I've mentioned once before how i literally work out in the middle of nowhere for my job in Nothingland, Nebraska. I was in my truck for over an hour waiting for a construction crew to finish what they were doing so i could do my job. While waiting, i saw a BIG eagle swoop down and grab a rabbit. It flew straight up with it and then intentionally dropped it. The fall killed the rabbit immediately. Then the eagle flew back down to it and started to feast on it.

I started thinking about the Thunderbird and how it could probably do that to a cow. One cow could certainly be a meal that it could live off of for quite awhile. Then i started to think about the cow mutilations that are blammed on UFO's. The reason they are blammed on UFO's is because the cows are shown to have broken bones as if they were picked up and dropped. Then sections of the cow are "removed" for scientific reserch for the Aliens. What if the cows were just eaten by a large bird in that section?

Furthermore, i did a little Google searching and found that the Emu (which is a LARGE flightless bird) has properties of "oxindole" in it's saliva. Oxindole was found in the wounds of a mutilated cow in a science lab. However, they also concluded that the cow must've been drugged since traces of oxindole was found. Oxindole can be manufactured in sedatives.

The problem I have with this argument is the fact that most cattle mutilations usually involve more 'surgical' removal of certain organs, blood and sometimes skins. I would think that any type of large raptor would eat a carcass at random and that researchers would easily be able to identify marks on the remains as having been made by a bird's beak.

I am afraid I miss your point concerning the emu - are you trying to suggest that perhaps the Thunderbird also has oxindole in its saliva? Because the emu is native to Australia and there is no way they would be able to bring down anything the size of cattle.

Having said that, I have actually read accounts of cattle mutilation sites where the beast was believed to have been dropped from high altitudes. I suppose it would be interesting to plot the location of cattle mutilations against known Thunderbird sightings and see what you get. I still think, though, that the carcasses would show more evidence of raptor involvement if this were the case. I don't think a Thunderbird would eat specific organs, or exsanguinate the cattle.

Where did you find that picture?

Ok, so the Thunderbirds have laser-beam surgical tools. What's so hard to believe about...hey, come back. Where's everybody going?

Problem with the link there. Copy and paste the whole thing, not just the red part.

If they "carried off the cow", there wouldn't be a corpse to investigate, right? Also, aren't the cuts very precise in most cases? Otherwise, more common predators would be to blame I'd think.

We know large (really large) birds existed in the Americas after the last ice age. Some could have survived I suppose, to at least the earlier indians' time, so the inspiration for the legend could be genuine.

But, these probably died out before the white man came. Just an opinion.