Spatial Distribution and Landscape Characteristics of Flores Hawk-Eagle (Nisaetus Floris) Habitat in Flores Island

Abstract

Flores Hawk-Eagle (FHE, Nisaetus floris) is one of the endemic and keystone species that was rarely studied among other eagles. The study on the FHE is currently experiencing limited information for estimating their distribution area. Therefore, the FHE habitat distribution is required as the essential information for developing the strategies and conservation action. The objectives of this study were to identify the spatial habitat distribution and analyze the characteristics of the habitat. Minimum convex polygon (MCP) and kernel-density estimation (KDE) 95% was combined with the land cover map for delineating the patch habitat of FHE. Slope, elevation, and land cover were used as environmental variables. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) combine with GIS were used for characterizing the landscape habitat. The results showed that there were eight habitat patches with a total area of 1.132 km2. Six principal components were retained from PCA analysis which explained 71.96% of data variance. Habitat characteristics of FHE describe its requirement for nesting and hunting activities for principal components 1 to 4, while for flight activity related to principal components 5 and 6. Forests and savannahs become the main habitat preference for both nesting and hunting activities. Results of this study will be supported as baseline information for developing conservation strategies and action for FHE.

Identification of spatial data and ecology of Javan hawk-eagle's nest (Nisaetus bartelsi) in the Kondang Merak Coastal, South Malang, East Java, Indonesia

“…The open view and tall trees provided by the savanna are likely favorable to raptors such as the Flores hawk-eagle to watch and hunt its prey. Ideal environments for hunting and perching were mainly vegetated areas with the presence of trees in various surface cover types (Aguiar-Silva et al 2014;Larkin et al 2020;Miranda et al 2020;Syartinilia and Setiawan 2021).…”

Vocal Activity Patterns of the Changeable Hawk-Eagle (Nisaetus cirrhatus) in Peninsular Malaysia during Mid-Breeding Season

“…Within the Southeast Asian region, a plethora of ecological studies have been conducted on the Javan Hawk-Eagle ( Nisaetus bartelsi ; Nijman et al 2000, Nijman and van Balen 2003, Gjershaug et al 2004, Prawiradilaga 2006, Kaneda et al 2007, Gunawan et al 2016, Prawiradilaga et al 2016, Septiana et al 2020, Suyitno and Syartinilia 2020) and Mountain Hawk-Eagle ( Nisaetus nipalensis ; Iida et al 2006, Sun et al 2009, Huang et al 2021, Nishibayashi et al 2022). Likewise, other lesser known hawk-eagles have gained interest from researchers over the past two decades (e.g., Flores Hawk-Eagle [Raharjaningtrah and Rahman 2004, Syartinilia and Setiawan 2021, Worho et al 2022] and North Philippine Hawk-Eagle [ Nisaetus philippensis ; Gan et al 2022]).…”