Eagles change their flight paths because of the war in Ukraine

Since Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin’s invasion, spotted eagles have literally avoided Ukraine. GPS data shows that they make long detours and take fewer and shorter breaks to eat. This is the conclusion of researchers from the University of East Anglia in Great Britain. For the study, GPS trackers were attached to the backs of the birds of prey.

How are the eagles doing in the new situation? “It’s like running a marathon but not having any water breaks. And at the end someone asks you to run more miles,” said Charlie Russell, co-author of the study. Tragically, this could also have consequences for the animals’ reproduction. Due to the war, the birds would need more time to recover. As a result, the offspring would have a lower chance of survival – after all, the parents would have to invest more time in hunting.

The higher the military activity, the fewer eagles
Every spring, thousands of greater spotted eagles travel from East Africa and Greece to Belarus to breed. A route comparison shows that the birds of prey have traveled an average of 85 kilometers more since the invasion. This means that they have to spend 55 hours more on the journey, the team reports in the journal ‘Current Biology’. Things don’t look rosy with the intermediate stops either. Before the conflict, 90 percent of eagles paused in Ukraine. Since the war of aggression, only 32 percent have done so. According to the team of scientists, the largest deviations occur where military activity is higher.

You can’t really help the birds in the current situation, Russell emphasizes. “But it is important that we understand the pressures on these populations so that in a post-conflict scenario we can help support and help recover not only larger spotted eagle populations, but also ecosystems as a whole.”