One study accrued 26 instances of tawny eagles displacing bateleurs against only 5 where bateleurs displaced tawny eagles, giving illustration to the tawny eagles dominance. Frequently, the bateleur waits until the tawny eagle is done eating before it does so itself if both are at a carcass site. Bateleurs may encounter a huge range of other scavengers when coming to carrion. Most clearly vultures are often present at carrion. However, due to their smaller size, the tawny eagle and especially the bateleur can begin foraging for carrion earlier in the morning, while the vultures must wait for updrafts to undertake flight. Bateleurs in particular are considered most likely to find a carcass first before other scavengers. This was verified in a study in Maasai Mara where it was additionally found that scavengers kept to body size in terms of hierarchy. The descending order of scavenger dominance was stated to rank starting with the spotted hyenas (Crocuta croctua) at the top and black-backed jackals and feral dogs (Canis lupus familiaris), then the lappet-faced vulture (Torgos tracheliotos), the Rüppell's vulture (Gyps rueppellii), followed by all other vultures with the tawny eagle and the bateleur in the second most and the most subordinate scavenger positions. Therefore, the bateleur is considered a scavenger with high search efficiency but low competitive ability. However, the bateleur does benefit from the larger scavengers, being less able to access a large carcass, at best feeding on the eyes of said carcass unless it is already otherwise torn asunder such as large carnivore prey or roadkills. With the epidemic-level reduction of vultures in Africa, it was found in Maasai Mara that both bateleurs and tawny eagles have been found to actually increase in sighting frequency in sync with the vanishing numbers of remaining vultures, with the number of bateleur sightings increasing by 52%. To the contrary of the expected hierarchy, cases are known where bateleurs have attacked and dominated much larger scavenging birds including white-backed vultures (Gyps africanus) and bearded vulures (Gypaetus barbatus), with these having been successfully displaced or lost carrion to a bateleur. Even more impressively, cases where bateleurs interacting with much larger, more powerful martial eagles have involved instances where the bateleurs have attacked, pirated and even brought to ground in clashes that appear to end in a drawl. However, the martial eagle occupies a notably higher trophic level than the bateleurs and is not considered