Largest eagle prey

The largest prey recorded for any eagle is a young male specimen of the Venezuelan red howler monkey Alouatta seniculus, weighing 7 kg, which was killed and carried off by a South American harpy eagle Harpia harypyja in Peru's Manu National Park in 1990. An extremely powerful species, the harpy eagle also regularly kills and eats sloths weighing up to 5 kg. In comparison, this species' own weight is generally no more than 9 kg in the wild, so in the case of the howler monkey its prey was almost as heavy (if not as heavy) as the eagle itself!

The harpy eagle is named after the harpies of Greek mythology. These were a trio of monstrous winged beasts with the feathered wings and powerful talons of eagles or vultures (depictions and descriptions differ between sources) but the faces of evil hags.