Saving two adult eagles per year to save the population of this endangered species

Date: September 29, 2016

Source: Universidad de Barcelona

Dying due to electrocution at the power lines is the most common death for Bonelli's eagle (Aquila fasciata), a threatened species in Europe. This is the case of a ringed bird in 2008 -- the baby bird 0M -- in Montserrat Mountain (Barcelona, Spain), that died due to electrocution in 2014 in a place with high density of power lines in a place in Penedès where the baby lived. Electrocution was the same death cause for another ringed eagle -- baby bird CD -- in Vallès mountains in 2013 and found dead in 2015 at the bottom of an electric tower in Empordà (Girona, Spain).

These are only two examples of the 92 Bonelli's eagles that died due to electrocution in Catalonia from 1990 to 2014, a problem that has big effects on birds around the world. In other parts of the peninsula, this affects other species with great ecological value, such as the Spanish imperial eagle (Aquila adalberti), and another of the most threatened species around the world. In the United States, one of the most affected species is the American bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), considered to be the national symbol of a country where there are around 12 and 64 million bird deaths due to power lines (around 11 million electrocutions).

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Bonelli's Eagle diet reconstruction by means of isotope analysis to improve population conservation

Date:

July 8, 2014

Source:

Universidad de Barcelona

Summary:

Carbon, nitrogen and sulphur stable isotopes analysis is an effective technique to reconstruct nestling Bonelli’s Eagle diet, according to a new paper. Diet analyses are central to the study of avian trophic ecology and can be an important conservation tool. Despite the high number of studies on Bonelli's Eagle (Aquila fasciata) diet developed in Western Europe, eagle's relationship between prey consumption and vital parameters remains unknown.

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Endangered Israeli eagle falls prey to Hezbollah

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli eagles dangerously endangered by pesticides, electrical wires and poachers now apparently face a new threat: Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.

Hezbollah's Al-Manar website recently boasted of capturing an eagle that carried an Israel-labeled transmission device on its back and claimed the bird was an Israeli spy. It said hunters in central Lebanon shot down the bird and found devices on it as well as a copper ring on its leg that reads "Israel" in English followed by letters that refer to Tel Aviv University. The fate of the eagle remains unclear.

Israeli ornithologist Yossi Leshem said Thursday he was tracking the bird for research and was "incredibly frustrated" it was harmed. Leshem, a Tel Aviv university professor, has specialized in the Bonelli's Eagle for decades and said they are in great peril with just nine pairs of mating age remaining in Israel.

"The whole field of conservation is based on regional cooperation and not this nonsense," said Leshem, who collaborates on several projects with Palestinian and Jordanian scientists.

Leshem said Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Turkey all have targeted migrating birds from Israel in the past and made similar unfounded espionage accusations.

Egyptian authorities, for instance, recently detained a stork that was tagged with a tracking device and claimed it was spying for Israel. Previously, Egypt has accused Israel's Mossad spy agency of training sharks to reach the Sinai Peninsula to harm tourism there.

"Every time a migrating bird from Israel, carrying a satellite transmitter or a ring, is captured by one of the neighboring countries, it is immediately thought to be the instrument of a sophisticated spy work by the Israeli Mossad," Leshem wrote in a recent essay after an Israeli common kestrel was captured and investigated by Turkey. "All the countries mentioned employ the same methods of research and use the same electronic devices in tracking birds and mammals in their studies, and yet the paranoia persists in the Middle East."

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/endangered-israeli-eagle-falls-prey-to-hezbollah/article_c6b8bf42-392e-11e3-baf6-10604b9f6eda.html

Thirty year study of Europe's Bonelli's eagle reveals endangered populations and critical links

Catalan eagles are Critically Endangered

October 2013. New research into Western Europe Bonelli's Eagle populations between 1980 and 2009 has found that the population in North Spain is at greatest risk.

The study, based long-term monitoring of Bonelli's Eagle populations in the Iberian Peninsula and France, revealed demographic relationships among different populations and provided an insight into population dynamics in Western Europe, the area where species is most endangered.

Bonelli's Eagle (Aquila fasciata) is one of the most typical -and most endangered - raptors of the Mediterranean region. The Conservation Biology Group of the University of Barcelona (UB) has been a leading centre of research into this species and in looking for solutions to improve its conservation Since 1980,.

Bonelli's Eagle: northern and southern edges

Joan Real, professor from the Department of Animal Biology and head of the Conservation Biology Group at UB, explains that "Bonelli's Eagle is not widespread in Europe. Its range extends to southern France and the most southern populations are in Portugal and Andalusia". "We have been performing an annual analysis of Bonelli's Eagle populations in Catalonia for thirty years. This work, together with other analyses carried out by European research groups, has covered the whole eagle population for the first time."

The research reveals that eagle populations located hundreds of kilometres apart may be essential to each other's survival. "This fact is not always taken into account; if it is not considered, unsuitable conservation actions must be taken which might affect species viability in a future", remarked the Real.

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