Martial Eagle "Polemaetus bellicosus"

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Richprins
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Re: Martial Eagle

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Re: Martial Eagle

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Wow! Great sighting :shock: (Poor piggy :-( )


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Re: Martial Eagle

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Incredible!!! Just goes to show how strong those martials are. O:V
But the piggie did put up a fight and poor thing having to die like that :no:
I also like that there are quite a few people who stop for a sighting like that -
even if there's not cat involved O**


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Re: Martial Eagle

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It is amazing what a difference it makes when the engine is switched off! :-0


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Re: Martial Eagle

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Poor little piggy :-( but amazing sighting and video, \O


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Re: Martial Eagle

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Watch: Marstial Eagle’s Warthog lunch caught on film
Baby warthog fights for its life against an eagle.
20 hours ago
Buks Viljoen


Image

SKUKUZA – There is an age old saying among game rangers in the Kruger National Park, “Always expect the unexpected in this park”.

This came true for the Mohammed family from the East Rand during a recent trip to the park.

Nazeem, the father, said they were out on a leisurely early morning drive on the S114 and did not really expect to see anything exciting at that time of the day.

“I was taking pictures of impala, a spurfowl and some elephant. Then we came across this warthog family – a mother and three piglets.

The warthog piglet put up a fight but to no avail.

“I was filming them and for no reason I just followed them as they walked through the bush and then crossed the road in front of us.”

His son, Fuaad (19), was the first to see how a martial eagle swooped in from nowhere and grabbed a piglet.

“I immediately realised that I was filming a unique sighting and kept the camera rolling. The piglet was putting up one hell of a fight, but the eagle’s claws were sunk deep into the flesh around the head,” said Nazeem.

https://lowvelder.co.za/465283/watch-ea ... y-warthog/


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Re: Martial Eagle

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Nice shots by Pumbaa - Gudzane East 2015

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viewtopic.php?f=46&t=5578&start=100


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Re: Martial Eagle

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The Martial Eagle (Polemaetus bellicosus)

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Accipitriformes
Family: Accipitridae
Genus: Polemaetus
Heine, 1890
Species: P. bellicosus
Binomial name
Polemaetus bellicosus
(Daudin, 1800)

The Martial Eagle is a large eagle native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is the only member of the genus Polemaetus. A species of the booted eagle subfamily (Aquillinae), it has feathering over its tarsus. One of the largest and most powerful species of booted eagle, it is a fairly opportunistic predator that varies it prey selection between mammals, birds and reptiles. Its hunting technique is unique as it is one of few eagle species known to hunt primarily from a high soar, by stooping on its quarry. An inhabitant of wooded belts of otherwise open savanna, this species has shown a precipitous decline in the last few centuries due to a variety of factors. The martial eagle is one of the most persecuted bird species in the world. Due to its habit of taking livestock and regionally valuable game, local farmers and game wardens frequently seek to eliminate martial eagles, although the effect of eagles on this prey is almost certainly considerably exaggerated. Currently, the martial eagle is classified with the status of Vulnerable to extinction by the IUCN.

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Approximate range in green

Habitat

In southern Africa, they have adapted to seemingly more open habitats than elsewhere in their range, such as semi-desert and open savanna with scattered trees, wooded hillocks and, as a recent adaptation, around pylons. In the desert areas of Namibia, they utilize ephemeral rivers that flow occasionally and allow large trees to grow. They usually seem to prefer desolate or protected areas. In the Karoo of South Africa, they consistently avoid areas with moderate to heavy cultivation or with heavier or more consistent winter rainfall. One study on the occurrence of diurnal raptors in protected areas against unprotected areas, found that martial eagle detection was nearly twice as frequent in protected areas during the dry season and more than three times as frequent during the wet season than in unprotected areas.

Breeding

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A Martial eagle on its nest.

Martial Eagles breed in almost any month in east Africa and southern Africa, though mostly in April–November. The breeding season may thus begin in various parts of the range in a wet season or the earlier or later part of the local dry season so that no part of the brooding stage will occur during heavy rains.
In the Kalahari Transfrontier National Park of South Africa, almost all nests were in the highly thorny, Acacia-like tree, Vachellia erioloba, in savanna areas. Most nests in southern Africa often are at a height of less than 15 m (49 ft). Often trees used are on the sides of cliffs, ridges, valley or hilltop, with one nest having been found within a cave. In the Karoo of South Africa, they have also nested on electric-power pylons. Locally, with the sometimes epidemic levels of clear-cutting of old-growth trees, such pylons may provide a fairly suitable alternative that the eagles can utilize in absence of woodlands. The nest of the martial eagle is a large and conspicuous construction of sticks. In the first year of construction, the nest will average 1.2 to 1.5 m (3.9 to 4.9 ft) in diameter and measure about 0.6 m (2.0 ft) deep. After regular use over several years, the nests can regularly measure in excess of 2 m (6.6 ft) in both diameter and depth. The nest may be lightly lined with green leaves.

