Video Of Eagle Nearly Snatching A Baby Turns Out To Be A Fake

Yesterday, I shared this viral video of a golden eagle attempting to snatch a baby up in its talons. Well, it turns out that it was, indeed, a complete fabrication.After captured more than 2-million views in less than two days, four 3D animation students from the National Animation and Design Centre (Centre NAD) stepped forward and claimed responsibility for creating the fake video.

Wait, you mean something I watched on YouTube wasn't real? *Insert sarcasm font here*

This message was posted on the Canter NAD's website yesterday afternoon:

The “Golden Eagle Snatches Kid” video, uploaded to YouTube on the evening of December 18, was made by Normand Archambault, Loïc Mireault and Félix Marquis-Poulin, students at Centre NAD, in the production simulation workshop class of the Bachelors degree in 3D Animation and Digital Design.

The video shows a royal eagle snatching a young kid while he plays under the watch of his dad. The eagle then drops the kid a few feet away. Both the eagle and the kid were created in 3D animation and integrated in to the film afterwards.

I know YouTube users had been trying to rip the video apart as a fake from the beginning, but I still say it's a pretty impressive animation. Especially considering that millions of people believed it was real, myself included. I even saw the video shared, as fact, by a number of major news agencies. I'd say that qualifies as a successful 'hoax'.

Seems like a brilliant marketing plan for a place like that to get their name out there and get some new recruits. But sadly, this could become the next evolution of publicity stunts and I'm sure someone will try and take a fake video way too far.

If you haven't seen the video, here it is.