Young eagles must continue to refine even innate behaviors throughout their lives, writes the Swiss Ornithological Institute in a press release published on Monday. The study was published in the specialist journal eLife.

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Golden eagles fly by thermals: they use updrafts to cover long distances with relatively little energy. In the study, the researchers showed that on their first flights after leaving the parental nest, the birds confine themselves to the vicinity of mountain ridges.

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Here, thermal conditions are quite predictable: the wind is deflected upwards and the air rises. As they grow older, golden eagles venture into flatter and flatter regions, where thermals are less predictable and harder to find.

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The results of this study are invaluable for protection efforts, say the researchers. They could help identify areas where human activities could conflict with the eagles’ natural behaviours.

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For their work, the researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Behavioural Biology in Germany, the Swiss Ornithological Institute, and the University of Vienna equipped 55 young golden eagles with GPS receivers. Over a period of up to three years, they recorded the birds’ flight routes from nests in Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Slovenia and Austria.