Crowned eagles rarely prey on livestock in central Argentina: persecution is not justified

Abstract

Raptors have been reported to prey on livestock, causing considerable conflicts between birds of prey and local human communities. Previous studies have documented that human persecution is the most important threat to the endangered crowned eagle Harpyhaliaetus coronatus in central Argentina, due to a local belief that crowned eagles heavily and consistently prey on livestock. However, there are no empirical data supporting this assertion. Such information is crucial to evaluating possible measures to mitigate this human-wildlife conflict. We evaluated the feeding ecology of crowned eagles in semiarid habitats of central Argentina during the breeding seasons of 2002 to 2009. We also evaluated whether eagles are responsible for livestock predation and examined spatial-temporal variation in crowned eagles' food habits. We identified 598 prey items consisting almost entirely of native prey: mammals (67.7%), reptiles (16.2%), birds (3.3%), fish (2.5%), and invertebrates (16.9%). We only recorded 1 (0.17%) occurrence of livestock prey remains, belonging to a domestic goat Capra hircus. Occurrences of the 4 main prey groups were not affected by habitat type or season. However, reptiles were recorded in higher numbers at sites where the diet of eagles was addressed by direct observation and video recording. Contrary to other human-predator conflicts worldwide, and assuming that the single livestock prey was not scavenged, our results show that crowned eagles rarely prey on livestock. We advocate reducing human-wildlife conflicts by implementing management and conservation measures and by educating local communities with respect to the ecological role of crowned eagles and other predators.

Peasant farmer–raptor conflicts around Chembe Bird Sanctuary, Zambia, Central Africa: poultry predation, ethno–biology, land use practices and conservation

“…These persecutions translate to species extirpation as raptor breeding rates and density decrease within large geographical ranges (Graham et al, 2005;Thirgood et al, 2005;Peterson et al, 2010). Such decreases may have perceived and actual economic impacts associated with the incurred losses (Sarasola et al, 2010;Margalida et al, 2014).…”

Deforestation May Trigger Black-and-Chestnut Eagle (Spizaetus isidori) Predation on Domestic Fowl

“…This rate of predation on domestic animals is the highest reported based on the information available on Neotropical raptors. In Argentina, for H. coronatus goats (Capra hircus) represented only 0.2% of its diet (Sarasola et al, 2010), while in Brazil, for S. ornatus' chickens made up 3.3% of its diet (Zilio, 2017). In this context, the consumption of domestic animals by S. isidori in Colombia is not unusual, and also indicates that with relative frequency, this species forages in habitats dominated by humans, thus creating conflict with communities of local inhabitants and leading to the persecution of the eagle.…”

“…This type of conflict should be examined from different perspectives, in order to set clear, relevant ecological and social research objectives. The effective management of conflicts between humans and raptors should be based on an indepth analysis of the ecological circumstances related to the predation of domestic animals (McPherson et al, 2015;Sarasola et al, 2010), and on the perception and behavior of the local inhabitants toward these birds (Cailly-Arnulphi, Lambertucci, & Borghi, 2017). This information is important in planning strategies that are ecologically and socially informed, in order to mitigate or prevent conflict between people and raptors.…”

Population genetics of the endangered Crowned Solitary Eagle (Buteogallus coronatus) in South America

“…The species is listed as endangered under the IUCN Red List with a declining world population estimated at less than one thousand reproductive individuals (BirdLife International 2016). Reduced population size and range contraction of Crowned Solitary Eagles is suspected to be human induced, including habitat loss (Bellocq et al 1998;Fandiño and Pautasso 2014), electrocution (Maceda 2007), as well as shooting (Sarasola and Maceda 2006;Sarasola et al 2010).…”