Already, there is a threat to the greater spotted eagle species. Scientists have now discovered that the conflict in Ukraine poses yet another threat to them.
According to a study released on Monday in the journal Current Biology, eagles have been forced to stray from their typical flight path as a result of violent events they encountered during their migration across Ukraine. The report states that greater spotted eagles, which are classified as "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, have virtually disappeared from western and central Europe. But the species still has a stronghold in Polesia, a sizable wetland area bordering Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, and Poland.
According to researchers from the UK and Estonia, the first of 21 tagged greater spotted eagles entered Ukraine on March 1, 2022, one week after Russia invaded the country.
Lead study author Charlie Russell, an ornithologist and conservation scientist pursuing a PhD at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, said, "When the conflict started in February 2022, we were kind of watching things unfold on the news like everyone else, but sitting there also with the feeling that we know our birds are about to pass through that area and wondering what that might mean for them."
The researchers measured the effect of the conflict on the migratory patterns of 19 eagles traveling from March to April 2022 via Ukraine and on to nesting areas in southern Belarus using GPS monitoring and conflict data.
When compared to pre-conflict migrations between 2019 and 2021, the study's authors discovered that the eagles deviated significantly from their typical flight path, going farther and less directly to nesting sites.
The researchers hypothesized that noise and light from military operations may have had an impact on the birds' behavior, even though they lacked direct observational evidence to identify the stimuli the birds could respond to. The researchers discovered that the deviations varied for each bird because of their different exposures to and reactions to combat, but they were shown to be larger in locations where the migration route coincided with increased military activity. The birds' migrations took longer to complete because of the larger deviations from the norm.
The study found that, in contrast to the pre-conflict period of about 193 hours, females traveled an average of 246 hours to reach mating grounds.
According to Russell, the eagles traveled an average of 85 kilometers (53 miles) farther than in prior years, and in one extreme instance, one bird traveled an additional 250 kilometers (155 miles). Compared to the pre-conflict average of about 9.75 meters (32 feet) per second, males were found to move more slowly, averaging only 7.66 meters (25 feet) per second. The report states that the researchers did not find any differences in migration performance or deviation patterns outside of Ukraine.
Possibility of breeding danger The fact that the birds were stopping over less frequently than in prior years was another important discovery.
According to studies, stopover spots are crucial locations for eagles to obtain food, water, rest and refuel, and cover from bad weather throughout their lengthy flights. Six monitored eagles stopped in 2022, compared to 18 tracked individuals (or 90% of the tracked eagles) who made stopovers in Ukraine during their migration between 2018 and 2021. Eleven of the eagles made frequent stopovers in Ukrainian Polesia prior to the conflict, but in 2022 they made no use of these locations.
We believe that there will have been sublethal fitness costs from needing to fly constantly and using more energy, as well as a decreased capacity to recuperate that energy, which may have persisted into that year's breeding season, Russell continued.
According to the study, decreased fitness and the delayed commencement of breeding because of taking longer to recuperate from the travel could effect chick provisioning and the fledgling date of young birds, as well as lower breeding success—which is already rather low in the population. In order to better promote the recovery of wider ecosystems as well as greater spotted eagles in a post-war situation, Russell stated, "I think it is very vital to understand the many pressures that the environment is facing as a result of conflict."
Prof. Nathalie Pettorelli, an applied ecologist and senior research fellow at the Zoological Society of London, "this study plugs an important knowledge gap." "We know very little about the impacts of human conflicts on wildlife, particularly when it comes to migratory species." Not participating in the study, Pettorelli continued, saying that knowing what influences the eagles' survival is "essential" to making sure they have a future. "Globally, there is an increasing number of human conflicts, which highlights the need for more research on the effects of conflicts on biodiversity and, when feasible, for the implementation of effective mitigation strategies," stated Pettorelli.
Following an environmental disaster in July caused by the collapse of the Kakhovka dam in the south of the nation, which resulted in the loss of farmland and natural reserves and more than 100 fatalities, Ukraine accused Russia of "ecocide." According to Russell, some of the environmental challenges created by violence are becoming more widely known as a result of the fighting in Ukraine. It is not limited to Ukraine either. This is something that will also occur in other combat zones, albeit to different degrees.
No comments