GREATER SPOTTED EAGLE (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Env and Eco)

Context: The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has forced greater spotted eagles to change their migratory paths, making their journey more arduous and causing them to skip much-needed stopovers.

Greater Spotted Eagle

• About: It is a large raptor species.
• Scientific name: Clanga clanga
• Habitat: Open wet forests and forest edges, often adjoining marshes, swampy patches, bogs, or wet meadows, as well as river-valley woodlands and floodplain forests.
• Distribution: Eastern Europe, parts of Central Europe, central Russia, central Asia and parts of China.

oThe species has mostly vanished from western and central Europe, with a limited breeding population in Polesia, Belarus.

• Threatened by: habitat destruction, collisions with objects, and hybridization with lesser spotted eagles..
• Conservation Status:

oIUCN: Vulnerable.