Two incidents of talon-grappling and cartwheeling in the Tawny Eagle Aquila rapax

Incidence of Cartwheeling Flights in Raptors of South-Central Chile

“…Cartwheeling has been described as part of the courtship behavior in large eagles (Brown and Amadon 1968, Seipke and Cabanne 2002, Borello and Borello 2004, Valdez and Osborn 2004, Murn et al 2009). Although for G. melanoleucus, circular soaring flights and persecutions have been reported as pair courtship behavior (Jiménez and Jaksić 1990, Pavez 2001, cartwheeling flights have not been described as a courtship behavior and thus, this is the first case documented for this species.…”

“…Although this behavior has been widely reported to occur in raptors in Nearctic (North America;Watson 1940, Kilham 1981, Craig et al 1982, Clark 1984, Arndt 1995, Hopkins et al 2009) and Afrotropical (Africa; Brown andAmadon 1968, Simmons andMendelsohn 1993 [andreferences therein], Boix-Hinzen and Witts 2002, Borello and Borello 2004, Murn et al 2009) zoogeographical zones, scant and isolated reports have come from the Neotropics (Central and South America;Ellis 1992, Farquhar et al 1994, Seipke and Cabanne 2002, Figueroa Rojas 2003, Valdez and Osborn 2004, Hengstenberg and Vilella 2005, Méndez-Mojica 2012, Norambuena et al 2012, Leveau 2013. In particular, long-term behavioral and breeding studies from Chile have not reported cartwheeling between interacting raptors (Jimé-nez and Jaksić 1989, 1991RivasFuenzalida et al 2011RivasFuenzalida et al , 2013, with the exception of Figueroa Rojas (2003) and Norambuena et al (2012).…”

“…The talon contact in flight and cartwheeling between two raptors has generally been reported intraspecifically and interpreted as aggression, courtship, play, and aerial prey transfer (e.g., Brown and Amadon 1968, Johnsgard 1990, Simmons and Mendelsohn 1993, Kitowski 2001, Seipke and Cabanne 2002, Borello and Borello 2004, Hengstenberg and Vilella 2005, Murn et al 2009). To a lesser extent, it has been reported interspecifically and interpreted as an aggressive behavior to defend a breeding or hunting territory (e.g., Simmons and Mendelsohn 1993, Farquhar et al 1994, Figueroa Rojas 2003, Hopkins et al 2009).…”

Talon-Grappling and Cartwheeling of Hooded Vultures in South Africa

“…These flights are considered to be primarily aggressive interactions between territorial birds (Simmons andMendelsohn 1993, Raimilla et al 2015). However, cartwheeling is not always related to aggression and is sometimes associated with food transfers (Kitowski 2001), courtship (Simmons and Mendelsohn 1993), or as a prelude to copulation (Borello andBorello 2004, Murn et al 2009).…”