Search

Wildlife conservation strategies focused on one season or population segment may fail to adequately protect populations, especially when a species' habitat preferences vary among seasons, age-classes, geographic regions, or other factors. Conservation of golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) is an example of such a complex scenario, in which the distribution, habitat use, and migratory strategies of this species of conservation concern vary by age-class, reproductive status, region, and season. Nonetheless, research aimed at mapping priority use areas to inform management of golden eagles in western North America has typically focused on territory-holding adults during the breeding period, largely to the exclusion of other seasons and life-history groups. To support population-wide conservation planning across the full annual cycle for golden eagles, we developed a distribution model for individuals in a season not typically evaluated–winter–and in an area of the interior western U.S. that is a high priority for conservation of the species. We used a large GPS-telemetry dataset and library of environmental variables to develop a machine-learning model to predict spatial variation in the relative intensity of use by golden eagles during winter in Wyoming, USA, and surrounding ecoregions. Based on a rigorous series of evaluations including cross-validation, withheld and independent data, our winter-season model accurately predicted spatial variation in intensity of use by multiple age- and life-history groups of eagles not associated with nesting territories (i.e., all age classes of long-distance migrants, and resident non-adults and adult "floaters", and movements of adult territory holders and their offspring outside their breeding territories). Important predictors in the model were wind and uplift (40.2% contribution), vegetation and landcover (27.9%), topography (14%), climate and weather (9.4%), and ecoregion (8.7%). Predicted areas of high-use winter habitat had relatively low spatial overlap with nesting habitat, suggesting a conservation strategy targeting high-use areas for one season would capture as much as half and as little as one quarter of high-use areas for the other season. The majority of predicted high-use habitat (top 10% quantile) occurred on private lands (55%); lands managed by states and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) had a lower amount (33%), but higher concentration of high-use habitat than expected for their area (1.5–1.6x). These results will enable those involved in conservation and management of golden eagles in our study region to incorporate spatial prioritization of wintering habitat into their existing regulatory processes, land-use planning tasks, and conservation actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Raptor Research is the property of Raptor Research Foundation and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In order to contribute to conservation planning efforts for golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) in the western U.S., we developed nest site models using >6,500 nest site locations throughout a >3,483,000 km2 area of the western U.S. We developed models for twelve discrete modeling regions, and estimated relative density of nest sites for each region. Cross-validation showed that, in general, models accurately estimated relative nest site densities within regions and sub-regions. Areas estimated to have the highest densities of breeding golden eagles had from 132–2,660 times greater densities compared to the lowest density areas. Observed nest site densities were very similar to those reported from published studies. Large extents of each modeling region consisted of low predicted nest site density, while a small percentage of each modeling region contained disproportionately high nest site density. For example, we estimated that areas with relative nest density values <0.3 represented from 62.8–97.8% ( = 82.5%) of each modeling area, and those areas contained from 14.7–30.0% ( = 22.1%) of the nest sites. In contrast, areas with relative nest density values >0.5 represented from 1.0–12.8% ( = 6.3%) of modeling areas, and those areas contained from 47.7–66.9% ( = 57.3%) of the nest sites. Our findings have direct application to: 1) large-scale conservation planning efforts, 2) risk analyses for land-use proposals such as recreational trails or wind power development, and 3) identifying mitigation areas to offset the impacts of human disturbance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge of dispersal from natal areas by pre-breeding-age Golden Eagles ( Aquila chrysaetos) in North America is sparse, though crucial for conservation planning. During 2010-2015, we used satellite telemetry to document movement behavior of pre-breeding-age Golden Eagles from the Colorado Plateau and Southern Rocky Mountains of the southwestern U.S.A. Here we report on (1) 1st-yr dispersal timing, distances, strategies, and survival; (2) influences of age, sex, nest-mates, and area of origin; and (3) progressive distancing from natal nests and coinciding space use, including overlap between individuals' home ranges at the end of their 1st and 2nd yr. Our dataset included 293,960 GPS fixes from 66 Golden Eagles monitored through at least the onset of dispersal. All dispersed at age <1 yr. Most (66.7%) initiated dispersal during 16 September-21 November (median = 22 October, 191 d after median hatch date). We could assign each of 60 eagles to one of four 1st-yr dispersal categories based on maximum distance traveled from natal nests: short-distance (SD), generally <120 km (66.7% of eagles); moderate-distance (MD), 120-500 km (16.7%); long-distance (LD) >500 km (13.3%); and Other (3.3%). LDs dispersed at younger ages than SDs and were more likely to be from the arid half of our study area. First-year survival was significantly lower for LDs. Overlap of 95% kernel density home ranges at ages 12 and 24 mo was 42.2% (±6.4 SE) for 26 SDs and 26.5% (±9.5) for eight MDs. Our data indicate that, during at least their 1st and 2nd yr of life, most Golden Eagles from the Colorado Plateau and Southern Rocky Mountains remain within 120 km of their nests, where they experience high survival and are relatively settled by the end of their 1st yr. As such, these landscapes are key habitat for at least 1st- and 2nd-yr eagles as well as breeding pairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]