Sculptor and professor Jussi Mäntynen, who also worked as a conservator, was highly familiar with animal anatomy and behaviour, as well as with their presentation in the three-dimensional settings known as dioramas in natural history museums. Such compositions often use the drama of natural events and the characteristic behaviour of different species to highlight their distinctive features.

The subjects of Mäntynen’s sculptures were primarily drawn from the fauna of Finland and the northern regions. The birds of prey in the fountain sculpture Eagles are presented in a striking vertical composition, in which one of the birds has just seized its prey in its talons.