The researchers who are trying to save the biblical eagle from extinction in Israel
Have you seen an eagle in the skies of the Golan or southern Israel in recent years? You won, because in Israel this is a very rare sight. There is no gentle way to say it, the situation of the biblical eagles in Israel is very worrying. In addition to being large and impressive birds, eagles are considered nature's cleaning workers, who, among other things, clean the open areas of large animal carcasses. When there are no eagles - the ecological balance is violated, which may lead to damage to the populations of other animals and even to humans. This year alone, over ten individuals died here for various reasons, and the slope of the mortality graph continues to fall. In the laboratory of Dr. Or Spiegel from the School of Zoology at the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, in cooperation with the Nature and Parks Authority (RTG), are fighting for every eagle. Just recently, they broadcast and released 64 eagles back into the wild, as part of the 'Eagle Project'. We set out to check how they do it and what is the future of the biblical eagle in Israel.
Our eagle is a friend, he will take us to Yemen
You will often find the friends and members of the research team from Dr. Or Spiegel's laboratory in the field, climbing steep cliffs and rocks in the desert, looking for signals from a bird of prey or wolf transmitter, entering feeding cages together with eagles with a huge wingspan or simply analyzing the flight paths of the birds The huge ones who went on a night trip to Jordan or Egypt and Sudan and returned to Israel. Together with RTG, the team (Dr. Neely Englister, Dr. Martha Acasio and Gideon Vadia) is trying to understand what affects the morbidity and mortality of the eagle population, although among us - anyone who is up-to-date on the news knows that poisoning is probably the number one factor.
The laboratory, which investigates the relationship between sociality and movement in wild animals, provides RTG with real-time information on every step (or actually flight) of the eagles through about 130 transmitters that are attached to the birds. "You can use them to get the location of the animal and analyze with AI additional data such as its activity graph, where it stopped to sleep or eat and for how long, an aviation accelerometer and also the route it took in a given period," says Dr. Spiegel.
Thanks to the broadcasters, it is already known that eagle forays into Jordan are commonplace. There are even eagles that regularly make journeys as far as Yemen and Saudi Arabia, or (from the other side of the Red Sea), as far as Sudan and Chad. Therefore, it can be understood that the extinction of the eagles is actually regional. Thanks to machine learning, which is done today in collaboration with The university's DATA SCIENCE center, it is possible to process the information coming from the transmitters, and, among other things, to define high-risk areas for the discovery of poisoned carcasses.
As soon as Dr. Spiegel's transmitters receive a signal that an eagle has landed, a message is sent in the Telegram group of companies and members of the project, and an RTG inspector runs to check the carcass next to which the eagle landed. Sounds Sisyphean, but it turns out it works.
Broadcasting from the field
The lifespan of the transmitter can reach three years ("sometimes it lasts longer than the eagle to which it was attached", says Dr. Spiegel with a bitter smile), if it is not damaged or dropped. Every few months special capture, transmitter and release operations are held. How do you catch an eagle? Good that you asked.
To protect Israel's eagles, feeding stations were established in the living areas in the north and south, which are managed and operated by the Nature and Parks Authority. These are huge cages, where large animal carcasses are brought that have been carefully checked to ensure that they are not poisoned or contain drugs that could harm the eagles. "The eagles feed on large carrion. They search mainly in grazing areas where there are often poisoned animals. It can be intentional poisoning, where someone puts poison to protect their herds from stray dogs or wolves, or even unintentional poisoning, for example when a sick animal is treated with medicine and dies. Her carcass is left exposed and the eagle comes to her, but its stomach cannot break down and digest the medicine that is in the cow's body, and then it poisons it," explains Dr. Spiegel.
"We have changed nature and therefore we do not have the privilege not to address the problem. Once upon a time, many herbivorous wild animals grazed in these fields, which made up a significant portion of the birds of prey's diet. Today these fields are cultivated, most of them providing fodder for food animals, from which the eagles are now supposed to subsist. And this is our opportunity to give them something better in a high probability."
The eagles know the locations of the stations, land there and also 'pass it on' for more details, as part of their social communication. The captures for the purpose of checking the eagles and their transmitters are carried out at these feeding stations. Dozens of eagles arrive at the scene within a few days, and then the process that lasts a few hours begins: dozens of inspectors and researchers quickly replace the wing tags that facilitate the identification of the individuals and the transmitters that allow the tracking to be carried out. On this occasion, blood samples are also taken from them, to get a picture of their health status. All are released on the same day and follow-up begins anew.
moderate the slope
According to Dr. Spiegel, almost every month or two an eagle or two die in Israel from poisoning. For the most part, the issue only makes the headlines when it comes to mass poisoning. Apart from RTG's eagle project in which the laboratory participates, other attempts are being made to preserve the species that is at local risk of extinction in Israel, including importing eagles from Europe and releasing them into the wild under supervision, and cultivating breeding seeds in the Judean desert, in the Gamla and Carmel reserves. But the death rate is still higher than the reproduction rate. To explain the ear, in the wild, a pair of eagles will raise one chick a year. If he survives, the chick will reach sexual maturity at the age of 5 and then begin to reproduce, and if the tool goes well - he will get to reach the extreme age of 25-20 years.
RTG's eagles project, in which the laboratory and other bodies participate, is a fine example of the way in which the interfaces of science, data collection and analysis, and nature conservation can work together, but the bottom line is that Dr. Spiegel is not optimistic about the future of eagles in Israel: "We are fighting an all-out battle . The eagle population is declining and we are trying to slow the decline enough to solve all the other problems before it is too late. If there isn't a massive change here in terms of awareness of the damage caused by poisoning, and in the field of enforcement and punishment - I'm afraid we won't succeed."
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