless. They are avid hunters who are notorious for carrying away animals as big as baby sheep and foxes! So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that some Hawks can even hunt and eat sloths!
Being of the Accipitridae family, Hawks are widely distributed and are found on all continents except Antarctica. Sloths are beautiful creatures that we know of due to their slowness and the fact that they look exceptionally interesting when they hang upside down from trees! While they are very friendly, it still does not mean that they do not attack when provoked.
However, they are still quite slow, and Hawks being opportunist hunters, won’t miss out on fresh and easy prey when they chance upon one.
What Type Of Hawk Eats Sloths?
Don’t get me wrong, sloths aren’t hawks’ favorite meal. For starters, they are pretty rare! You only find about 1500 sloths in the wild, all six living species combined! So, even for hawks’ they are not a common meal.
So, what is it that attracts hawks to sloths? As you may know, hawks don’t shy away from eating dead animals. However, they prefer the fresh kill. So, even if sloths aren’t their favorite meal, a slow meal that is fresh is too tempting to resist, especially for the Barred Hawks.
Barred Hawk’s Favorite Prey
When talking about the most common type of prey that attacks the sloths, the Barred Hawks come into mind. It is the most dangerous type of hawk and they eat Sloths. They can be found in the tropical forests of Central and South America.
The barred hawk diet consists of small animals which most of the time are very weak in their defenses. Reptiles and invertebrates are also included but most of the time, these hawks eat birds, frogs, and fish as they mostly circle and hunt around the riverine areas to find these weaker animals.
Sloths are one of the barred hawks’ favorite prey, and studies have shown that it is known to kill and eat them when they are high up in the trees.
The Hawk’s eyesight is one special feature that enables it to catch prey, and even from a distance, they are able to seek out their prey and swoop in swiftly for the kill. Barred hawks are known to use their sharp sense of sight vision to detect potential prey, while they themselves are all the way up on some tall tree.
Barred Hawks tend to fly down swiftly and grab the animal with their sharp claws, flying away immediately just in case there are predators around that would want to also move in to grab the hawk.
Do Hawks Hunt Sloths?
A particular study found that sloths make up 2% of the diet of one species of hawk in the wild. Sometimes, hawks don’t seek sloths as their next meal, they are absolutely capable of hunting and killing these animals just because they see them as weak and incapable of defending themselves which sometimes they are.
Sloths are small and they move slowly while living in the trees of Central and South America where the hawks are mostly known to build their nests and live with their young ones. From this position, they can adequately seek out these Sloths and target them for their next kill.
Sloths are not known for their agility, but they sure know how to hide! Their perfect camouflage saves them from being detected by birds of prey. They have strong grips that help them to hang upside down from branches for long periods of time, which usually run through the house.
These combinations of traits make them very difficult for predators to spot and catch. This in itself gives the hawks a very difficult time especially when they are on a hunt for these animals. However, Barred Hawks being sharp and lethal hunters, often make short work of hunting sloths.
Can Hawks Pick Up Sloths?
Hawks are one possible enemy of sloths, but they typically hunt smaller animals such as rodents or birds. Sometimes, a hawk may pick up a sloth.
Sometimes, it’s possible for a hawk to grab a sloth with its claws, but the sloth’s grip and its weight most time make it very difficult for the hawk to fly away with its prey which has seen them most of the time dropping the sloths mid-flight because their weight is too heavy for the hawk to carry.
In cases when this happens, and the sloths become severely injured, the hawks fly down to finish off the kill on land, while also making sure that there is no bigger prey that might want to attack them.
As a result of this and because they do not want to be the next meal for a bigger predator, most hawks will quickly give up and move on to an easier target.
In all of this, the chances of a sloth being an easy target for hawks is on a fifty-fifty scale because while hawks move to sloths as their last meal and option, in cases where the birds can not find much smaller prey, the sloths on their own will not give these birds an easy time during their moment of kill.
Do Hawks Eat Dead Sloths?
Studies have shown that hawks prefer to hunt live prey. However, they will eat dead animals when the necessity arises.
So, if Hawks eat dead sloths, it won’t be super shocking, even though it is not a typical part of their food. They would only eat sloth carcasses when they no longer have any choice.
It’s been proven that these birds only feed on animals that are small enough to fit wholly inside their mouths, so a sloth might be too big for a hawk to eat in one go. This means that there might be leftovers, which they might end up eating themselves if they have nothing else to eat.
Conclusion
The chances of a sloth being eaten by hawks are not one hundred percent certain, as there are certain factors that might be against this. However, some hawks do eat sloths, particularly, the Barred Hawks.
Barred hawks, though vicious and swift, surely do not have an easy time with sloths as their prey which no doubt gives the bird a hard time in the battle for dominance.
Still, at the end of the day, being a dangerous bird of prey, these Hawks can end up hunting and eating the sloth they set their sights on.
