Genome Of Golden Eagle Could Lead To More Effective Conservation Strategies

April 25, 2014

Image Caption: This is a golden eagle. Credit: Todd Katzner

Purdue University

Purdue and West Virginia University researchers are the first to sequence the genome of the golden eagle, providing a birds-eye view of eagle features that could lead to more effective conservation strategies.

Their study calls into question long-held assumptions about golden eagle vision, indicating that the raptors may not be as sensitive to ultraviolet light as previously thought. The genome also suggests that golden eagles could have a sharper sense of smell than researchers realized.

Additionally, the genome provides thousands of genetic markers that will help researchers track populations and monitor eagle mortality.

Having the golden eagle genome in hand could directly affect the way we make conservation and management decisions, said Jacqueline Doyle, postdoctoral research associate and first author of the paper.

Though it is one of the most widespread avian species, the golden eagle is threatened throughout much of its range by poaching, shrinking habitats and fatal collisions with wind turbines. An estimated 67 golden eagles are killed annually at a single wind farm the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area in central California a heavy toll on a species that reproduces slowly and can live up to 30 years, said J. Andrew DeWoody, professor of genetics and senior author of the study.

One recently proposed method of reducing turbine-related eagle deaths was to coat wind turbines with ultraviolet-reflective paint, thereby heightening their visibility to eagles, which were thought to be sensitive to ultraviolet light. But the golden eagle genome suggests that eagle vision is rooted in the violet spectrum like human sight rather than the ultraviolet.

We find little genomic evidence that golden eagles are sensitive to ultraviolet light, Doyle said. Painting wind turbines with ultraviolet-reflective paint is probably not going to prevent eagles from colliding with turbines.

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Genome Of Golden Eagle Could Lead To More Effective Conservation Strategies