Telemetry of the juveniles of Imperial Eagle in West Slovakia

Telemetry of the juveniles of Imperial Eagle in West Slovakia

Vladimír Nemček, Michal Noga and Martin Dobrý

7th International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle 2.-5. October 2013 Bratislava, Slovakia

Raptor Protection of Slovakia, www.dravce.sk

Conservation of Raptors and Owls Slovakia-Austria • main aim: monitoring and conservation of raptors and owls (Annex II) in the border area • area: Zahorie region and Lower Austria • activities for Imperial Eagles: satellite and radio telemetry, protected zones around nest trees, nest controls after storms and monitoring

• 2011 - 2013

7th International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle 2.-5. October 2013 Bratislava, Slovakia

Raptor Protection of Slovakia, www.dravce.sk

Telemetry

• radio telemetry – yagi 3-elements antennas, receivers, GPS

• leg-mount radiotransmitters with pasture sensor • range etc. 16 km in the air, 5 km on the tree • homing method and distance estimating • distance estimating was used only on the lowland and tested in the field • one hour interval between positions recording

7th International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle 2.-5. October 2013 Bratislava, Slovakia

Raptor Protection of Slovakia, www.dravce.sk

Eagles with transmitters

• 6 juveniles tagged with radiotransmitters • one in 2011, five in 2012 • four juveniles from the same nest territory • lowland (5) and mountain (1)

7th International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle 2.-5. October 2013 Bratislava, Slovakia

Raptor Protection of Slovakia, www.dravce.sk

Conservation of the juveniles • primary aim: control of the juveniles after storms • two cases – one successful (Dano) and one unsuccessful (David) • controls based on the signal strength from transmitters • Dano – was fledged, but he was found under the nest tree in the reed and high grass • David – was found dead, he fell out of the nest during good weather conditions, survived only one day (information from the trail camera) 7th International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle 2.-5. October 2013 Bratislava, Slovakia

Raptor Protection of Slovakia, www.dravce.sk

Dano

• tagged with transmitter in June 2011 • natal area - Zahorska nizina lowland • the movement was monitored from August 2, 2011

7th International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle 2.-5. October 2013 Bratislava, Slovakia

Raptor Protection of Slovakia, www.dravce.sk

Movement of Dano

• 71 recorded positions/26 visual observations • September 22, 2011 – Dano abandoned parents territory • October 13, 2011 – February 14, 2012 – found in the Austrian – Hungarian border area (TSA) • May 4, 2012 – May 7, 2012 – last observations in Austria near Morava river

7th International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle 2.-5. October 2013 Bratislava, Slovakia

Raptor Protection of Slovakia, www.dravce.sk

Dorota • Dorota was tagged with transmitter in June 2012 • natal area - Zahorska nizina lowland • the movement was monitored from July 31, 2012 • 10 recorded positions/4 visual observations • September 2, 2012 - Dorota abandoned parents territory • October 30 – November 15, 2012 – she was observed in the Austrian Hungarian border area

7th International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle 2.-5. October 2013 Bratislava, Slovakia

Raptor Protection of Slovakia, www.dravce.sk

Dana • tagged with transmitter in June 2012 • natal area - Zahorska nizina lowland • the movement was monitored fromJuly 31, 2012 • 12 recorded positions/2 visual observations • September 2, 2012 Dana abandoned parents territory • September 5, 2012 – she was recorded over Male Karpaty Mountains • September 10, 2012 – she was recorded near AT-CZ-SK border area

7th International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle 2.-5. October 2013 Bratislava, Slovakia

Raptor Protection of Slovakia, www.dravce.sk

Sarlota • tagged with transmitter in June 2012 • natal area – Podunajska nizina lowland • nest in the floodplain forest • the movement was monitored from August 9, 2012

7th International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle 2.-5. October 2013 Bratislava, Slovakia

Raptor Protection of Slovakia, www.dravce.sk

Movement of Sarlota

• 20 recorded positions/2 visual observations • September 7 and September 16, 2012 Sarlota was recorded crossing over Male Karpaty mountains and she visited Zahorska nizina lowland • at the night she came back to the parents´ territory • September 28, 2012 she abandoned the parents´ territory

