8749 moves to Iran

Release of a Greater spotted eagle at Al Jahra, Kuwait, after fitting it with a GPS-GSM tracking device (December 2021). © KFAS/KEL/IAR

Most of the Greater spotted eagles that we have captured at Al Jahra and tracked have remained mostly on the reserve.  Some have made short trips to agricultural areas nearby (see here, for example), others have left the reserve for a matter of hours, and 6491 even went to near Basra for a short while before returning to Al Jahra (here).  

8749 has acted differently in that it remained at Al Jahra until 8 January, then moved north, and, eventually crossing into Iran on 14 January.  Below is a map of 8749's movements since 1 January.  One obvious feature that contrasts with the data from the other birds we have tracked is that there are so few data since it has moved into Iran.  The reason for this is that the GSM network in that part of Iran is rather weak, and the only data that are uploaded are those that can be squeezed into the message from the tag when it makes contact with the GSM network once a day.  Once it moves back into a stronger network, the tag should upload data that it has stored on-board, and so fill in the gaps.

Movements of a Greater spotted eagle (8749) during 1 January -16 February 2022.  Yellow point is most recent location. © KFAS/KEL/IAR