Interspecies predatory relationships The eastern imperial eagle is a powerful bird of prey but frequently overlaps in range with multiple other eagle species and that may require them to share both habitats and prey. The golden eagle is generally a larger, more powerful bird. It also tends to be a bolder, more aggressive predator than the imperial eagle and may be able to attack much larger prey. While the mean prey body mass relative to the eagle's weight is probably similar between the two species, an estimated 15% of golden eagle prey will weigh over .Ellis, D. H., Tsengeg, P., Whitlock, P., & Ellis, M. H. (2000). Predators as prey at a Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos eyrie in Mongolia. Ibis, 142(1), 141-142.Kerley, L. L., & Slaght, J. C. (2013). First documented predation of Sika deer (Cervus nippon) by Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) in Russian far east. Journal of Raptor Research, 47(3), 328-331.Phillips, R. L., Cummings, J. L., Notah, G., & Mullis, C. (1996). Golden eagle predation on domestic calves. Wildlife Society (USA). In its very extensive range, the golden eagle's distribution includes nearly all areas occupied by breeding eastern imperial eagles. Furthermore, there is considerable overlap in prey species selected by these species.Katzner, T. E., Bragin, E. A., Knick, S. T., & Smith, A. T. (2003). Coexistence in a multispecies assemblage of eagles in central Asia. The Condor, 105(3), 538-551.Vazhov, S. V. (2012). Some Features of the Ecological Niches of Raptors in the Russian Part of the Altai Foothills. Raptors Conservation, (25). There is a natural partitioning between the two Aquila species and that comes in the form of habitat preferences. The golden eagle takes to, usually but not always, rocky and uneven terrain, so favors mountainous areas with alpine meadows to access for prey. This is quite different from the eastern imperial eagle's preference for a flat or somewhat rolling interface between wood stands and fields at low elevations.Katzner, T. E., Bragin, E. A., & Milner-Gulland, E. J. (2006). Modelling populations of long-lived birds of prey for conservation: a study of imperial eagles (Aquila heliaca) in Kazakhstan. Biological Conservation, 132(3), 322-335.MARTI, C. D., & KORPIMÁKI, E. (2012). TROPHIC STRUCTURE OF RAPTOR COMMUNITIES: A THREE-CONTINENT. Current Ornithology, 10, 47. However, in some areas, especially eastern Europe, eastern imperial eagles have been driven to higher elevations and more montane habitats that are typically the haunts of golden eagles by persecution, habitat destruction, and other interferences by humans, usually with mixed to minor success as the golden species is scarce at best locally and unlikely to produce competition. There is surprisingly little information on conflicts between these two eagle species. In the Naurzum Nature Reserve of Kazakhstan the golden and eastern imperial eagle, and to some extent also both white-tailed eagles and steppe eagles, were recorded nesting with fairly close proximity to each other. The eagle species here would even use nests built by the other species and seemed to have similar or broadly overlapping food habits, but no interspecies conflicts were detected. On the contrary, in the Altai Republic, it appears that golden and eastern imperial eagles are considered to fill a largely similar ecological niche in abutting areas and do compete for nesting sites. In some cases in Europe, golden and eastern imperial eagles will engage in a territorial display if prompted against one another.Janossy, D., Janossy, L. & Petrovics, Z. (1993). The geological origine [sic] and an observation of mutual display of the Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) and Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca). Aquila a Madartani Intezet Evkonyve, 100: 268-270. thumb|left|Eastern imperial eagles may be attracted to carrion quite often especially in winter. Here with another scavenger, the Egyptian vulture, in the background. Of a similar distribution to eastern imperial eagles, both in their mid-Eurasian breeding ground and southerly Indo-African wintering grounds, are the steppe eagle and the greater spotted eagle. There is a fair amount of habitat partitioning between the three species, however, with the steppe eagle preferring flat, often almost treeless steppe while the greater spotted eagle prefers more densely wooded and wetter habitats generally than imperial eagles such as taiga bogs. Diet however can overlap considerably, especially with steppe eagles as both it and the imperial species are largely attracted to colonies of ground squirrels in Central Asia.Barashkova, A., Smelansky, I., Tomilenko, A., & Akentiev, A. (2009). Some Records of Raptors in the East Kazakhstan. Raptors Conservation, (17).Flint, V. E., Bourso-Leland, N., & Baird, J. (1984). A field guide to birds of the USSR: including Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Princeton University Press.Väli, Ü. (2004). The greater spotted eagle Aquila clanga and the lesser spotted eagle A. pomarina: taxonomy, phylogeography and ecology. Tartu University Press. While steppe eagles occur much more broadly in Africa during winter and a similarly narrow extent in the Indian subcontinent as eastern