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The characteristics and variation of the Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos home range
Fielding, Alan H Anderson, David Barlow, Catherine Benn, Stuart Chandler, Charlotte Reid, Robin Tingay, Ruth Weston, Ewan D Whitfield, D. Philip
Fielding, Alan H
Anderson, David
Barlow, Catherine
Benn, Stuart
Chandler, Charlotte
Reid, Robin
Tingay, Ruth
Weston, Ewan D
Whitfield, D. Philip
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2024-08-31
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Abstract
Satellite tracking allows for novel investigations into golden eagle home range characteristics. Understanding home range characteristics is important for conservation and for assessing the potential impact of landscape changes from forest planting, wind farms, etc. Small sample sizes, inconsistent definitions and methods restricted several previous studies. Our study involved 69 resident tagged eagles with over one year of data across five Scottish regions. Home range size was estimated from 95% isopleth contours extracted from Utilisation Distributions. Above a small threshold, estimated range size was not affected by the number of records but at least one year of data is required, largely because of the breeding and non-breeding seasonal differences. There were no significant range size differences between birds tagged as range holders and those previously tagged as nestlings. Across four regions, with considerable intra-regional variation, planar 95% isopleths did not differ (medians, km2): Argyll 58.9, Northwest Highlands 61.7, Northeast Highlands 89.3, South of Scotland 91.9. Ranges in the isolated Outer Hebrides region were exceptionally small, at 24.0 km2. Estimated range area was usually reduced to 70–80% of the planar area when restricted to usable habitat, as estimated by the Golden Eagle Topography (GET) model. Applying measures of known unsuitable habitat (closed-canopy commercial forest and wind turbines) further reduced usable open land. Loss of otherwise suitable habitat was substantially due to commercial forest. Larger ranges had larger extents of suitable habitat (according to GET), with no apparent optimum of preferred GET habitat. Range size was not different across a year between the sexes. Breeding ranges were smaller, and females’ breeding ranges were much smaller than those of males, but larger than males’ ranges in the non-breeding season. Breeding attempt duration was probably also influential. Our study provides novel insights into golden eagle home range characteristics and can guide further research and practical applications.
Citation
Fielding, A. H., Anderson, D., Barlow, C., Benn, S., Chandler, C. J., Reid, R., Tingay, R., Weston, E. D., & Whitfield, D. P. (2024). The characteristics and variation of the Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos home range. Diversity, 16(9), 523. https://doi.org/10.3390/d16090523
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MDPI
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Diversity
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DOI
10.3390/d16090523
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Article
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1424-2818
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The funding of the tags and data download costs notably came from Natural Research, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Scottish Natural Heritage, Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, Ruth Tingay, Forest Enterprise Scotland (FES: now Forestry and Land Scotland), SSE, and the SSGEP. Test Driven Solutions sponsored the tagging of two range holders in Outer Hebrides, and Vattenfall funded tagging of a pair in Argyll. Manuscript production was financially assisted by SSE under the research programme of the Regional Eagle Conservation Management Plan. For facilitating this continued support, we thank Jenny Chambers most recently. Despite this support, SSE had no influence or commentary in the production of the manuscript. The SSGEP was supported by the Heritage Fund, LEADER, NatureScot, RSPB, Scottish Land and Estates, Scottish Forestry, SOSE (South of Scotland Enterprise), Scottish Power Renewables, and Scottish Borders Council.