Abstract
There has been increasing concern for Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) populations in North America due to current and future projections of mortality risk and habitat loss from anthropogenic sources. Identification of high-use movement corridors and bottlenecks for the migratory portion of the eagle population in western North America is an important first step to help habitat conservation and management efforts to reduce the risk of eagle mortality. We used dynamic Brownian Bridge movement models to estimate utilization distributions of adult eagles migrating across the western North America and identified high-use areas by calculating the overlap of individuals on population and regional levels. On a population level, the Rocky Mountain Front from east-central British Columbia to central Montana and southwestern Yukon encompassed the most used migration corridors with our study extent for both spring and fall. Regional analysis on a 100 x 200 km scale revealed additional moderate and high-level use corridors in the central British Columbia plateaus. Eagles were more dispersed in the spring until their routes converged in southern Alberta. High-use fall corridors extended farther south into central Wyoming. Knowledge of these high-use areas can aid in conservation and site planning to help maintain and enhance migratory Golden Eagle populations in western North America.
Highlights
Conservation and management of raptors requires knowledge of ecology and demographics within the breeding, wintering, and migratory periods across life stages [1, 2]
Eagles were more dispersed within the conterminous United States until they entered Canada where utilization distributions converged
Golden Eagle migration corridors southwest Yukon dispersed until north-central British Columbia where it became concentrated again along the Rocky Mountain Front from northern British Columbia into central Montana
Summary
Conservation and management of raptors requires knowledge of ecology and demographics within the breeding, wintering, and migratory periods across life stages [1, 2]. For long-lived raptors occupying large landscapes, such as the Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), a thorough understanding of these parameters across all life stages can be extremely difficult to achieve. An increasing amount of attention has been paid to the management of Golden Eagles in North America due to apparent population declines [2,3,4,5] and because of the juxtaposition of development and protections afforded by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (United States and Canada), the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (United States) and the Species at Risk Act (Canada). Though recent data suggest that populations in the western United States are currently stable [6, 7], Golden Eagles still are considered at risk due to low reproductive potential in combination with habitat loss and increasing risks of direct fatality [8,9,10,11,12].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
