title: Public–private partnership

text: One of the main criticisms of public-private partnerships is the lack of accountability and transparency associated with these projects. Part of the reason why evidence of PPP performance is often unavailable is that most financial details of P3s are under the veil of commercial confidentiality provisions, and unavailable to researchers and the public. Around the world, opponents of P3s have launched judicial procedures to access greater P3 project documentation than the limited "bottom line" sheets available on the project's websites. When they are successful, the documents they receive are often heavily redacted.


title: Public–private partnership

text: A 2007 survey of U.S. city managers revealed that communities often fail to sufficiently monitor PPPs: "For instance, in 2002, only 47.3% of managers involved with private firms as delivery partners reported that they evaluate that service delivery. By 2007, that was down to 45.4%. Performance monitoring is a general concern from these surveys and in the scholarly criticisms of these arrangements."


title: Public–private partnership

text: After a wave of privatization of many water services in the 1990s, mostly in developing countries, experiences show that global water corporations have not brought the promised improvements in public water utilities. Instead of lower prices, large volumes of investment, and improvements in the connection of the poor to water and sanitation, water tariffs have increased out of reach of poor households. Water multinationals are withdrawing from developing countries, and the World Bank is reluctant to provide support.


title: Public–private partnership

text: The privatization of the water services of the city of Paris proved to be unwanted, and at the end of 2009 the city did not renew its contract with two of the French water corporations, Suez and Veolia. After a year of being controlled by the public, it is projected that the water tariff will be cut by between 5% and 10%.


title: Public–private partnership

text: In the 2010s, as wastewater treatment plants across North America came of age and needed to be replaced, multiple cities decided to fund the renewal of their water infrastructure through a public-private partnership. Among those cities were Brandenburg, Kentucky, which was the "first local government in Kentucky to execute a public-private partnership under legislation passed in 2016", and Regina, Saskatchewan, which held a referendum on the plant's funding model. The P3 option won out."


title: Public–private partnership

text: Another major sector for P3s is transportation. The P3 Transportation sector can be broadly split into five sectors: airports, ports, roads, railways and urban passenger transport (which includes bus, light rail and heavy rail systems).


title: Public–private partnership

text: Many P3s in the United States have been toll road concessions. Transportation projects have accounted for 1/5 of all P3 projects in Canada. Major transportation P3 projects have included the Confederation Bridge linking Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, the Pocahontas Parkway in Virginia, and the London Underground PPP.


title: Public–private partnership

text: For more than two decades, public-private partnerships have been used to finance health infrastructure. In Canada, they comprise 1/3 of all P3 projects nationwide. Governments have looked to the PPP model in an attempt to solve larger problems in health care delivery. However, some health-care-related PPPs have been shown to cost significantly more money to develop and maintain than those developed through traditional public procurement.


title: Public–private partnership

text: A health services PPP can be described as a long-term contract (typically 15–30 years) between a public-sector authority and one or more private-sector companies operating as a legal entity. In theory, the agreements entails that the government provides purchasing power and outlines goals for an optimal health system. It then contracts a private enterprise to design, build, maintain, and/or manage the delivery of agreed-upon services over the term of the contract. Finally, the private sector receives payment for its services and assumes additional risk while benefitting from returns on its investments during the operational phase.


title: Public–private partnership

text: A criticism of P3s for Hospitals in Canada is that they result in an "internal bifurcation of authority". This occurs when the facility is operated and maintained by the private sector while the care services are delivered by the public sector. In those cases, the nursing staff cannot request their colleagues from the maintenance staff to clean something (urine, blood, etc.) or to hang workplace safety signs, even if they are standing next to each other, without the approval of the private managers.


title: Public–private partnership

text: In the UK, P3s were used to build hospitals for the National Health Service. In 2017 there were 127 PFI schemes in the English NHS. The contracts vary greatly in size. Most include the cost of running services such as facilities management, hospital portering and patient food, and these amount to around 40% of the cost. Total repayments will cost around £2.1 billion in 2017 and will reach a peak in 2029. This is around 2% of the NHS budget.


title: Public–private partnership

text: PPP options in the forest sector can include joint forest management projects between government agencies, various investors and NGOs. USAID promotes the use of P3s to assist the exploitation of certified timber and non-timber products in Third World countries by foreign companies. They claim forestry PPPs are an agent of nature conservation and the sustainable harvesting of commercialized forest products, notwithstanding the fact that it was competition from foreign companies that forced local producers to engage in unsustainable harvesting practices in the first place. Many forestry sector partnerships with NGOs are nothing more than greenwashing operations.


title: Public–private partnership

text: A form of PPP labelled “lease with the transfer of ownership” can be used to reforest erosion-prone and agricultural land (for example, a private partner leases a certain land plot on the basis of a lease agreement, after which a certain part or all of the plot can gradually shift to private ownership based on agreed terms). The forest is thus privatized under the guise of a program whose stated goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.


