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Winter Diet of the Greater Spotted Eagle &Lpar;<I>Aquila Clanga</I>&Rpar; in the Amvrakikos Wetlands, Greece

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Winter Diet of the Greater Spotted Eagle &Lpar;<I>Aquila Clanga</I>&Rpar; in the Amvrakikos Wetlands, Greece DECEMBER2004 SHORT COMMUNICATIONS 371 1995. Birds of prey in Japan. Okumura Printing, To- --. 2000. Forest ti-agmentation,competition, and ch- kyo, Japan. matic dependence in the honey buzzard (Pernisap,- ORTA,J. 1994. Western Honey-buzzardand CrestedHon- vorus).J. Ornithol.141:68-76. ey-buzzard.Pages 111-112 in J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, SUNG,Y.J., W.J. Lo, M. WEI, AND X.L. CHANG.1991. Pre- and J. Sargatal [EDs.], Handbook of the birds of the liminary studyon the breeding biology of the Orien- world. Vol. 2. Lynx Edicions,Barcelona, Spain. tal Honey-buzzard(Pernis ptilorhyncus). Science Print- SAPORETTI,E, W. GUENZANI,AND P. PAVAN.1994. Density, ing, Beijing, China. habitat,and breedingsuccess of diurnal raptorsin the VAN MANEN, W. 2000. Reproductive strategy of honey Prealpsof NW Italy.Riv. Ital. Ornitol.63:145-173. buzzardsPernis apivorus in the northern Netherlands. SELAS,V. 1997. Nest-siteselection by four syrupatticfbrest Limosa 73:81-86. raptorsin southernNorway. J. RaptorRes. 31:16-25. STEINER,H. 1992. The diurnal raptor community of a farmland area in upper Austria. Egretta35:96-110. Received 5 January 2004; accepted 3 September 2004 j RaptorRes. 38(4):371-374 ¸ 2004 The Raptor ResearchFoundation, Inc. WINTER DIET OF THE GREATERSPOTTED EAGLE (AQUILACLANGA) IN THE AMVRAKIKOS WETLANDS, GREECE HARALAMBOS ALIVIZATOS 1 4 Zaliki Str., GR-115 24 Athens, Greece DIMITRIS PAPANDROPOULOS 21 Zaimi Str., GR-26 500 Rion, Greece STAMATIS ZOGARIS NationalCenter for MarineResearch, Institute of Inland Waters,P O. Box 712, 19 013 AnavyssosAttiki, Greece KEYWORDS: GreaterSpotted Eagle,, Aquila clanga;diet;, win- international cooperation, monitoring, and research ter, wetland;Amvrakikos; ¸reece. (Meyburg et al. 2001). The biology of the Greater Spot- ted Eagle has not been examined to a great extent; ad- The Greater SpottedEagle (Aquilaclanga) is a globally- ditionally, its diet has been examined almost exclusively threatened raptor, which breeds from Eastern Europe to during the breeding season(e.g., Priklonsky 1960, Gal- the Pacific coast of the northern Far East and winters ushin 1962, Pankin 1972, Ivanovsky1996). Few studiesof locally in southern Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and any kind have been conducted in the winter quartersof sub-SaharanAfrica as thr south as Uganda and Kenya this species(Moltoni 1943,Francois 1992, Qingxia 1996) (Tucker and Heath 1994). The main reasonstbr its de- Although an important population of Greater Spotted cline are habitat destruction and degradation (in both Eagleswinters in the extensivewetlands of northern and forests,where the speciesnests, and wetlands,where it central Greece (45-85 individuals), up to now it has re- forages),disturbance during the breedingseason, illegal ceived very little attention (Hallmann 1989, Handrinos shooting (mainly in migration), and to a lesserextent, and Akriotis 1997). Here, we present the results of an nest robbing (Tucker and Heath 1994, Meyburg et al. examination of Greater Spotted Eaglesat a key wintering 2001). The primary proposed conservationmeasures in- site, the Amvrakikos wetlands, western Greece, where up clude the establishmentof protected areasin the breed- to 12 individualswinter each year. mg habitat of the species,preservation of a mosaic of STUDY AREA AND METHODS breeding-feedinghabitat, protection of wetlands,avoid- ance of disturbanceduring the breeding seasonwithin Our studyarea was in the Amvrakikoswetlands, west- 300 m of nests, as well as improvement of legislation, ern Greece (38ø59'-39ø11'N, 20ø44'-21ø07'E). Amvrak•- kos is a Ramsar Wetland, a Special Protection Area, and proposedNational Park. It is one of the largestwetlands E-mail address:[email protected] in Greececovering 220 kma includingriver deltas,coastal 372 SHO1•TCOMMUNICATIONS VOL. 38, No. 4 lagoons, extensive saltmarshes,reedbeds, relic riparian as Common Moorhens (Gallinula chloropus),Common woods, and grazed grasslands.Large areas bordering the Coots (Fulica atra), Little Egrets (Egrettagarzetta), and salt marsheshave been drained and support intensiveag- small gulls (Larus spp). We alsofound lead shot in 3.2% riculture and livestockfarming. The roost site of the of the pellets. Greater Spotted Eagles observed was located in a small clump of very tall Eucalyptustrees on the banks of the DISCUSSION Arachthos River, <2 km awayfrom a major village. This roost is ca. 2 km from the estuarine wetlands of the river Although the samplewas comparatively small, some in- delta and is in a region of intensive agriculture, domi- terestingconclusions may be drawn. The proportion of nated by citrus plantations.The scatteredtrees along the birds found in the diet was higher in the Amvrakikos bank of this region of the river include white poplar (P0- wetlandsthan in any other studyof the Greater Spotted pulus alba), willows (Salix sp), ashes (Fraxinussp.), and Eagle. Priklonsky (1960), in the mouth of the BelayaRiv- common alder (Alnusglutinosa). Anfid the nativeriparian er, Russia,based on pellet analysis(78 pellets and 274 trees are a few planted eucalyptus(Eucalyptus sp.), some reaching a considerableheight (ca. 40 m). In the winter prey items) reported the diet of the species,consisting of 2001-02, eagles roosted exclusivelyon the Eucalyptus of 69.0% mantotals,23.0% reptiles,7.7% birds,and 0.3% sp, but they did not seemto use thesetrees in the winter fish (only vertebrates included). In addition, insectsoc- of 2002-03, althoughthey did gather to roost in the tree curred in 29.4% of the pelletsand carrion (primarily standsin the vicinity.In other parts of Amvrakikos,eagles moose[Alces alces] ) in at least20.5% of the pellets.Study roost on oaks (Quercusspp.) in the ad.jacent limestone of the prey remains in the nests of the eaglesalso re- hfils (100-300 m elevation) 1-5 km awayfrom the wet- vealed a predominance of mammals and birds. Most land habitats. We located four such roosts in the Am- mammals were small rodents, while most reptiles were vrakikos, but pellets where collected only from the one at the Arachthos Delta because the others were in rela- snakes.Priklonsky (1960) summarized the resultsof sev- eral studies as follows: n•ammals 66.0-88.6%, birds 46.2- tively inaccessibleareas (steep, forested hills), or difficult to pin-point with precision (woodlotsin marshes). 97.0%, insects5.5-34.0%, and reptiles0.0-12.3% (occur- The diet of the specieswas studied by the analysisof rence in pellets). Galushin (1962) in the valley of the pellets that were collected in January and March 2002 Oka River during the period 1954-57, found the follow- from under the regular roost,in a smallEucalyptus clump, ing yearly variation in diet: n•ammals42.6-68.0%, birds which was used by six to seven Greater Spotted Eagles. 32.0-69.0%, fish 0.0-1.8%, and reptilesand amphibians Up to two Common Buzzards (Buteobuteo) were also seen each 0.0-0.6% (basedon prey numbers).In Byelorussia, to use the trees near the Eucalyptustrees, but not near Ivanovsky (1996) found that 50 prey items (from re- the eagles.Buzzard pelletswere easilydistinguished from mains)were 53.8% mammals,21.1% amphibians,17.4% those of the eagles by a combination of both size and birds,and 7.7% reptiles.Qingxia (1996) studiedthe diet form (eagle pellets were ca. 70-120 X 30-50 mm and had a generally loose form, while those of buzzardswere of the eagles wintering in the Lishan Nature Reserve ca 50-75 X 20-35 mm and were quite compact). Be- (China) and found the diet consistedof about equal cause of these differences and in combination with their numbersof mammalsand birds (N = 68 prey items). The location, we f•el that it is unlikely that pellets of the two mammals consumed were mostly rodents, as well as some specieswere confused.Prey remains were identified with rabbits,collectively making up 52.1% of the diet by biD- the help of reference books (Brown et al. 1987, Chinery mass.A varietyof bird specieswere alsoeaten (47.9% of 1993, Macdonald and Barrett 1993). The number of prey diet by biomass),including severalgamebirds (Phasiani- •tems was determined by counting the number of skull dae). and major limb bones represented, when these were Often, the study of pcllets can result in biased esti- present; unless these indicated otherwise, we assumed mates of diet composition; that is, this methodologycan the presenceof one individual of each prey type per pel- let lead to the underestimateof certain prey types (particu- larly amphibians)and the overestimatein others.Vlachos RESULTS and Papageorgiou(1996) found that a large proportion of the prey delivered in the nestsof LesserSpotted Eagles We collected57 pelletsfrom the Eucalyptusroost, used (Aquilapomarina), as recorded by direct observation,con- by 6-7 individuals.The size of the pellets was ca. 70-120 sistedof frogs, but these were only infrequentlyrepre- X 30-50 ram. In the studyarea, the Greater Spotted Ea- sented in the pellet analysis.Also many, or all, of the gle preyed primarily on birds, but it also took mammals, insectsfound in pellets in this and other studies,may reptiles, amphibians,fish, and insects(Table l). By num- have been ingested secondarily (i.e., consumedby the bers, among95 prey items,birds comprised84.2% of the eagle prey). diet, followed by insects,mammals, reptiles, fish and am- Nearly all the prey speciesidentified inhabitedwetland phibians (Table 1). By mass,birds were even more im- habitats,particularly the salt marshesand coastallagoons portant (94.6%), while other prey were of comparatively (Table 1). Surprisingly,few speciesof prey from the ad- minor importance. The most important birds, in terms jacent agricultural lands were taken (e.g., the small ro- of biomass,were ducks, particularly Eurasian Wigeons dents and beetles). (Anaspenelope) and Common Teals (Anas crecca),as well The high proportion of water birds in our study was DECEMBER2004 SHORT COMMUNICATIONS 373 Table1. Diet of the GreaterSpotted Eagle (Aquila clanga) in the AmvrakikosWetland (N = 57 pellets). PERCENT PERCENT COMMON NAME SCIENTIFIC NAME NUMBER NUMBER BIOMASS Insects Insecta 5 5.3 < 0.1 Ground beetles Carabidae 5 5.3 <0.1 Fish Pisces 2 2.1 3.1 Mullets Mugilidae 2 2.1 3.1 Amphibians Amphibia 1 1.1 0.1 Frogs Ranasp.
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