Verreaux’s Eagle

Verreaux’s Eagles are mountain specialists and build large stick nests on inaccessible cliff faces. Because of the location, these nests are normally robust to disturbance and habitat loss. Still, in many areas, their home ranges have undergone fragmentation and land-use change. In southern Africa, populations of Verreaux’s Eagles have declined by about 30%, and more recently, they have come under additional pressures from wind energy. Like Golden Eagles, Verreaux’s Eagles are prone to collisions with wind turbines, and the combined impacts of mortality from these collisions could threaten the species’ long-term viability. To address this problem with colleagues at the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, we have collected GPS tracking data from Verreaux’s Eagles so that we can understand where collisions are likely to occur before wind turbines are built. We built a statistical model to examine these factors closely, and we are now able to use this model to make predictions of collision risk on a fine spatial scale across proposed developments. This model is now being used in South Africa to encourage wind development in the least risky areas and to deter it in locations that are likely to pose a high risk to the resident Verreaux’s Eagle population.