YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — Biologists in Yellowstone National Park (YNP) recently offered a peek into the ways they monitor golden eagle populations in the park.
In photos taken by National Park Service photographer Jacob W. Frank and shared by YNP at the end of January, bird biologist David Haines and his team can be seen fitting a resident golden eagle with a GPS backpack; measuring its wings, beak, tail feathers and talons; and applying identifying bands to its ankles.
YNP confirmed to Buckrail that the park has been researching its golden eagle population since 2011.
“After years of monitoring reproduction, the park began capturing birds in 2018 to deploy GPS transmitters for telemetry work,” YNP’s press office stated in an email. “The park collected data such as annual reproductive rates, diet, survival rates, and movement related to habitat resources at both broad and fine scales of the landscape.”
Yellowstone has a high density of golden eagles, which are facing population challenges due to “broad-scale energy development (wind, gas) and increasing human activity,” per YNP. The species occupies an estimated 30 different territories within the park. Some research suggests the eagles are exposed to toxic levels of lead in scavenged carrion hunted outside the park. Population restoration efforts are underway in parts of Wyoming.
YNP noted that the common raven and the Clark’s nutcracker are also part of collaborative research projects that involve the use of telemetry.
