• DOI:10.2478/v10262-012-0001-y
• Corpus ID: 85142585

The Food of the Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca) in Slovakia

@inproceedings{Chavko2012TheFO,
  title={The Food of the Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca) in Slovakia},
  author={Jozef Chavko and {\vS}tefan Danko and J{\'a}n Obuch and Jozef Mih{\'o}k},
  year={2012}
}

• J. Chavko, Š. Danko, +1 author J. Mihók
• Published 9 November 2012
• Biology

Abstract In this work we assess the data on the food of the Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca) in two separate nesting populations: one in Western Slovakia (21 pairs), the other in Eastern Slovakia (30 pairs). In Western Slovakia between 1978 and 2005 we recorded a total of 562 food items, consisting of 33 species of animal. The species predominantly featuring in the food were the brown hare Lepus europaeus (40.2%), common pheasant Phasianuscolchicus (17.3%), feral pigeon Columba livia domestica (11.7%) and the common hamster Cricetus cricetus (11.6%). In Eastern Slovakia between 1971 and 2005 we identified a total of 524 food items, made up of 30 animal species with slightly varying predominance of the same principal kinds of prey: L. europaeus (29.0%), C. cricetus (27.7%), P. colchicus (8.4%) and Columba sp. (8.2%). Imperial Eagles nesting in Slovakia are affected by the consequences of a marked reduction in population density of steppe-type rodents, especially ground squirrels (Spermophilus citellus) and hamsters (C. cricetus) and have become dependent for their food mainly on the prevalence of other small animals (L. europaeus, P. colchicus) and pigeons (C. livia domestica). Pairs nesting in neighbouring Hungary had similar prey, but a different order of predominance of the species (Haraszthy et al. 1996): C. cricetus (51.0%), L. europaeus (12.0%), P. colchicus (11.6%) and S. citellus (7.4%). Abstrakt V práci sme vyhodnotili údaje o potrave orla kráľovského (Aquila heliaca) dvoch oddelených hniezdnych populácií: na západnom Slovensku (21 párov) a východnom Slovensku (30 párov). Na západnom Slovensku sme od roku 1978 do roku 2005 zistili spolu 562 kusov potravy, ktorú tvorilo 33 druhov živočíchov. Dominantne sú v potrave zastúpené druhy Lepus europaeus (40,2 %), Phasianus colchicus (17,3 %), Columbalivia domestica (11,7 %) a Cricetus cricetus (11,6 %). Na východnom Slovensku sme od roku 1971 do roku 2005 zistili spolu 524 kusov potravy, ktorú tvorilo 30 druhov živočíchov s odlišnou dominanciou hlavných druhov koristi: L. europaeus (29,0 %), C. cricetus (27,7 %), P. colchicus (8,4 %) a Columba sp. (8,2 %). A. heliaca hniezdiace na Slovensku v dôsledku výrazného poklesu denzity stepných druhov hlodavcov, najmä Spermophilus citellus a C. cricetus sú potravne závislé predovšetkým na početnosti drobnej zveri (L. europaeus, P. colchicus) a holubov (C. livia domestica). Páry hniezdiace v susednom Maďarsku mali odlišné poradie dominantných druhov (Haraszthy et al. 1996): C. cricetus (51,0 %), L. europaeus (12,0 %), P. colchicus (11,6 %) a S. citellus (7,4 %).