ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the direct impact of human actions on eagles. These include urbanization deforestation, eagles and airplane collisions, collisions with wind turbines, eagles and electric power lines, hunting and chemicals and poisons. Impacts on eagles include fatalities, mostly through wind energy development, electrocutions, collisions with vehicles, secondary effects of pesticides, and lead exposure and poisoning. Urbanization is the most important issue for eagle ecologies, through the development of very large environmental ‘footprints’, which refer to the area of land that must be modified to create supporting resources for the human population of the urban area (e.g., water, crops, minerals, land space and raw materials) which may affect ecologies through environmental modification. Eagles are less able than gulls and corvids to utilize urban green spaces such as parks, gardens, treed avenues, river banks, greenbelts, green hearts), the concrete structures (sidewalks, roof tops, balconies, car parks, gravel pits, rubbish dumps) and with people (scavenging in recreational parks, and crowded events). For eagles the possibilities are food sources (killing of companion animals or pests such as feral rodents and rival avian scavengers such as corvids or Larus gulls) or nesting (rooftops, abandoned buildings, urban trees and woodlots).
