Golden Eagles in Israel's Judean Desert
Written by Yoram Shpirer Translation and English revision by Jonathan Meyrav
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During the 2011 spring I followed and documented a nest of Golden Eagles in the Judean Desert, obtaining both stills and video footage. I followed the nest from a stationary, built hide that I would enter once a week before sunrise.
The pair of Golden Eagles that I followed are long time nesters in the region and even had their nest robbed a few years ago. The stolen eagle chicks were located and then retrieved from a residence in the Palestinian town of Hebron in a joint project of the Israeli Defense force and the Nature and Parks Authority.
See article here http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3422263,00.html
The Golden Eagle – Aquila chrysaetos is the largest breeding Eagle in Israel and can reach an age of over 30 years.
The wingspan of female Golden Eagles can reach 240 centimeters; males are a bit smaller in size.
In relation to its size, the Golden Eagle is an incredibly powerful hunter capable of hunting swoops of 150 Mph.
The Eagles diet consists of small mammals like Cape Hare, Asian Rock Hyrax and Fox. Although they are capable of taking larger prey like Nubian Ibex calves or goats these are usually collected as carcasses and then carried away. In addition Golden eagles in Israel regularly hunt Chukar, Rock Doves, domestic chickens and even Sandgrouse (an adult Black-bellied Sandgrouse was photographed in the nest). But above all these our Golden Eagles have a special liking for Tortoises.
There are no Tortoises in the Dead Sea area and nowhere near the Eagle nest. It is therefore clear that the Eagles fly a rather long way to the semi desert Judean Plateaus to find them. The Tortoises are brought to the nest alive or sometimes dead and "cracked" after being dropped from above to expose the soft flesh inside.
The Golden Eagle holds a huge territory of up to 150 Km square. Like most large birds of prey, the Eagle pair is monogamous and loyal (as opposed to mammals where one territorial male holds a harem of females). Every year towards the breeding season the male displays and courts the female.
The pair builds a huge nest, usually on a cliff ledge or in shallow open caves in the desert. The female lays 2 eggs on average and incubates them for 42 days. The female does most of the incubating while the male is in charge of supplying food and guarding the territory. Once the chicks have hatched both parents tend to the young.
The feeding of the chicks is done in a meticulous and well planned order. The larger chick is always the first to be fed, while the younger chick lies motionless and does not pester the feeding parent. Once the larger chick has had it's fill it steps aside and only then is the younger chick fed by the parent. The pattern continues even at a later stage when the chicks can eat a bit on their own will. As the time to leave the nest grows near, the "polite" behavior is abandoned and the chicks become more demanding. At this stage the older chick aggressively protects the prey brought to the nest, keeping it out of reach. On one occasion I witnessed the older chick attacking the adult female that brought a freshly hunted Hare to the nest. After a few minutes the chick calmed down and the female proceeded to break down the prey and to feed the chick in a regular manner.
Both chicks fledged at the age of two and a half months. Throughout the whole nesting period I did not witness even a hint of cainism (the act of the older chick killing the younger one, named after the story of Cain and Havel) which is common amongst other Aquila Eagles. In general the relationship between the chicks was non violent throughout. The parents continue feeding the recently fledged young in the area of the nest.
While in the desert I was lucky to witness an amazing phenomenon that involved interaction between the Golden Eagles and a family of Striped Hyenas that also resided in the area. After some time in the hide I noticed Hyena tracks directly under the nesting ledge. Since all my observations were carried from a distance I never really approached the cliff itself. It took me a while to realize what the Hyenas realized long before; that the ground below the nest was like a buffet, full of scraps and meat that would regularly drop from above. The Hyenas took advantage of this and enjoyed a regular supply of bones and Tortoise remains which they gathered to feed the young cubs. My first sighting of the cubs was incidental, when one day the adult Eagle attempted to pull them out of their daytime hiding burrows.
A very interesting point about the Golden Eagle is the origin of its name. In the Old Testament the Golden Eagle is referred to as "Vulture", the king of birds, and our modern day Vultures are referred to as "Eagles". "And the Eagles came down on the carcasses and Abraham drove them away" (Genesis 15, 11). Although the original Old Testament phrase mentions "Eagles" the birds in question were most likely carrion eating Vultures. On the same note, the biblical "Vulture" is synonymous with power and in Spanish the Golden Eagle is amply called Aguila real – the royal Eagle. In Jewish culture some spiritual leaders are referred to as "The great Vulture". It is unlikely that respected religious figures would be named after carrion eating birds, further enhancing the fact that somewhere along the line the Eagle name was regularly misused.
