Published July 6, 2012 | Version v1

Distribution, diet and winter ecology of the Imperial Eagle Aquila heliaca in Jordan

  • 1. Jordan University of Science & Technology, Irbid, Jordan

Description

The present study is the first attempt to investigate the diet, seasonality and distribution of the globally vulnerable Imperial Eagle Aquila heliaca in a wintering habitat in Jordan. There was a temporal pattern of observations, with nearly all observations in the northwestern part of the country occurring in late December or January. The main wintering period for Imperial Eagles occurs in January and February where (84.3%) of observations were recorded, peaking in January. Adults predominated, followed by immature birds, with sub-adults being least common. Diet includes 14 identified species of mammals, birds and reptiles. Large domestic animals, most likely consumed as carrion, predominated the food composition of wintering eagles and formed 53.7 % of analyzed food items, followed by presumably live-caught birds (26%) and small and medium sized mammals (19.7%) and reptiles (0.6%) respectively. Trapping was the major threat affecting the Imperial Eagle in its wintering habitat in the eastern desert.

Files

VZ_article_31391.pdf

Files (630.7 kB)

Name Size Download all
md5:6cc34970091805bd127ae94b7e0ab0b0
630.7 kB Preview Download

Linked records