Breeding Population Surveys of Eastern Imperial Eagles and Steppe Eagles in Central Anatolia

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Breeding population surveys of Eastern Imperial Eagles and Steppe Eagles in Central Anatolia

Márton Horváth, István Béres, Cansu Özcan, Tibor Juhász, András Kovács, Burak Tatar, Igor Karyakin, Matthias Schmidt and Jose Tavares

VIII. International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle Eagles of Palearctic: Study and Conservation Conference, Katun village, Altai Kray, Russia, 8 September 2018

Introduction

Historical knowledge on the status of the imperial eagle in Turkey The Birds of Turkey (Kirwan et al. 2008): • • • • • • • • • •

1 nest in Izmir (1872,1874) „Several” nests between Aladag and Kayseri (1876-1879) 1 nest near Ankara (1966) 1 nest on cliff (?!) near Havza (1970) 1 nest in Kizilirmak delta (1971) 2 nests in Beynam (1971, 1995, 2002) 1 nest in Yozgat (1968,1971) – see notes later 1 nest in Bolu (1989) 2 nest near Gümüshane (1986, 2005) 1 possible breeding in Kocacay delta (1996)

Gursan & Bilgin (2001) The status of the imperial eagle (Aquila heliaca) in Turkey. Aquila 107-108: 187-192.

Historical knowledge on the status of the steppe eagle in Turkey The Birds of Turkey (Kirwan et al. 2008): • Unclear breeding status • 1 nest in Tuz Gölü (1969, 1971-1973, 1975) • 1 nest in Bolluk Gölü (1975, 1980) • 1 nest in Seyfe Gölü (2003)

Seife Gölü: Béla Kalocsa & László Haraszthy (2003)

Methods

• 2007: – active breeding site of EIE or SE was not known by contacted conservation or research organisations in Anatolia – data on 5 probable EIE territorries between 1960-1990 (Can Bilgin) – MME and BSPB expeditions: EIEs are observed in 7 territorries (5 new), 1 EIE nest found (BSPB) • 2009-2013: – BSPB Save the Raptors LIFE project in Bulgaria (MME partner) – BSPB starts EIE monitoring in Thrace – MME contracted by RSPB and Doga Dernegi for EIE in Anatolia (voluntary work, fuel costs reimburshed)

• 2015: – 1st SE survey executed by MME with RRRCN (Igor Karyakin et al.) in April • 2017-2018: – MME and Turkish Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs sign agreement for survey and tagging EIE and SE – MME and Doga Dernegi cooperates in SE survey – Assitance from BirdLife Austria

Field survey • Systematic expeditions twice (2009-2013) or once (2014, 2015, 2017, 2018) a year • March-April: searching active nest sites, checking incubation • June-July: checking breeding success, tagging • Usually 1 car with 4 people (all together 30 people) • Usually 7-12 days (all together 127 days)

Tracklogs of the expeditions (2009-2018)

• Bolu, Eskisehir, Ankara, Corum and Cankiri admin. regions • Surveys covered probably 30-60% of their population • < 10% of potential habitats in Turkey

50 x 50 km UTM grid Aquila heliaca Aquila nipalensis

Results: Eastern Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca)

• More than 100 nests have been found in 50 territorries • All tracklogs and data stored in GIS in the field

Bolu-Gerede regions

• Most precisely surveyed • 25 territorries have been located

Bolu

Territory system

Nearest neighbour distance (4.9 km)

Height above sea level (1000 m)

Nesting trees

Species

Reptilia Reptilia indet. Aves Anas platyrhynchos domestica Ardea cinerea Ciconia ciconia Columba livia f. domestica Columba sp. Corvus corax Falco peregrinus Gallus gallus domesticus Meleagris gallopavo gallopavo Phasianus colchicus Turdus philomelos Mammalia Cricetulus migratorius Erinaceus sp. Lepus europaeus Nannospalax (superspecies xanthodon) Vormela peregusna All

Bolu 1 (9%) 1 (9%) 10 (91%) 1 (9%)

