ABOVE: A southern crested caracara
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In 1833, a young Charles Darwin met an animal in the Falkland Islands that he couldn’t explain: a large, social, strangely inquisitive bird of prey that looked and acted like a cross between an eagle and a raven. Birds of this species were “tame and curious,” Darwin wrote, and they seemed to be studying him: they stared intently at human visitors with wide, dark eyes, and he watched in amazement as they stole hats, compasses, and other items from the crew of the HMS Beagle.
Sealers and whalers who frequented the Falklands were well acquainted with the birds and their antics. Some called them “flying devils” or “flying monkeys,” and one marooned sailor declared them “the most mischievous of all the feathered creation.” Darwin was intrigued by them, and couldn’t understand why they were confined to a remote corner of the globe. “This ...
