TY - JOUR
T1 - Summer and winter space use and home range characteristics of Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) in eastern North America
AU - Miller, Tricia A.
AU - Brooks, Robert P.
AU - Lanzone, Michael J.
AU - Cooper, Jeff
AU - O'Malley, Kieran
AU - Brandes, David
AU - Duerr, Adam
AU - Katzner, Todd E.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the dozens of people, especially state and federal biologists, who assisted with and supported our fieldwork and without whom this project would not have been possible. In particular, Christine Kelly (North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission), Scott Somershoe and David Hanni (Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency), Eric Soerhen and Carrie Threadg- ill (Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources), Jonathan Stober (Talladega National Forest), Tom Salo and Scott Van Arsdale (Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society), and Brian Millsap and Craig Koppie (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) provided extensive support for fieldwork. M. Wheeler genetically sexed the eagles that we studied. M. Braham assisted with data management and provide useful feedback on the manuscript. G. Young, M. Brittingham-Brant, M. Gannon, M. Ferrer, 2 anonymous reviewers, and many others provided useful reviews of the manuscript. This is scientific article no. 3324 of the West Virginia Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station (Morgantown, West Virginia, USA). This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, McIntire Stennis project, under WVA00101. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Funding statement: Funding for this work was received from Pennsylvania State Wildlife Grant numbers T-12 and T47-R-1, U.S. Department of Energy grant DE-EE0003538, from the Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation, a Penn State Earth and Environmental Institute Graduate Fellowship, Penn State Ecology Fellowship, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries through a Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Friends of Talladega National Forest, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Foundation, the Alabama Department of Natural Resources, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, and the authors’ organizations. None of the funders had any input into the content of the manuscript, and none of the funders required their approval of the manuscript before submission or publication. Ethics statement: Use of Golden Eagles for this research was approved by the West Virginia University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), protocol #11-0304. M.J.L. is an owner of Cellular Tracking Technologies, the manufacturer of the GPS/GSM transmitters used in this project. For part of the time that this project took place, T.E.K. was also an owner of Cellular Tracking Technologies. Author contributions: All authors collected data. T.A.M., T.E.K., M.J.L., J.C., and R.P.B. designed the research. T.E.K. and R.P.B. supervised research. T.A.M. wrote the manuscript and analyzed the data. M.J.L. designed the GPS/GSM telemetry device. A.D. assisted with modeling work. All authors contributed to revisions of the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 American Ornithological Society.
PY - 2017/11/1
Y1 - 2017/11/1
N2 - Movement behavior and its relationship to habitat provide critical information toward understanding the effects of changing environments on birds. The eastern North American population of Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) is a genetically distinct and small population of conservation concern. To evaluate the potential responses of this population to changing landscapes, we calculated the home range and core area sizes of 52 eagles of 6 age-sex classes during the summer and winter seasons. Variability in range size was related to variation in topography and open cover, and to age and sex. In summer, eagle ranges that were smaller had higher proportions of ridge tops and open cover and had greater topographic roughness than did larger ranges. In winter, smaller ranges had higher proportions of ridge tops, hillsides and cliffs, and open cover than did larger ranges. All age and sex classes responded similarly to topography and open cover in both seasons. Not surprisingly, adult eagles occupied the smallest ranges in both seasons. Young birds used larger ranges than adults, and subadults in summer used the largest ranges (>.9,000 km2). Eastern adult home ranges in summer were 2-10 times larger than those reported for other populations in any season. Golden Eagles in eastern North America may need to compensate for generally lower-quality habitat in the region by using larger ranges that support access to adequate quantities of resources (prey, updrafts, and nesting, perching, and roosting sites) associated with open cover and diverse topography. Our results suggest that climate change-induced afforestation on the breeding grounds and ongoing land cover change from timber harvest and energy development on the wintering grounds may affect the amount of suitable habitat for Golden Eagles in eastern North America.
AB - Movement behavior and its relationship to habitat provide critical information toward understanding the effects of changing environments on birds. The eastern North American population of Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) is a genetically distinct and small population of conservation concern. To evaluate the potential responses of this population to changing landscapes, we calculated the home range and core area sizes of 52 eagles of 6 age-sex classes during the summer and winter seasons. Variability in range size was related to variation in topography and open cover, and to age and sex. In summer, eagle ranges that were smaller had higher proportions of ridge tops and open cover and had greater topographic roughness than did larger ranges. In winter, smaller ranges had higher proportions of ridge tops, hillsides and cliffs, and open cover than did larger ranges. All age and sex classes responded similarly to topography and open cover in both seasons. Not surprisingly, adult eagles occupied the smallest ranges in both seasons. Young birds used larger ranges than adults, and subadults in summer used the largest ranges (>.9,000 km2). Eastern adult home ranges in summer were 2-10 times larger than those reported for other populations in any season. Golden Eagles in eastern North America may need to compensate for generally lower-quality habitat in the region by using larger ranges that support access to adequate quantities of resources (prey, updrafts, and nesting, perching, and roosting sites) associated with open cover and diverse topography. Our results suggest that climate change-induced afforestation on the breeding grounds and ongoing land cover change from timber harvest and energy development on the wintering grounds may affect the amount of suitable habitat for Golden Eagles in eastern North America.
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U2 - 10.1650/CONDOR-16-154.1
DO - 10.1650/CONDOR-16-154.1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85029533097
SN - 0010-5422
VL - 119
SP - 697
EP - 719
JO - Condor
JF - Condor
IS - 4
ER -
