Ostrich 66: 135-140

YEAR-ROUND MOVEMENTS OF A WAHLBERG'S EAGLE AQUILA WAHLBERGI TRACKED BY SATELLITE

Mouvements sausonniers d'un Aigle de Wahlberg Aquila wahlbergi suivi par satellite.

B.-U. MEYBURG1, J. M. MENDELSOHN2, D. H. ELLIS3, D. G. SMITH4, C. MEYBURG5 & A. C. KEMP6

1World Working Group on Birds of Prey, Wangenheimstr: 32, 14193 Berlin, Germany
2P. O. Box 80044, Olympia, Windhoek, Namibia
3Patuxent Wildlife Research Center; Laurel, MD 20708-4019, U.S.A.
4Biology Dept., SO. Connecticut State Univ., 501 Crescent, New Haven, CT 06515, U.S.A.
531, Avenue du Maine, F-75015 Paris, France
6Transvaal Museum, PO.Box 413, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa

Received March 1995

SUMMARY

An adult female Wahlberg's Eagle from northern Namibia was tracked by satellite over a total distance of 8816 km and located 104 times between 11 February and 4 November 1994. It migrated on an almost due north heading to northern Cameroon, north-eastern Nigeria and western Chad through the rain forest belt of the Congo and Zaire after the breeding season. The total trans-equatorial distance between the breeding and non-breeding ranges was 3520 km. During the non-breeding scason the bird ranged over a large area (ca. 60 000 km2) for about six weeks (29 April - 14 June) in these three countries in a rather nomadic pattern covering a minimum distance of 1256 km. During two further months (14 June - 14 August) it restricted its movements to an area of about 5000 km2 near Maiduguri in the Sudan savannah of north-eastern Nigeria. The return migration took about two weeks longer than that to the north, which took about a month.


RESUME

Un Aigle de Wahlberg, femelle adulte, du nord de la Namibie a ete suivi par satellite sur une distance totale de 8816 km, 104 localisations ayant obtenues entre le l l Fevrier et le 4 Novembre 1994. A la fin de la saison de reproduction l'oiscau a migre presque plein nord vers le nord du Cameroun, le nord-est du Nigeria et l'ouest du Tchad, en traversant les forets du Congo et du Zaire. La distance entre la zone de nidification et celle du sejour en dehors de la periode de reproduction fut de 3520 km. Pendant six semaines, du 29 Avril au 14 Juin, I'aigle couvrit un territoire etendu (environ 60 000 km2) dans ces trois pays et parcourut au minimum une distance de 1256 km. Lors des deux mois suivants, du 14 Juin au 14 Aout, il limita ses mouvements a une zone de 5000 km2 environ dans la savane du nord-est du Nigeria aux environs de la ville de Maiduguri. La migration vers le nord prit un mois et celle vers le sud dura environ deux semaines de plus.