UCT uses Google to track eagle diet

UCT researchers using Google images to track dietary habits of Africa’s largest eagle, the Martial Eagle, have gained new data from regions where the species has never been studied.

This is according to a recent paper in The Condor international journal which details how the scientists used photos sourced from the web to reveal the bird’s main prey types.

The paper’s lead author, Vincent Naude, a doctoral student in the department of biological sciences at the Institute for Communities and Wildlife in Africa, said: “Very little research has been done on the diet of Martial Eagles, leaving huge gaps in our understanding of how prey abundance is impacting their populations and what we can do about it.

“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.”

Naude said the researched information might help conservationists to protect this threatened species, while the input from citizen scientists could shape many aspects of future research.

Describing the Martial Eagle, at 6.5kg, as the continent’s biggest eagle, Naude said: “In 2013 it was uplisted to ‘vulnerable’ status on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species because of population declines throughout its range.”

Associate Professor Arjun Amar, an avian conservation biologist at UCT’s Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, who supervised the research, said the information gathered in this study could help researchers investigate whether prey shortages might be contributing to the decline.

This will help guide conservation efforts in the different regions.

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