Projects · Honours research
How bioregion and season shape wedge-tailed eagle scavenging and social behaviour at carcasses.
Apex scavengers provide an important ecosystem service by rapidly removing carrion. Using a standardised design of 120 kangaroo carcasses monitored with camera traps across desert, forest and alpine bioregions, open and closed canopy habitats, and warm and cool seasons, this project showed how strongly place and season govern wedge-tailed eagle scavenging and social interaction.
This honours research was published in Oikos in 2024.
Oikos
Wedge-tailed eagles are Australia's apex avian scavenger. Monitoring 120 kangaroo carcasses across desert, forest and alpine bioregions, in open and closed habitats and warm and cool seasons, showed how strongly place and season shape when eagles scavenge and how they interact at carcasses.