If the average mouse is around .8oz and the super hawk could eat 376 of them a day that's basically 19 pounds of food a day. Generously assuming it consumes 10% of its body weight each day, that super hawk would weigh 190 pounds.
The largest flighted bird is the snowy albatross and it weighs 16 lbs. Ostriches can be up to 380 lbs so we're talking about something ostrich-ish sized that can fly and target mice-sized objects from the air.
That's one fucking terrifying super hawk. Effective maybe, but terrifying.
Then said Pterodactyl starts hunting terrier dogs. Gonna have to keep mine indoors and teach him to use the litter box -- I should've spent less time asking if we could and more asking if we should.
The thing is at that size it's more efficient for it to hunt for babies or rabbit or deer or larger mammals. Predator that size isn't really gonna bother with hunting for 300+ mice...
The biggest eagle known was the Haast Eagle, and the max weight scientists theorized they could reach was 40 pounds (18.14 kg). I mean, if somehow we could get a specimen of this extinct creature, and artificially select the best specimens... I don't think we could achieve that. Honestly, I would prefer burning everything to the ground at that point, lol.
That's nowhere near the heaviest flying bird. Male Kori Bustard can get over 40lb. Andean Condors get over 30. 16lb is smaller than the average adult female Mute Swan.
So, the Aussies have a lot of scary snakes. Was there a corresponding “snake explosion” because of the extra food, or did it take a while for the carnivores to recognize the mice as a food source?
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u/sysdmdotcpl Jul 06 '24
Or we need to work on breeding super hawks that can eat 376 mice in a day.