Golden Eagle - Status and Conservation

Status and Conservation

At one time, the Golden Eagle lived in almost all of temperate Europe, North Asia, North America, North Africa, and Japan. In most areas this bird is now a mountain-dweller, but in former centuries it also bred in the plains and the forests. In recent years it has started to breed in lowland areas again, e.g., in Sweden and Denmark.

There was a great decline in Central Europe where they are now essentially restricted to the Apennine, Alps, and Carpathian Mountains. In Britain, the last comprehensive survey of Golden Eagles took place in 2003, and found 442 occupied territories. A less thorough survey in 2007 showed that in addition to large numbers of territories in the Scottish Highlands and the Inner and Outer Hebrides, there were a handful of birds in southern Scotland and northern England. Between 1969 and 2003 they nested in the Lake District, Cumbria.

In Ireland, where it had been extinct due to hunting since 1912, efforts are being made to re-introduce the species. Forty-six birds were released into the wild in Glenveagh National Park, County Donegal, from 2001 to 2006, with at least three known female fatalities since then. It is intended to release a total of sixty birds, to ensure a viable population. In April 2007, a pair of Golden Eagles produced the first chick to be hatched in the Republic of Ireland in nearly a century. The previous attempt to help the birds breed at the Glenveagh National Park had failed.

In North America the situation is not as dramatic, but there has still been a noticeable decline. The main threat is habitat destruction which by the late 19th century already had driven Golden Eagles from some regions they used to inhabit. In the 20th century, organochloride and heavy metal poisonings were also commonplace, but these have declined thanks to tighter regulations on pollution. Within the United States, the Golden Eagle is legally protected by the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.

Available habitat and food are the main limiting factor nowadays. Collisions with power lines have become an increasingly significant cause of mortality since the early 20th century. Controversially, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has permitted that a "wind-farmer" in central Oregon could legally cause the incidental killing of Golden Eagles by large wind turbines. Such turbines have set up as an alternative source of energy and appear to move slowly from a distance but at close range move quickly enough to appear invisible or as a blur. It is estimated that up to 70 Golden Eagles may be killed by turbines each year.

On a global scale, the Golden Eagle is not considered threatened by the IUCN due to an estimated world population of more than 170,000 individuals. On a conservation front, the Golden Eagle is itself unintentionally contributing to the conservation crisis of another animal, the Island Fox (Urocyon littoralis), a small insular relative of the Gray Fox (U. cinereoargenteus) found only in the Channel Islands of California. This critically endangered canid had evolved without predators but the large breeding population of Golden Eagles in California has spilled in numbers over to the islands and is there feeding largely on the foxes, whose already declining population cannot support sustained predation.