You never really appreciate how, well, wild the wild truly is until you see it for yourself. And these pictures of a Golden Eagle attacking and taking down a deer are a glimpse into just that.

Researchers in the far eastern part of Russia set out camera traps to attempt to capture images of the endangered Siberian Tiger, but what they found instead was truly shocking.

While it's not necessarily rare for eagles to attack other animals (one eagle was even reported to killing a brown bear cub), getting it on camera like this certainly is. These three pictures, which only cover a two-second period, show an adult golden eagle attacking and taking down a young sika deer.

"I saw the deer carcass first as I approached the trap on a routine check to switch out memory cards and change batteries, but something felt wrong about it. There were no large carnivore tracks in the snow, and it looked like the deer had been running and then just stopped and died." said lead author Dr. Linda Kerley of ZSL, who runs the camera trap project. "It was only after we got back to camp that I checked the images from the camera and pieced everything together. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.”

Here are the pictures (may be unsuitable for some, be advised):

Wildlife Conservation Society
Wildlife Conservation Society
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Wildlife Conservation Society
Wildlife Conservation Society
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Wildlife Conservation Society
Wildlife Conservation Society
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