The eagles have landed in the highway area

DURBAN is one of the few cities in the world that still has an abundance of natural green spaces and urban wildlife.

The new breeding season has started for the eagles, and pairs are now more intent on courtship and preparing their nest for the new season, than on last year’s offspring.

“The crowned eagles in the greater Durban area are not new on the scene,” said bird of prey specialist, Tammy Caine.

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“There are many historical nests in the area, some of which were first recorded as long as 40 years ago.

“The expansion of our rapidly growing human population and developments means the human populations are encroaching into the once wild bush areas, shrinking natural habitats, destroying resident wildlife, and escalating human wildlife conflicts,” Caine said.

Crowned eagles are extremely loyal to nest sites, and will use the same nest site every year, building on the old nest each time.

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“They have set territories that they hunt and live in. If their natural prey in an area is destroyed or chased away, they will hunt whatever prey is available. And if the area has become totally urbanised, the only prey available will be domestic livestock, including pets.”

Postdoctoral researcher at UKZN, Dr Shane McPherson, has studied the local population of crowned eagles since 2012 for his PhD.

“We have discovered over 25 nests in the Durban Metropolitan Open Space System, a surprisingly large population of regional significance. The region from Fields Hill, Kloof, Hillcrest, and Shongweni are the suburbs of greatest crowned eagle density in the region, with nests on average every 2.3 km along the rivers and reserves of the Durban greenspace system.

“Crowned eagles prey on a variety of small mammals, mostly dassies. The risk to pets is very small, but it highest during the spring months when inexperienced juveniles are evicted from their parents territory.

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“Each summer we climb nests and fit colour-coded ID rings to the nestlings. This is crucial data to know where eagles are moving and how long they survive. We would really encourage all who notice a ring combination to report via email or to safring.adu.org.

“We work closely with Ezemvelo wildlife and raptor rescue on the mitigation of wildlife conflicts concerning crowned eagles,” said Dr McPherson.

Research has identified many mortalities and threats including electrocution, collisions, poisoning and direct persecution.

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