8 (73%) 1 (9%)

0

11 (100%)

Gerede 0 0 21 (57%) 1 (3%) 2 (5%) 1 (3%) 1 (3%) 1 (3%) 1 (3%) 1 (3%) 9 (24%) 1 (3%) 2 (5%) 1 (3%) 16 (43%) 2 (5%) 4 (11%) 2 (5%) 7 (19%) 1 (3%) 37 (100%)

All 1 (2%) 1 (2%) 31 (65%) 2 (4%) 2 (4%) 1 (2%) 1 (2%) 1 (2%) 1 (2%) 1 (2%) 17 (35%) 2 (4%) 2 (4%) 1 (2%) 16 (33%) 2 (4%) 4 (8%) 2 (4%) 7 (15%) 1 (2%) 48 (100%)

Eskisehir

• Found with the help of Bulgarian satellite tagged birds • 15 territorries

Eskisehir

Eskisehir

Female IE paired with a male Imperial x Steppe Eagle hybrid

Female imperial eagle

Male imperial x steppe eagle hybrid

Presumed F2 hybrid chicks (3/4 heliaca, Âź nipalensis)

Ankara

• 1-2 IE territorries • 2-3 Golden Eagle territorries

Ankara

Corum

• 4 nests found on poplars • Rubbish dump has important role

Corum

Corum

Cankiri

• 5 nests found on poplars and pine trees • Low density

Cankiri

Cankiri

Results: Steppe Eagle (Aquila nipalensis)

Hungarian-Russian expedition (2015)

Seyfe Gölü

Seyfe Gölü

Seyfe Gölü

Tuz Gölü

Tuz Gölü

Seife Gölü region 2 active and 5 old nests found

Tuz Gölü region 6 active and 2 old nests found

Results: Tracking • 3 EIEs, 2 SEs and 2 hybrids tagged in 2017 • 8 EIEs tagged in 2018

Aquila heliaca Aquila nipalensis Aquila heliaca x nipalensis

Aquila heliaca Aquila nipalensis Aquila heliaca x nipalensis

Aquila heliaca Aquila nipalensis Aquila heliaca x nipalensis

Conclusions on populations • Surveys covered a very small fraction of the potential habitats of Turkey • Most probably the 3rd largest EIE population in the world (after Russia and Kazakhstan) • Isolated population of SE (1500 km?) • Importance of threats are not known (electrocution, shooting and infrastructural development) • Limited local capacity for field work • Networking and capacity building is needed

Conclusions on migration Small sample size, but: • EIE juveniles seems to be resident (dispersal within Anatolia) • SE juveniles migrates to Sahel • Hybrid juveniles (F2?) are viable and also migratory to the same area, although migrate later and come back earlier

Acknowledgement • Participants (no. of expeditions): Bereczky Attila (1), Béres István (9), Deák Gábor (2), Demeter Iván (2), Dobromir Dobrev (1), Farkas Szabolcs † (1), Firmánszky Gábor (1), Gutermuth Miklós (1), Hajdú Csaba (1), Harmos Krisztián (1), Horváth Márton (11), Jakus László (1), Juhász Tibor (5), Kazi Róbert (2), Klébert Antal (2), Kleszó András (4), Kovács András (5), Kozma László (1), Losonczi László (1), Majercsák Bertalan (1), Matthias Schmidt (2), Müller András (1), Papp Gábor (3), Pénzes László (1), Pongrácz Ádám (1), Seres Nándor (2), Szelényi Balázs (1), Szitta Tamás (4), Turóczi Attila (1), Zelenák Attila (2) • BSPB, Save the Raptors LIFE project (Dimitar Demerdzhiev, Stoycho Stoychev, Svetoslav Spasov) • RSPB (Jose Tavares) • Doga Dernegi (Süreyya Isfendiyaroglu, Itri Levent Erkol) • Turkish Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs (Hasan Emir, Burak Tatar)

@PannonEagleLIFE www.imperialeagle.hu www.imperialeagle.eu horvath.marton@mme.hu

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