Three golden eagle chicks in the Cairngorms National Park have been successfully tagged to give greater insight into the lives of the famed birds of prey.
The young raptors’ movements are tracked in real-time by Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) staff and partners with transmissions coming in daily.
The ‘Celltrack’ tags being used have been brought in from the USA and are among the leading technology in raptor tagging.
They will provide a better understanding of the species’ movements, habitat preferences and mortality.
The tags will provide a multitude of data that can help better understand the life of juvenile golden eagles, with an in-built alert system should mortality occur, whether through natural causes, persecution or other anthropogenic influences.
The tags have the ability to detect unusual behaviour and send alerts with accurate locations.
This is made possible through an innovative dual communication system where data is sent over the mobile phone network as well as through a network of satellites.
Three estates in the national park are part of the latest partnership project, which has been developed and funded by the CNPA and NatureScot.
Dr Ewan Weston, an independent research ecologist, has been in charge of tagging the golden eagle chicks under licence. “Having been involved in fitting tags to eagles for 14 years, the technological advances in the tags we use now bring data that was previously unimaginable,” he said.
“The data we receive, feeds into wider research on the species and covers aspects of golden eagle biology and environment, providing an insight into aspects of their lives in incredible detail.
“This work has included aspects of their dispersal behaviour, interaction with the landscape and developments such as wind farms.”
Licenses to tag golden eagles are granted on behalf of NatureScot by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).
Tag data will be managed by a small, dedicated team at the CNPA and Dr Ewan Weston, NatureScot, and Police Scotland’s Wildlife Crime Unit.
Director of nature and climate change at the CNPA Dr Pete Mayhew said: “The more we know about golden eagles in the Cairngorms National Park – from fledging through to acquiring their own territories – the better we can conserve and enhance their populations for the future.
“This is another excellent conservation partnership project involving government bodies and private estates who all wish to see a healthy future for our raptor species.”
The CNPA set out plans for a golden eagle tagging project in 2019, which included the use of British Trust for Ornithology-provided tags.
However, delays in production, technical issues and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen the project switch to using ‘Celltrack’ tags.
Partners will continue to work closely with BTO over the coming months, including sharing data from the three recently tagged golden eagle chicks.
The RSPB Scotland has also had one of their young golden eagles tagged as part of this project.