imperials, greater spotted eagles are similarly as rare as imperial eagles in Africa but spread farther in Asia than either the steppe or imperial species. In all three species, by winter they are attracted to more open habitats ranging from savanna to wetlands and even semi-desert. The ecology of wintering eastern imperials was studied at length in Bharatpur district of India in contrast to the steppe and greater spotted eagle as well as the resident Indian spotted eagle and shorter-distance migrant Pallas's fish eagle. It was found that the feeding opportunities sought were largely similar (nestling water birds were often favored) by all five eagle species and that a hierarchy was formed, though each species competed most regularly with others of their own species. The eastern imperial eagle was, by and large, dominant in correspondence to its slightly larger size than the other booted eagles and rivaled the similarly-sized Pallas's fish eagle as the top avian predator in this raptor community. The steppe eagle, despite being only scarcely smaller than an imperial eagle, was usually subordinate to imperial eagles and had a much lower estimated average daily food intake, against an average of for the imperial. However, the mean daily intake of Pallas's fish eagle was slightly higher still at and the fish eagle would perch slightly higher than the imperials as well. In one case, a flock of 9 steppe eagles was able to pirate a freshly caught coot from an imperial eagle. The imperial was the most inactive forager here, having spent 36% of observed hours foraging, against 45% for steppe eagles, 46% for Pallas's fish eagle, 49% for greater spotted eagle and 65% for Indian spotted eagle. Other studies on the interactions of eastern imperial eagles also support that it is dominant during winter over similar species such as steppe and the spotted eagles at competitive feeding spots.Rasmussen, P.C., & Anderton, J.C. (2005). Birds of South Asia: the Ripley guide. Vols. 1-2. Smithsonian Institution and Lynx Edicions, Washington, D.C. and Barcelona, Spain. In the Korean peninsula, similarly as in the Indian subcontinent, wintering eastern imperial eagles (though rare) can reportedly be seen more than singly concentrated where there are ample numbers of water birds along with other large eagles.Choi, C. Y., & Park, J. G. (2012). Birds of prey in Korea. Korean Wild Birds Society & Shinan County, Seoul, South Korea. Next to nothing is known about the ecology of the rare, seldom-observed wintering population of eastern imperial eagles in east Africa but it is claimed to usually be seen in the company of “other brown eagles”.
Interspecies predatory relationships The eastern imperial eagle is a powerful bird of prey but frequently overlaps in range with multiple other eagle species and that may require them to share both habitats and prey. The golden eagle is generally a larger, more powerful bird. It also tends to be a bolder, more aggressive predator than the imperial eagle and may be able to attack much larger prey. While the mean prey body mass relative to the eagle's weight is probably similar between the two species an estimated 15% of golden eagle prey will weigh over .Ellis, D. H., Tsengeg, P., Whitlock, P., & Ellis, M. H. (2000). Predators as prey at a Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos eyrie in Mongolia. Ibis, 142(1), 141-142.Kerley, L. L., & Slaght, J. C. (2013). First documented predation of Sika deer (Cervus nippon) by Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) in Russian far east. Journal of Raptor Research, 47(3), 328-331.Phillips, R. L., Cummings, J. L., Notah, G., & Mullis, C. (1996). Golden eagle predation on do.mestic calves. Wildlife Society (USA). In its very extensive range, the golden eagle's distribution includes nearly all areas occupied by breeding eastern imperial eagles. Furthermore, there is considerable overlap in prey species selected by these species.Katzner, T. E., Bragin, E. A., Knick, S. T., & Smith, A. T. (2003). Coexistence in a multispecies assemblage of eagles in central Asia. The Condor, 105(3), 538-551.Vazhov, S. V. (2012). Some Features of the Ecological Niches of Raptors in the Russian Part of the Altai Foothills. Raptors Conservation, (25). There is a natural partitioning between the two Aquila species and that comes in the form of habitat preferences. The golden eagle takes to, usually but not always, rocky and uneven terrain, so favors mountainous areas with alpine meadows to access for prey. This is quite different from the eastern imperial eagle's preference for a flat or somewhat rolling interface between wood stands and fields at low elevations.Katzner, T. E., Bragin, E. A., & Milner-Gulland, E. J. (2006). Modelling populations of long-lived birds of prey for conservation: a study of imperial eagles (Aquila heliaca) in Kazakhstan. Biological Conservation, 132(3), 322-335.MARTI, C. D., & KORPIMÁKI, E. (2012). TROPHIC STRUCTURE OF RAPTOR COMMUNITIES: A THREE-CONTINENT. Current Ornithology, 10, 47. However, in some areas, especially eastern Europe, eastern imperial eagles have been driven to higher elevations and more montane habitats that are typically the haunts of golden eagles by persecution, habitat destruction, and other interferences by humans, usually