Extract
Martial eagles are in rapid decline throughout SA and many other parts of their range in sub-Saharan Africa. These declines have been so steep, that this species is now considered vulnerable to extinction.
But conservationists still don’t have a very good handle on what could be driving these declines across Africa. Suggestions include habitat loss, deliberate and incidental poisoning, hunting in response to the fear of livestock loss, collisions with power lines and pollution.
A recent concern is a reduction in available prey. Unfortunately, our knowledge of what this species preys on is relatively poor. We only really have two South African studies from the 1980s. Our research sought to overcome some of these limitations. We explored some alternative options for identifying important prey eaten by this species. As martial eagles are beautiful, people love to take photographs of them and post these online. We realised that hundreds of photographers, amateurs to professionals, have been collecting data. To help answer some conservation questions we tapped into this resource of photographs taken at multiple locations across the continent over many years. What they eat Scientists use a range of methods to understand what raptors — birds that feed on smaller animals — eat. These include collecting and identifying prey remains from nest sites, inspecting pellets, which are regurgitated balls of indigestible prey parts, watching from hides set up at nests, or u...
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