Golden Eagle Recapture featured image.

Golden Eagle Recapture

January 29th, 2015
By: Adam Shreading

On January 7, 2013, we captured an adult female Golden Eagle and outfitted her with a 45 gram GPS satellite transmitter. We tracked her over two spring and fall migrations between the Bitterroot Valley and her summer range in the wilderness area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, in northeast Alaska. During fall and spring migrations, she traveled along the Continental Divide. Red dots below indicate transmissions received.

On December 27, 2014, we saw her feeding at the same bait station where we originally captured her in 2013. We decided to recapture her to inspect health and transmitter status.

The bird had lost nearly 700 grams of bodyweight, but was in relatively good health. The transmitter still sat correctly on her back, thanks to elastic in each of the harness’s four straps. We attach the straps at a conspicuous point on the eagle’s breast. Over time, as the eagle picks at the thread connecting the straps, the harness separates and falls free from the bird. This bird’s harness was still well intact, which made it unlikely that the transmitter would fall off any time soon.

Given that less than one year of life remained for GPS transmitter, we removed it from the eagle.

We outfitted her with wing tags that may still allow us to track her movement, then sent her on her way.

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