with mixed to minor success as the golden species is scarce at best locally and unlikely to produce competition. There is surprisingly little information on conflicts between these two eagle species. In the Naurzum Nature Reserve of Kazakhstan the golden and eastern imperial eagle, and to some extent also both white-tailed eagles and steppe eagles, were recorded nesting with fairly close proximity to each other. The eagle species here would even use nests built by the other species and seemed to have similar or broadly overlapping food habits, but no interspecies conflicts were detected. On the contrary, in the Altai Republic, it appears that golden and eastern imperial eagles are considered to fill a largely similar ecological niche in abutting areas and do compete for nesting sites. In some cases in Europe, golden and eastern imperial eagles will engage in a territorial display if prompted against one another.Janossy, D., Janossy, L. & Petrovics, Z. (1993). The geological origine [sic] and an observation of mutual display of the Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) and Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca). Aquila a Madartani Intezet Evkonyve, 100: 268-270. thumb|left|Eastern imperial eagles may be attracted to carrion quite often especially in winter. Here with another scavenger, the Egyptian vulture, in the background. Of a similar distribution to eastern imperial eagles, both in their mid-Eurasian breeding ground and southerly Indo-African wintering grounds, are the steppe eagle and the greater spotted eagle. There is a fair amount of habitat partitioning between the three species, however, with the steppe eagle preferring flat, often almost treeless steppe while the greater spotted eagle prefers more densely wooded and wetter habitats generally than imperial eagles such as taiga bogs. Diet however can overlap considerably, especially with steppe eagles as both it and the imperial species are largely attracted to colonies of ground squirrels in Central Asia.Barashkova, A., Smelansky, I., Tomilenko, A., & Akentiev, A. (2009). Some Records of Raptors in the East Kazakhstan. Raptors Conservation, (17).Flint, V. E., Bourso-Leland, N., & Baird, J. (1984). A field guide to birds of the USSR: including Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Princeton University Press.Väli, Ü. (2004). The greater spotted eagle Aquila clanga and the lesser spotted eagle A. pomarina: taxonomy, phylogeography and ecology. Tartu University Press. While steppe eagles occur much more broadly in Africa during winter and a similarly narrow extent in the Indian subcontinent as eastern imperials, greater spotted eagles are similarly as rare as imperial eagles in Africa but spread farther in Asia than either the steppe or imperial species. In all three species, by winter they are attracted to more open habitats ranging from savanna to wetlands and even semi-desert. The ecology of wintering eastern imperials was studied at length in Bharatpur district of India in contrast to the steppe and greater spotted eagle as well as the resident Indian spotted eagle and shorter-distance migrant Pallas's fish eagle. It was found that the feeding opportunities sought were largely similar (nestling water birds were often favored) by all five eagle species and that a hierarchy was formed, though each species competed most regularly with others of their own species. The eastern imperial eagle was, by and large, dominant in correspondence to its slightly larger size than the other booted eagles and rivaled the similarly-sized P:allas's fish eagle as the top avian predator in this raptor community. The steppe eagle, despite being only scarcely smaller than an imperial eagle, was usually subordinate to imperial eagles and had a much lower estimated average daily food intake, against an average of for the imperial. However, the mean daily intake of Pallas's fish eagle was slightly higher still at and the fish eagle would perch slightly higher than the imperials as well. In one case, a flock of 9 steppe eagles was able to pirate a freshly caught coot from an imperial eagle. The imperial was the most inactive forager here, having spent 36% of observed hours foraging, against 45% for steppe eagles, 46% for Pallas's fish eagle, 49% for greater spotted eagle and 65% for, Indian spotted eagle. Other studies on the interactions of eastern imperial eagles also support that it is dominant during winter over simil!ar species such as steppe and the spotted eagles at competitive feeding spots.Rasmussen, P.C., & Anderton, J.C. (2005). Birds of South Asia: the Ripley guide. Vols. 1-2. Smithsonian Institution and Lynx Edicions, Washington, D.C. and Barcelona, Spain. In the Korean peninsula, similarly as in the Indian subcontinent, wintering eastern imperial eagles (though rare) can reportedly be seen more than singly concentrated where there are ample numbers of water birds along with other large eagles.Choi, C. Y., & Park, J. G. (2012). Birds of prey in Korea. Korean Wild Birds Society & Shinan County, Seoul, South Korea. Next to nothing is known about the ecology of the rare, seldom-observed wintering population of eastern imperial eagles in east Africa but it is claimed to usually be seen in the company of “other brown eagles”.