This year, the administration of the Veľká Fatra National Park in cooperation with the company PROFI – NET s.r.o has prepared the fifth project from the Veľká Fatra Mountains, which we will be able to follow together online. This time, the camera will capture a rock that we called “Predator’s Rock”. In addition to its educational significance, this project will be used for professional monitoring and reading of rings of birds of prey in winter. We will help visitors to the “Predator’s Rock” in winter by offering them food in times of need in the form of knocked down animals, which we collect along our roads. Most species of our birds of prey like to feed on carrion in winter, thus fulfilling a sanitary function in nature. We believe that online visitors will also like this project and will reveal new knowledge about the life of predators.
The first visitors showed up in front of the online camera were ravens (Corvus corax). The black raven is included in the order Passeriformes → songbirds. and is considered one of the most intelligent birds of our avifauna. This is also evidenced by his self-confident intrusive behavior when eating. He constantly tries to keep the prey he finds only for himself, taking away pieces of meat and hiding them in cracks in the rocks. A few days ago, we could even see directly on the online camera how he tried to disturb the eagle while eating by pulling on its tail feathers in order to discourage it and leave more food for it. Ravens form pairs, unlike ravens, with which people often confuse them. Nesting in the Veľká Fatra Mountains begins very early, already in February, when there is still a continuous layer of snow.
A shot of a pair of ravens from an online camera.
Another regular visitor to the “Predatory Rock” is the mountain buzzard (Buteo buteo). The buzzard is our most numerous predator in Slovakia and its coloration is very variable. From almost white individuals to dark ones, with various forms of spotting. Likewise, in winter, the mouse will be happy to find a cadaver – a carrion, where it can feed itself and save a lot of energy. However, he must be careful not to become prey to another larger predator – an eagle or fox.
About a month after the start of the broadcast, on 19.11.2018, the first golden eagle (Aguila chrysaetos) appeared in front of the online camera, specifically, a young individual, and after a few hours, an adult male and female pair sat on the “Predator’s Rock”. The chick that fed in front of them was most likely their cub. Golden eagles are strongly territorial birds, they guard their territory and cannot tolerate the presence of any ” foreign eagles ” However, they tolerate their young in some cases until February, until they begin wedding games and preparations for new nesting. The female golden eagle reaches a wingspan of up to 2.2 meters and a weight of 3.5-5 kg. Males are noticeably smaller. Young birds have a pronounced contrasting coloration, a white tail root, a dark iris in the eye, and their coloration stabilizes only after the fifth year of life, when they become adult birds. However, in some cases, they can nest even earlier. Typical for them is the so-called cainism, which means that only one chick survives on the nest. In rare cases, exceptions may also occur.
Adult pair of golden eagles in front of an online camera. The male on the left, the larger female on the right.
In winter, the golden eagle is a typical carrion and, thanks to the strong HCL acid in its stomach, it also eats meat that is already in a significant stage of decomposition. It thus provides a very important sanitary function in nature. It is interesting to observe the strategies of our carrivorous species. The eagle has perfect eyesight, which hardly escapes anything. If the carcass is hidden from the view from above, it can find it by following the trails of foxes in the snow, which converge to one place and also by watching ravens that fly over a certain place. With such a strategy, he discovers the cadaver even in dense vegetation, where it may not be visible from the top at all. Interestingly, the white-tailed eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla) wintering in the foothills of the Veľká Fatra have also developed an ingenious strategy over the years. They watch golden eagles circling over the mountain range and thus feed on the cadavers found by the first eagles. We believe that we will also be able to document this phenomenon on an online camera.
Did you know that songbirds also like to feed on the cadavers of dead animals in winter? For example, and woodpeckers. This was also captured recently by an online camera in the Veľká Fatra Mountains.
Text:
Ing. Juraj Žiak
