Moderate evidence for the sex‐dependent effect of poisoning on adult survival in a long‐lived raptor species

Abstract

Abstract Survival rate is usually the greatest contributor to population growth in long‐lived species, and its accurate estimation along with the evaluation of the factors influencing it is therefore essential for effective conservation. Here, we studied the survival of breeding eastern imperial eagles Aquila heliaca in Hungary between 2011 and 2022 and investigated the effect of poisoning, the leading known anthropogenic cause of mortality. We used the Cormack‐Jolly‐Seber mark‐recapture model to estimate annual apparent survival and encounter probabilities based on the capture histories of 208 males and 411 females. We obtained encounter data from the DNA profiles of shed feathers collected at the nest sites, which we also supplemented with presences inferred from parentage analysis. The most supported model estimated a constant 91.6% annual survival over the study period, but models including the effect of sex and poisoning rate on survival had similar support. Sex difference in survival was less than 1% on average, but the survival of males decreased more with poisoning rate than the survival of females. However, due to smaller encounter probabilities, the estimates for males were less precise compared to females. Males may be more at risk from poisoning than females not only due to their more active foraging behaviour during incubation and chick‐rearing but also due to their smaller body size. Apart from providing direct practical information for the conservation management of imperial eagles, our results also highlight the importance of long‐term studies for estimating population parameters of birds of prey.

Keywords

• bird of prey
• conservation genetics
• eastern imperial eagle
• mark‐recapture
• non‐invasive sampling