close encounters

Sam and I have started our round of this year's summer Ultimate tournament circuit, making our debut at the St. Louis Classic last weekend. This tournament marks the two year anniversary of our time with the Madtown Boozehounds, so despite the fact that it was an eight hour drive, we had to go.

Along the way down, we had a strange experience. Sam was driving down the highway, when we both noticed a big bird far ahead landing in the middle of the road to scavenge some road kill. As we approached, we realized it was a bald eagle, and unlike the usual scavenging vultures, it soon became apparent that this eagle did not realize it should move for oncoming traffic.

Sam slammed on the breaks, but a bald eagle is a large, slow-starting bird. It seemed to hover for a brief second directly in front of our vehicle, wingspan stretching across the entire windshield. I don't think we hit it, but Sam thinks he might have clipped a wingtip as its down sweep just pushed it clear of a massive collision. I looked behind us as we continued on, and the eagle seemed to be flying well. Sam and I's heartbeats, however, took a while to return to normal.

This made us wonder, do animals get an adrenaline rush from dangerous situations?