Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) Satellite Telemetry and Observational Data, Western North America, 1993-1997

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Data at Risk (DaR) team partnered with the Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center (FRESC) to preserve and release a subset of their golden eagle telemetry data. In the 1990's, researchers from what is now FRESC worked with Boise State University (BSU) and collected telemetry and ground observation data that documented the local and migratory movements and behaviors of golden eagles. Over the course of this study 21 golden eagles in the conterminous western US were captured and marked with Argos platform terminal transmitters (PTTs) and tracked by satellite as they moved between breeding and wintering locations (individuals marked with Argos PTTs and tracked by satellite are referred to as 'satellite-tagged' in this release). Of these 21 satellite-tagged eagles, 10 were also fitted with tail-mounted VHF (very high frequency) transmitters and tracked by radio to allow for behavioral observations (individuals fitted with tail-mounted VHFs and tracked by radio are referred to as 'radio-tagged' in this release).

This data release is made up of three pieces: the satellite data which includes the Argos data for all 21 satellite-tagged birds, the observed data which includes behavioral observations for the 10 radio-tagged birds observed from the ground, and the banding data which provides more context about the captures. Each piece of this data release is organized into its own child item with FGDC CSDGM metadata documentation and all accessible data attached.