This specifically relates to the hybrid eagle. Animals don’t just recognize artillery fire, tanks and fighter planes. But also when there is a buildup of troops somewhere, Eagles avoid the area“, writes the BBC.

The animals usually fly over Ukraine on their annual migration from countries such as Greece or South Sudan to Belarus. Then they breed there in the spring.

Scientists studied vulture data using a GPS tracker in the first months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. “The war has had a huge impact on people and their environment there. Our findings now also show what this means.” Animals,” says one of the participating scientists.

He started tracking the birds in 2017. At the time, this had very different purposes than seeing how animals behaved in a war zone. These results now show that animals spend significantly less time on average in Ukraine when they stop. They also fly longer distances in one go on average.

Lack of food and drink

This is not entirely positive: it is important for migratory birds to have enough time to eat and drink properly during their stop and to have shelter. This is often not the case in a war zone. As a result, they lost more energy along the way, and often arrived late because their route changed.

Although all the birds spotted are still alive, scientists suspect that the stressful experiences may have affected the birds’ reproductive process.