by The largest spotted eagle is already a threatened species. Now, scientists have discovered that they are facing yet another danger: the war in Ukraine.
Eagles were exposed to conflict events as they migrated through Ukraine, forcing them to deviate from their normal flight path, according to a study published Monday in the journal Current Biology.
Listed as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, greater bee eagles have largely been exterminated from western and central Europe, according to the study.
However, Poland, a large wetland region bordering Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia, remains a stronghold for the species.
On March 1, 2022, a week after Russia invaded Ukraine, the first of 21 tagged bald eagles entered Ukraine on their normal migration, according to researchers from the UK and Estonia.
“When the conflict started in February 2022, we were kind of watching things unfold on the news like everyone else, but also sitting there feeling that we know our bird is about to going through that area and thinking about what it might mean to them. ,” lead study author Charlie Russell, a conservation scientist and ornithologist studying for his PhD at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, told CNN on Tuesday.
Using conflict data and GPS tracking, the researchers quantified the impact of the conflict on the migratory behavior of 19 eagles passing through northern Ukraine to breeding grounds in southern Belarus between March and April 2022.
The authors of the study found that between 2019 and 2021, the eagles diverted significantly from their normal flight path compared to pre-conflict migration, with the eagles flying longer and less directly to breeding grounds.
Although the researchers did not have direct observational evidence to determine the stimuli to which the birds might respond, they thought that noise and light from military activities might influence their behavior.
The deviations were found to be greater in areas where the migration route coincided with more military activity, but it differed for each bird due to different exposures and responses to conflict, according to the researchers.
Due to greater inclination, the birds had to travel further and also took longer to complete their migration.
Females, for example, spent an average of 246 hours traveling to breeding grounds, up from about 193 hours before the conflict, according to the study.
The eagles traveled an average of 85 kilometers (53 miles) farther and, in an extreme case, one bird flew an additional 250 kilometers (155 miles) farther compared to previous years, Russell said.
Males were found to travel more slowly, averaging about 7.66 meters (25 feet) per second, rather than the pre-conflict average of about 9.75 meters (32 feet) per second.
The researchers observed no difference in migration performance and deviance patterns outside of Ukraine, according to the study.
Potential breeding risk
The other significant result was that the birds were making fewer stops than in previous years.
According to the researchers, staging areas are essential places for the eagles to get food, water, rest and refuel, and shelter from bad weather during their long journey.
While 18 individuals tracked – 90% of tracked eagles – made stops in Ukraine while migrating between 2018 and 2021, only six made stops in 2022.
In the years before the conflict, 11 eagles used common stopover sites in the Ukrainian police, but these sites were not used at all in 2022.
“We think that the combination of these two things, flying forever and expending more energy, and the reduced ability to recover that energy, would have carried over into the period bred that year,” said Russell.
Breeding success, which is already quite low in the population, could be reduced due to reduced fitness and delayed breeding due to more time spent recovering from the trip, as well as an impact on chick supply and date breeding of young birds, according to the study.
“I think it’s very important to understand the different stresses that the environment faces as a result of conflict so that, in a post-conflict setting, we can better support not only bald eagles but the wider ecosystems also to recover,” Russell. said.
“We know very little about the impact of human conflicts on wildlife, particularly for migratory species, so this study fills an important knowledge gap,” Professor Nathalie Pettorelli, applied ecologist and senior research fellow at Cumann Zoological London, said CNN on Tuesday.
Pettorelli, who was not involved in the study, said understanding what affects the eagles’ survival is “crucial” to ensure they have a future.
“More broadly, human conflicts are increasing around the world, emphasizing the need for more research on the impacts of conflicts on biodiversity and, where possible, the development of effective mitigation policies,” said Pettorelli.
Ukraine has accused Russia of “ecstasy” after suffering an environmental disaster in July due to the collapse of the Kakhovka dam in the south of the country that killed more than 100 people, as well as destroying farmland and nature reserves.
Russell said the war in Ukraine is “really raising the profile of some of the environmental issues that cause conflict. And it is not only in Ukraine. This is something that will be happening to varying degrees in other conflict zones as well.”
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