Demonstrating technologies to monitor sublethal responses of eagles to military activities on department of defense installationsproject period: 09 01 2023 - 09 30 2024PROJECT abstract: project…

Demonstrating technologies to monitor sublethal responses of eagles to military activities on department of defense installationsproject period: 09 01 2023 - 09 30 2024PROJECT abstract: project objective is to demonstrate and validate an approach to assess the role of lead and disturbance as stressors on bald (haliaeetus leucocephalus) and golden eagles (aquila chrysaetos) on military installations. Project approach uses feathers and blood collected at nests, assays to screen those tissues for lead, stress hormones, and enzymes related to lead contamination, all evaluated relative to military training and testing activities, recreational hunting, and landscape characteristics. This research will allow DOD managers to assess sublethal take of these protected species and to provide mitigative strategies to minimize impacts thereof. Recipient will evaluate these factors singularly and in combination using informative models to show how they contribute to potential deleterious stress to raptors, thus allowing installations to assess risk and develop appropriate mitigation strategies. Project goals are to 1) demonstrate tools and approaches to evaluate toxicant exposure, stress levels, and stress response of raptors at and near military installations throughout the united states 2) identify linkages among stressors (military activity, recreational hunting as a toxicant exposure source) and indicators of physiological stress hormones and enzymatic stress response 3) provide guidance documents for DOD natural resources staff and environmental chemistry laboratories to collect and analyze data to evaluate indirect and sublethal effects of activities on military installations to wildlife and 4) demonstrate the use of a predictive tool to identify installations with potential for raptors to be negatively impacted by sub-lethal stressors.timeline, reports and deliverables assessments from this approach, if successful, will have wide transferability to DOD managers CONUS-wide as well as other state, federal and private land managers. Recipient will provide a hybrid in-person and virtual demonstration workshop (developed into a recorded webinar) on best practices for feather collection and nest-site assessments for monitoring mission and stewardship activities on raptors for DOD and its state, federal and NGO partners tasked with monitoring raptors on military lands. Recipient will present findings at various forums such as the wildlife society and the national military fish and wildlife association, author peer-reviewed journals and prepare an informational commanders guide.