Golden Eagle Maps
Where are Golden Eagles 731 and 733? You might remember that we posted about capturing two Golden Eagles and fitting them with transmitters in January and February – article here: https://www.raptorresource.org/2022/03/22/golden-eagle-trapping-in-the-driftless/ and Golden Eagle information here: https://www.raptorresource.org/learning-tools/golden-eagles/. Click on the images below to see the full eagle map.
731 is an adult female. She left her winter range in the Driftless north of La Crosse in late March and headed NNW to Nunavut. Sadly, she died in August. We’re working with local people to see if we can recover her body for an autopsy.
733 is a sub-adult female. She her winter range in the Driftless north of La Crosse in April and headed north by west to north central Manitoba, on the western shore of Hudson’s Bay. She made it as far north as the west coast of Hetta inlet – roughly 1600 hundred miles north of her wintering grounds. She has since returned to SW Wisconsin for the winter.
Golden Eagle range map. Map generated by eBird.org
I’m fascinated by the differences between Nunavut and the Driftless. A breeding pair of Golden Eagles on the steep slopes of coastal Nunavut might take seals, arctic fox, marmots, arctic and snowshoe hares, ermine, wolverines, ptarmigan, a wide variety of waterfowl, and whale and dolphin carcasses that wash ashore. In the Driftless, that same pair will feed on wild turkeys, pheasants, weasels, cottontail rabbits, red and grey fox, coyote, white-tailed deer, and roadkill and farm carcasses. In each place, the pair will eat different prey, adjust their hunting techniques to different terrain, and face vastly different landscapes – a change that requires intelligence and the ability to learn quickly.
To learn more about Golden Eagles, follow this link: https://www.raptorresource.org/learning-tools/golden-eagles/.
The Raptor Resource Project