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full screen Two greater screech eagles hunting a prey. Archive image. Photo: Oded Balilty/AP/TT
Eagles that normally migrate through Ukraine appear to have changed their migration routes to avoid areas affected by the war. This is evident from a new study that has been published in the scientific journal Current Biology.
GPS data reveals that the greater bald eagle has not only taken major detours since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022 — it has also shortened or stopped resting stops altogether. This means that it took longer for the raptors to reach their nesting sites and that they probably also used more energy to get there.
– It’s almost as if you were to run a marathon without taking a water break. And at the end, someone asks you to run another 11-12 kilometers, says one of the authors behind the study, Charlie Russell from the University of East Anglia in Great Britain, to The Guardian.
The researchers analyzed the routes taken by 19 GPS-tagged eagles through Ukraine on their way to breeding grounds in Belarus in March and April 2022 – just weeks after the full-scale invasion began. The migration routes were then compared with 65 different routes taken by 20 birds during the years 2018-2021.
The greater bald eagle is classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).