Check out these unbelievable photos taken by a camera trap in the Russian Far East. The camera was set up to photograph Siberian tigers for a study, and instead captured a Golden Eagle taking down a 88-100 pound deer.

Linda Kerley and Jonathan Slaght authored a paper published in the Journal of Raptor Research, on Monday. They said this could be the first documentation of such an incredible attack. They wrote:

In 11 [years] of our investigations of ungulate kills in the southern Russian Far East, this is the first time we observed evidence of a Golden Eagle killing any deer species, despite locating hundreds of carcasses during that time and assessing cause of death.

Kerley said their big question is how did this Eagle manage to kill the deer. They are not sure if it was a lucky hit, the Eagle’s talons or if the deer just dropped from stress.

Slaght said the most likely scenario is that the Eagle used it’s talons to make puncture wounds in the deer:

Birds of prey usually use their talons to kill. They don’t want to risk eye injury by going after something still alive with their beaks.

[Source: NPR]