7th International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle 2.-5. October 2013 Bratislava, Slovakia

Raptor Protection of Slovakia, www.dravce.sk

Oliver • tagged with transmitter in June 2012 • natal area – Male Karpaty mountains • nest in the edge of the forest • the movement was monitored from August 9, 2012

7th International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle 2.-5. October 2013 Bratislava, Slovakia

Raptor Protection of Slovakia, www.dravce.sk

Movement of Oliver • 24 recorded positions/6 visual observations • September 10 and September 21, 2012 he was recorded crossing over Male Karpaty mountains and he visited Zahorska nizina lowland, at the night he came back to the parents´ territory • during September and November he spent time in the Trnavska pahorkatina upland • he was lost during October • last recorded position December 13, 2012

7th International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle 2.-5. October 2013 Bratislava, Slovakia

Raptor Protection of Slovakia, www.dravce.sk

Movement of the Eagles

7th International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle 2.-5. October 2013 Bratislava, Slovakia

Raptor Protection of Slovakia, www.dravce.sk

Post-fledging areas • post-fledging area – area occupied by the juvenile after fledging (with exploratory flights), but night is spending in the parents´ territory (20 km out of the nest) • minimum convex polygon and 95% characteristic hull polygon • exploratory flights – Sarlota – 33 km, Oliver – 38 km, Dano – 12 km from the nest Post-fledging area

Season

MCP (km2)

CHP (km2)

Dano

August-September

89

71

Oliver

August – December

969

507

Sarlota

August – September

941

605

7th International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle 2.-5. October 2013 Bratislava, Slovakia

Raptor Protection of Slovakia, www.dravce.sk

Temporary settlement area • temporary settlement area – TSA – area occupied by the eagles, more than 20 km from the natal area, occupied for more than five days • TSA – Austrian – Hungarian – Slovakian border zone (two eagles with transmitters were recorded)

Area

Season

MCP (km2)

CHP (km2)

TSA – Dano

October – February

68

57

7th International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle 2.-5. October 2013 Bratislava, Slovakia

Raptor Protection of Slovakia, www.dravce.sk

Map of the post-fledging areas and TSA

7th International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle 2.-5. October 2013 Bratislava, Slovakia

Raptor Protection of Slovakia, www.dravce.sk

Map of the post-fledging areas and TSA

7th International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle 2.-5. October 2013 Bratislava, Slovakia

Raptor Protection of Slovakia, www.dravce.sk

Cover of habitats (post-fledging areas and TSA) 95% CHP method

Dano

Oliver

Sarlota

TSA - Dano 7th International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle 2.-5. October 2013 Bratislava, Slovakia

Raptor Protection of Slovakia, www.dravce.sk

Maps of the habitat cover

7th International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle 2.-5. October 2013 Bratislava, Slovakia

Raptor Protection of Slovakia, www.dravce.sk

Conclusion

Thanks to telemetry, we obtained: • new data about movement of the juveniles of the Imperial Eagle in the West Slovakia • basic data for post-fledging and dispersal period • data about area and habitat cover of the post-fledging and temporary settlement areas • one juvenile was rescued

7th International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle 2.-5. October 2013 Bratislava, Slovakia

Raptor Protection of Slovakia, www.dravce.sk

Acknowledgement We have to thank to Jozef Chavko, Leoš Prešinský, Richard Galáš and Ján Svetlik for their help with the field work. And to Austrian friends from CORO SKAT team and Austrian ornithologists (Gabor Wichmann, Matthias Schmidtt, Thomas Zuna-Kratky, Jacob Pohacker, Michael Bierbaumer, Konrad Edelbacher and others) for information about movement of the eagles and observations in the field.

This research couldn´t be executed without the project CORO SKAT.

7th International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle 2.-5. October 2013 Bratislava, Slovakia

Raptor Protection of Slovakia, www.dravce.sk

•

Raptor Protection of Slovakia

Thanks for attention!

7th International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle 2.-5. October 2013 Bratislava, Slovakia