Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Friday 3 January 2020
About 5,000 golden eagles

winter in eastern U.S.

shown them venturing into biologist for the Alabama tion was.”
others, she said. Department of Conserva- She said Coosa’s most
“A couple of the birds tion and Natural Resources. northern flight took him
we’ve tagged in Alabama The first to return to Ala- just east of a town called
have gone to Mississippi bama this year was a fe- Labrador City, near the
and Louisiana. We have male dubbed Coosa, at Labrador-Quebec line and
one bird we caught in the Talladega National For- about 480 miles (770 kilo-
Georgia that is right now in est. Keeton is at the Oak- meters) east of James Bay,
Missouri, in the Ozarks,” she mulgee Wildlife Manage- which projects southeast
said Tuesday. “He’s been ment Area and Trace at from Hudson Bay.
spending several weeks the Freedom Hills WMA. A Coosa, Trace and Keeton
there now. I don’t know if female dubbed Natchez all were tagged last Janu-
he’ll end up spending more was in Illinois at the start ary, Natchez and Coon
time there or go down to of the week and a male Dog were both tagged
Georgia.” named Coon Dog had just at Freedom Hills, Natchez
Tennessee and Alabama made his way from Tennes- in 2015 and Coon Dog in
are the focus of a habi- see into Alabama, Bartkov- 2016.
tat study she and Lanzone ich said. The birds don’t have to be
hope to complete by the Alabama’s tagging so far sedated — putting a hood
end of 2020, she said. has been in the north, but over a bird’s head calms it
Unlike bald eagles, golden this January’s tagging trip down, she said.
eagles prefer remote for- will focus on the southern Golden eagles look a bit
ests and mountains. Mill- part of the state, Miller said. like juvenile bald eagles,
er said she and Lanzone The birds always return to but golden eagles’ legs
In this photo provided by the Alabama Department of rarely see the birds unless the areas where they were are feathered to their toes,
Conservation and Natural Resources, department wildlife they’re in a blind at a re- tagged, Bartkovich said, unlike bald eagles’ yellow
biologist Mercedes Bartkovich holds a golden eagle dubbed peatedly visited camera and each follows a nearly legs. Golden eagles eat
Keeton, after he was tagged with a cellular data transmitted at
the Oakmulgee Wildife Management Area on Jan. 24, 2019. trap. The scientists set up a identical migration route mammals such as rabbits,
Associated Press box-shaped net launcher each year, sometimes with hares, ground squirrels and
near the bait to catch birds one path to and another prairie dogs — and they
By JANET McCONNAUGHEY Africa. In North America for tagging while they wait from its breeding ground in do their own hunting, while
Associated Press they’re far more numerous in the blind where they hid Canada. bald eagles often steal fish
Golden eagles are back in the West, where an esti- before dawn. Coon Dog has flown far- from smaller raptors such as
from Canada, spending mated 40,000 live or winter, Four tagged birds have re- thest, often to the tips of osprey. OutdoorAlabama.
the winter in the eastern but some can be found for turned to Alabama, and a Quebec and Newfound- com has maps showing
U.S. at least part of the year in fifth is on its way, Mercedes land, Bartkovich said. Nat- some golden eagles paths
Researcher Trish Miller said most of Canada and the Bartkovich, in charge of chez and Trace went up but is no longer getting
there are probably around United States, and parts Alabama’s golden eagle around the eastern side of data for most of those birds.
5,000 east of the Missis- of Mexico.Miller, of Con- research, said Tuesday. Hudson Bay and Keeton on “Sometimes we got mul-
sippi River, compared to servation Science Global There are certainly more the bay’s western side. tiple years of data from
estimates of 1,000 to 2,500 in West Cape May, New golden eagles, but their Coosa “kind of went all some of the birds, some-
when she and her hus- Jersey, said the greatest elusiveness makes it hard over,” Bartkovich said. “I times we just got a season,”
band, Michael Lanzone, numbers wintering in the to estimate how many win- can tell you where he went Bartkovich said. “It’s sort of
began studying them in eastern U.S. are probably ter in Alabama, said Bart- but not positively exactly out of our hands once we
2005. Other scientists have along the Virginia-West kovich, a nongame wildlife where his breeding loca- get the transmitter on.”q
come up with similar fig- Virginia state line, though
ures.Golden eagles are she and Lanzone, of Cel-
among North America’s lular Tracking Technologies
largest birds of prey, some in Rio Grande, New Jersey,
with wingspans broader haven’t analyzed likely
than 7 feet (2.1 meters). densities.
They’re mostly brown, but Hundreds of camera traps,
are named for the golden with bait set in front of mo-
feathers at the back of the tion-sensitive game cam-
head and neck. An esti- eras, have documented
mated 100,000 to 200,000 them in every state east
live worldwide, including of the Mississippi River and
Europe, Asia and North cellular tracking tags have

This photo, taken on Jan. 11, 2017, by an Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural
Resources game camera, shows two golden eagles at a deer carcass at Freedom Hillls Wildlife
Management Area in Alabama.
Associated Press