Fascinating Facts

Aquila chrysaetos has recently found itself in a battle to find habitat due to human development encroaching on their territories. A major project for people in our time is finding alternative sources for energy, which can often lead to the building of wind turbine farms. A single wind turbine have the potential to produce electricity for up to 332 homes at little to no direct pollution emissions, so it is clear why this seems so appealing (World of Wind Energy, 2007). Unfortunately, this new form of clean energy is not so great for the animals that inhabit the sky. Many times the designers of these wind farms have failed to look at how the 400 feet tall rotating blades will affect the wildlife. Aquila chrysaetos has been known to be one of the birds hit the hardest by the rise in popularity of the farms. Not much thought was put into deciding the location of the wind farms during the big boom a few years back and they were frequently put in the migratory paths of birds. More recently animals like bats and birds have been a factor in deciding the location of the newer farms and have even single-handedly halted these projects. An example of this would be the Cape Wind project, this was a case in which a federal owned off-shore wind farm was to be built, but it was stopped because it would be in the migratory path of both a common bat species and Aquila chrysaetos (Goel, 2010). The Golden Eagle isn’t always finding itself in tricky situations; often they do more to help people.

 

For years, Mongolians have been using A. chrysaetos to hunt for them, taking down prey as large as fox and wolves for their pelts. “The Golden Eagle Festival” takes place every October near Olgii city in Mongolia. This event attracts forty to fifty falconers and over three hundred tourists from all over the world (Soma, 2013). The festival consists of Kazakh eagle hunters celebrating their heritage and history by competing to catch animals with their trained Golden Eagles, demonstrating the exquisite skills of both trainer and eagle. The falconers are such a large part of the culture in Mongolia that they are often used on emblems and even on the locally made “Bayan Olgii Mongolian Vodka” bottle label (Soma, 2013).

Click to watch video of Golden Eagle Festival

 

        If you are interested in learning more about the Golden Eagles hunting ability read the Form and Function page.

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