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Juveniles such as this one from Kruger National Park do not attain maturity until they are at least six years of age.


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Re: Martial Eagle

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Conservation in the digital age: Google Images reveals the diet of Africa’s largest eagle

15 Feb 2019 - 12:15

Image
Adult male Martial Eagle (Polemaetus bellicosus) with a white-tailed mongoose (Ichneumia albicauda) kill photographed in Kenya. Credit: Riaan Marais

Researchers from the Department of Biological Sciences at UCT, Vincent Naude and Associate Professor Arjun Amar have used Google Images to track the dietary habits of Africa’s largest eagle, the Martial Eagle, gaining new information from regions where the species has never been studied before.

In a paper published this week in the international journal The Condor, scientists use photos sourced from the web to reveal the bird’s main prey types, information that may help conservationists protect this threatened species.

“Very little research has been done on the diet of Marital Eagles, leaving huge gaps in our understanding of how prey abundance is impacting their populations and what we can do about it,” says UCT’s Vincent Naude, lead author of the paper.

“Meanwhile, hundreds of online users who post their photos have inadvertently been collecting intense field data over many years that could help answer these conservation questions.”

The study used the free web-application MORPHIC, which was also developed at UCT, to search for photographs of Martial Eagles with prey that had been uploaded to websites, social media and photography platforms. Researchers trawled through 4,872 photos, 254 of which were used to extract data on eagle location, age, feeding position and type of prey.

The photos were taken from across southern and eastern Africa, including South Africa, Kenya, Namibia, Botswana and Tanzania. They revealed that reptiles, birds and mammals each make up a third of the Marital Eagle’s diet. They also showed that the proportions of prey types varied between different regions of Africa, with mammals dominating in eastern Africa but reptiles being more important in southern Africa.

Image
Adult female Martial Eagle (Polemaetus bellicosus) with rock monitor (Varanus albigularis) kill photographed in Kenya Credit: Riaan Marais

“We’ve been able to paint a picture of what Martial Eagles feed on over a huge geographic scale without many of the biases of previous methods. And we’re doing it at a fraction of the time and expense that would be required using traditional methods,” says Naude.

This is the first research exploring Martial Eagle diet beyond the borders of South Africa, where earlier studies were based. It is also the first time information on their diet has been obtained without looking at prey remains, a practice that requires scientists to find nests in the field and physically examine and identify prey remains, such as bones or feathers.

“Prey remains studies are costly and limited by the low-density of these huge eagles. They also limit our understanding to diet during the breeding season where males are the primary hunters. These previous approaches also exclude information about non-breeding eagles which could be important for understanding why this eagle is in decline,” says Naude.

The Martial Eagle is the largest eagle in Africa, weighing up to 6.5kg (14lbs). In 2013 it was up-listed to ‘vulnerable’ on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species due to declines throughout its range.

One explanation for the decline is a reduction in available prey. According to Associate Professor Arjun Amar, who supervised the research, “The information we have gathered in this study can help investigate whether shortage of prey might be contributing to the decline and also help guide conservation efforts in these different regions.”

“For example, we now know that reptiles are the eagle’s most important prey in eastern South Africa. Conservationists can use that information to investigate what factors affect the abundance of reptiles in that region and what can be done to protect them,” he says.

The scientists say Google Images could help inform conservation efforts for other species under threat, from raptors to big cats, as long as they are photographed widely over their range.

“With very little expense, scientists can tap into this online resource and contribute to the global conservation of a species,” says Naude. “It’s a powerful take on citizen science that could shape many aspects of future research.”

Article title and access:

“Using web-sourced photography to explore the diet of a declining African raptor, the Martial Eagle Polemaetus bellicosus”

https://doi.org/10.1093/condor/duy015


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Re: Martial Eagle

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IMG_1433.JPG
Juvenile
Kgalagadi, Aoub River bed, Nov. 2017

What is the kill -O-


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