[PW] A moping period for eagles?

[Ellen Cousins]

Here is part of a sermon I found online that discusses eagles "moping."

-> *****************
->
-> The Moping Period
-> Now I am coming to the most serious part of this message. Some eagles go
-> through a phase, which is known as the moping period, some- where
-> between thirty to thirty-five years of age. What do they do? They quit
-> utilizing the power that God has put in them. They quit flying and go
-> down in the wilderness, and some eagles never get out.
->
-> That eagle that could once fly at one hundred thirty-seven miles per
-> hour can only fly at approximately thirty-seven miles per hour in the
-> wilderness. A chalky substance starts to build up on its beak, and it is
-> not able to eat or breathe properly anymore. When that happens, it is
-> not able to fly like it used to. The longer it stays in the wilderness,
-> the worse it gets. I do not know what makes an eagle go down into the
-> valley, but for some unknown reason, some of them do...
->
-> ...During this moping period, a mucus starts to build up in the eagle's
-> eyes; this closes up the tear ducts so that it is not able to cry
-> anymore. (This has happened to a lot of Christian people. They have been
-> down in the wilderness so long that they cannot even shed a tear.)
->
-> When eagles get down in the wilderness, other eagles that once were
-> there and know what they are going through will come along and drop
-> fresh pieces of meat down to them, day after day. They want them to gain
-> the strength to get up out of there. Those eagles down in the wilderness
-> are too weak to go out and kill fresh meat for themselves...
->
-> *****************
http://www.heart-talks.com/kindofbird.html  [The quoted section is from 
page 2]
->
I have sent a more complete answer to Kevin, but a birder I know 
responded to the query this way:

***
Well, eagles rarely live to be 30-35 years old, except in captivity.
This sounds like an allegory for how an eagle dies of old age.  I've
never heard it called a "moping period", but chalky buildup could
be analogous to tooth tartar (I've never heard of it on birds, though)
and eye mucus/tear duct mucus from clogging in old age is a late-in-life
sign for a lot of animals.

As for other eagles feeding them, that's clearly BS.  I don't know of
a more selfish bird...

Purely as an allegory, it stretches a lot of points, and makes others
up, but I guess that is required to make the point.
***

HTH

Ellen C.


Kevin W. Woodruff wrote:
 > List:
 >
 > I have a professor that is trying to reseach the factuality of a the 
tale that an adult eagle goes through a time of inactivity called the 
"moping period." He's found it used in sermons, but needs to confirm the 
details. does anyone have any sort of idea if this "urban legend" is in 
fact true?
 >
 >
 > Kevin
 >
 > Prof. Kevin W. Woodruff, M.Div., M.S.I.S.
 > Library Director/Reference Librarian, Assistant Professor of Bible, 
Greek, Theological Bibliography and Research
 > Tennessee Temple University/Temple Baptist Seminary, 1815 Union Ave.
 > Chattanooga, Tennessee 37404, United States of America
 > 423/493-4252 (office) 423/698-9447 (home) 423/493-4497 (FAX)
 > Cierpke at prodigy.net http://pages.prodigy.net/cierpke/woodruff.htm