Fear of fighting
Eagles change flight routes because of the war in Ukraine
The brutal Russian war of aggression is also affecting the animal world. Eagles, for example, are now changing their flight routes to avoid the fighting.
Since the invasion by Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin, golden eagles have literally given Ukraine a wide berth. GPS data shows that they fly long detours and take fewer and shorter breaks to feed. This was the conclusion reached by researchers from the University of East Anglia in the UK. For the study, GPS trackers were attached to the backs of the birds of prey.
How do eagles feel about the new situation? "It's like running a marathon but having no water breaks. And at the end, someone asks you to run more miles," explains Charlie Russell, co-author of the study. Tragically, this could also affect the reproduction of the animals. This is because the birds need more time to recover due to the war. As a result, the offspring would have less chance of survival - after all, the parents would have to invest more time in hunting.
The higher the military activity, the fewer eagles
Every spring, thousands of golden eagles set off from East Africa and Greece to Belarus to breed. A route comparison revealed that the birds of prey have probably covered an average of 85 kilometers more since the invasion. This means they have to spend 55 hours more on the journey, the team reports in the journal "Current Biology". The situation is also not rosy when it comes to stopovers. Before the conflict, 90 percent of eagles stopped over in Ukraine. Since the war of aggression, only 32 percent do so. According to the team of scientists, the greatest deviations occur where military activity is higher.
It is not really possible to help the birds in the current situation, emphasizes Russell. "But it's important that we understand the pressures on these populations so that in a post-conflict scenario we can help support not just the golden eagle populations and help them recover, but ecosystems as a whole."
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