| Summary: | Predator-livestock conflicts are a big problem worldwide, and usually result in big ethic and economic difficulties. Even though a lot of research has been done on the matter, there are still many uncertainties connected to the subject. For the golden eagle the main challenges are connected to the lack of information regarding territoriality, and how it affects depredation of livestock and both small- and large-scale movements. Territorial individuals, on the other hand, are believed to stay in their territory throughout the year without the ability to track resources over large spatial scales. Non-territorial individuals roam larger areas and are therefore believed to be the main tortfeasor on livestock, since they presumably are driven by food availability. My thesis is based on data from nine eagles, three territorial and six non-territorial individuals, that carried GPS transmitters in a harness on their backs. The data has been collected through the NINA project called “Loss of lambs to Golden Eagles on the Fosen Peninsula,” a five-year-long project investigating the role of golden eagles in the loss of domestic sheep as well as the eagles’ diet and movement behavior. Home range size was estimated for the breeding- and non-breeding season for the territorial eagles. Upon finding that territorial individuals largely stay within or close to their breeding territories throughout the year, I continued investigating if patch residency time for the non-territorial individuals was affected by presence of reindeer and sheep. This was done on three different radii: 1000, 5000 and 10 000 meters. I hypothesized that both prey species are attractive for young golden eagles and that patch residency time would increase in their presence. I found that two out of the three territorial individuals made small-scale movements during the non-breeding season. This could be explained by an abundance of prey at the location visited, as well as the need to recharge after an energy-demanding breeding period. For the non-territorial ...
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