Golden Eagle Populations, Movements, and Landscape Barriers: Insights from Scotland

• Published in: Diversity
• Main Authors: Alan H. Fielding, David Anderson, Catherine Barlow, Stuart Benn, Robin Reid, Ruth Tingay, Ewan D. Weston, D. Philip Whitfield
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2024
• Subjects: geographical barriers; Aquila chrysaetos; movements; satellite telemetry; population; natal dispersal; Biology (General); QH301-705.5; golden eagle
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/d16040195; https://doaj.org/article/5e8284a9e18c41e281f795ac101fb4f2

GPS satellite tracking allows novel investigations of how golden eagles Aquila chrysaetos use the landscape at several scales and at different life history stages, including research on geographical barriers which may prevent or limit range expansion or create population/sub-population isolation. If there are significant barriers to golden eagle movements, there could be demographic and genetic consequences. Genetic studies have led investigations on the identification of sub-species, populations, and sub-populations but should be conjoined with demographic studies and dispersal movements to understand fully such designations and their geographic delimitation. Scottish eagles are genetically differentiated from continental European birds, with thousands of years of separation creating a distinct population, though without sub-species assignation. They present unique research opportunities to examine barriers to movements illustrated by satellite tracking under Scotland’s highly variable geography. We primarily examined two features, using more than seven million dispersal records from satellite tags fitted to 152 nestlings. The first was the presence of unsuitable terrestrial habitat. We found few movements across a region of largely unsuitable lowland habitat between upland regions substantially generated by geological features over 70 km apart (Highland Boundary Fault and Southern Uplands Fault). This was expected from the Golden Eagle Topography model, and presumed isolation was the premise for an ongoing reinforcement project in the south of Scotland, translocating eagles from the north (South Scotland Golden Eagle Project: SSGEP). Second was that larger expanses of water can be a barrier. We found that, for a northwestern archipelago (Outer Hebrides), isolated by ≥24 km of sea (and with prior assignation of genetical and historical separation), there were no tagged bird movements with the Inner Hebrides and/or the Highlands mainland (the main sub-population), confirming their characterisation as a second ...