More examples include the famous Israeli beer "Nesher" (Vulture in Hebrew) which is famous for an impressive logo of an Eagle, and in Roman culture the so called "Vultures" on coins and icons, are actually very reminiscent of a Golden Eagle.
In 2008 the Israel Linguistics Academy did a bit of justice to the Eagle name and declared it as the "Vulture Eagle" (Golden Eagle) and added the word "Bald" to the Griffon Vulture to further clear the confusion.
The status of the Golden Eagle in Israel and beyond
The Golden Eagle is the most widespread Aquila Eagle in the world with a broad distribution across Europe, Asia, parts of Africa and North America. It is well known and popular and in Germany, Austria, Kazakhstan and Mexico it is considered a national emblem. In parts of Eastern Europe and Asia the Golden eagle is highly respected for its power and hunting skills, especially among Falconers and Shepherds. In some places in Asia the Eagles are trained to protect herds of sheep and goats. Young birds are taken from nests and the shepherds train them to chase Foxes, Jackals and Wolves. These birds evolve into excellent "guard dogs" against predators, especially during the calving season. When the birds near adulthood they are released back into the wild and replaced by other young birds. It is interesting that the shepherds choose to teach young birds every other year rather than keeping a well trained adult Eagle for many years. Even more interesting is the fact that the birds released back into the wild very quickly adapt to the natural life, hold territory, nest successfully and do not seem tainted by the human intervention in the first years of their life. Despite being so widespread, in some places around the world the Golden Eagle is declining, mainly due to hunting, toxins and disturbance.
In Israel Golden Eagles are quite rare and the local population is definitely under threat. These days only around 10 pairs of Golden Eagles breed in Israel, mainly in the Negev and the Judean Desert. The Israeli Eagle population suffers from the effects of pollution, poisonings, electrocutions on power lines and various levels of human interaction, from the marauding of nests (especially in the Palestinian territories) to unintentional disturbance by hikers, 4X4 vehicles and motorbikes, and rock climbers. Besides actual disturbance, Eagles in Israel are at risk of disease, especially from domestic chickens, Pigeons and livestock that they hunt and often bring to the nest. Eagles are known to roam large distances and although they are fully protected in Israel, in this part of the world many of the threats are outside of Israel's jurisdiction. Data collected from research involving satellite transmitters revealed at least 2 Golden Eagles that were hunted in Syria and Jordan and we know of birds that were shot in Lebanon and in the Palestinian territories.
During my field observations I noted large amounts of trash that was collected in the desert and brought to the nest by the Adult Eagles. The trash included mainly food wrappers, plastic and nylon bags, strands of rope and more. In the nest we found remains of a Helium balloon (that was also sampled by the chicks), a large sack of rice, pieces of an army flare parachute and more. Sadly, most of these items are not degradable and pose serious threat to the young birds in the nest. The chicks regularly peck at, and often also digest pieces of the shiny wrappers and metal scraps causing all kinds of problems to their digestive systems. The strands of rope get tangled in the feet of the young birds causing mobility problems and in some cases, especially when it is time to fledge, can cause death.
The "Spread your Wings" project
The 'Spread your Wings over Vultures and Raptors" project is a joint venture of the Israel Power Company, the Nature and Parks Authority and the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel. The project was initiated in 1996 in order to protect and better conserve Birds of Prey in Israel, especially Vultures and the large Eagles, including the Golden Eagle.
Conservation efforts include daily surveillance of active nests to protect them from marauders, from the moment the eggs are laid until 2 weeks after the young have fledged. One of the most important elements of the project is a captive breeding program for endangered and threatened birds of prey. The breeding program was established in order to further protect populations under threat and also includes several Golden Eagles that were collected or confiscated from nest thieves' residing in the Palestinian territories.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank all the dedicated people that work night and day to protect the Birds and Wildlife of Israel. More often than not, it is the individual action of these people that save lives and help conserve rare species that otherwise would have been long gone.
We are blessed to have such beautiful Nature and Wildlife in Israel; it is the responsibility of us all to do what we can to protect them.
