Having spent many summers as a youngster helping to ring white-tailed eagles, Audun had long wondered how their deadly aerial strikes appear to their prey.
To find out, he attached a camera to the sea floor and tethered a floating fish nearby as bait. After three years refining this set-up, Audun finally captured this millisecond moment. When hunting, white-tailed eagles swoop low over the water looking for fish, hovering just for an instant before snatching their find in their talons. Small spikes, called spicules, on the underside of their feet give added grip on the slippery prey.
Norway
Audun is a photographer and full-time professor of biology at the Arctic University of Norway. Growing up in a small fishing community in northern Norway, he developed a lifelong fascination with the Arctic's rough landscape, culture and wildlife, both above and below the ocean's surface. He uses his fieldwork photography to inspire his students and to draw attention to the science.
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