title: Public–private partnership

text: Aside from the support of national governments and financial firms, PPPs are promoted by the following institutions:


title: Public–private partnership

text: Public-private partnership units are organizations responsible for promoting, facilitating, and assessing P3s in their territory. They can be government agencies, or semi-independent organizations created with full or part government support. Governments tend to create these units as a response to criticisms of the implementation of P3 projects in their country prior to the creation of the P3 unit. In 2009, 50% of OECD countries had created a centralized PPP unit, and many more of these institutions exist in other countries.


title: Public–private partnership

text: The "big four" accounting firms of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and KPMG have been involved in the public-private partnership model from its inception. Advisors from these companies have been tapped to develop PPP policies and procedures in multiple countries. These companies then went on to evaluate those procedures, appraise individual projects, and act as a consultants for private and public partners in PPP contract negotiations. Accounting firms sometimes even have an equity stake in projects that they appraise the value for money. Due to these conflict of interests, multiple authors have argues that the “big four”’s public project appraisals are biased towards the PPP funding option against the traditional procurement model.


title: Public–private partnership

text: The World Bank works to promote Public-private partnerships in countries where it operates. The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 17 target 17.17 is formulated as: "Encourage effective partnerships: Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships." The success of this target is measured by the amount in United States dollars committed to public-private partnerships for infrastructure worldwide.


title: Public–private partnership

text: The American government also seeks to promote public-private partnerships around the globe to meet its various foreign policy goals. USAID promoted PPPs with Global Development Alliances and through the Development Credit Authority, which was merged into the Overseas Private Investment Corporation in 2019. The State department also promotes PPPs through its Office of Global Partnerships.


title: Public–private partnership

text: There are many types and delivery models of PPPs, the following is a non-exhaustive list of some of the designs:


title: Public–private partnership

text: While long-term infrastructure projects compose the bulk of P3s worldwide, other types of Public–private partnerships exist to suit different purposes and actors.


title: Public–private partnership

text: A form of P3 that became prevalent in american cities during the 21st century are "asset monetization" arrangements. They concerns a city's revenue-generating assets (parking lots, garage and meters, public lights, toll roads, etc.) and transforms them into financial assets that the city can lease to a private corporation in exchange for covering operation and maintenance. These deals are usually done during periods of financial distress for the city, and the immediate revenues municipalities receive is used to pay down the debt or to fill budget holes. The 2014 Detroit bankruptcy deal included many asset monetization arrangements.


title: Public–private partnership

text: Global public–private partnership (GPPP) is a governance mechanism to foster public-private partnership (PPP) cooperation between an international intergovernmental organisation like the United Nations and private companies. Existing GPPPs strive, among other things, to increase affordable access to non-generic essential drugs and vaccines in developing countries, and to promote handwashing with soap to reduce diarrhoea.


title: Public–private partnership

text: Market-led proposals (MLP) are P3s proposed by the private sector. MLP policies encourage private sector firms to make unsolicited P3 infrastructure project proposals to the government, instead of putting the onus on the state to propose each projects. During the 2010s, MLP policies were implemented in most Australian states and territories. Amy Sarcevic from Informa Australia notes that "to date, market-led proposals have had a relatively high failure rate".


title: Public–private partnership

text: Public–private partnerships with non-profits and private partners, sometimes called Public–private–community partnerships (PPCPs), are a modified version of the PPP model designed for the needs of Third world countries. They were notably proposed by the Asian Development Bank as early as 1991 as an "institutional reform ... to facilitate the participation of individuals, CBOs [community based organizations], other NGOs and the private sector" so that they become "actively involved in planning and management".


title: Public–private partnership

text: Social impact bonds (also called "pay for success" bonds) are "a public-private partnership which funds effective social services through a performance-based contract", according to Social Finance's definition. They operate over a fixed period of time, but they do not offer a fixed rate of return. Generally, repayment to investors is contingent upon a specified social outcome being achieved. A similar system, development impact bonds, is being implemented in developing countries.


title: Prince Hamlet

text: Prince Hamlet is the title character and protagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy "Hamlet" (1599–1601). He is the Prince of Denmark, nephew to the usurping Claudius, and son of King Hamlet, the previous King of Denmark. At the beginning of the play, he is conflicted whether, and how, to avenge the murder of his father, and struggles with his own sanity along the way. By the end of the tragedy, Hamlet has caused the deaths of Polonius, Laertes, Claudius, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two acquaintances of his from childhood. He is also indirectly involved in the deaths of his love Ophelia (drowning) and of his mother Gertrude (mistakenly poisoned by Claudius).


title: Prince Hamlet

text: The play opens with Hamlet deeply depressed over the recent death of his father, King Hamlet, and his uncle Claudius' ascension to the throne and hasty marriage to Hamlet's mother Gertrude. One night, his father's ghost appears to him and tells him that Claudius murdered him in order to usurp the throne, and commands his son to avenge his death.


title: Prince Hamlet

text: Claudius sends for two of Hamlet's friends from Wittenberg, to find out what is causing Hamlet so much pain. Claudius and his advisor Polonius persuade Ophelia—Polonius' daughter and Hamlet's love interest—to speak with Hamlet while they secretly listen. Hamlet enters, contemplating suicide ("To be, or not to be"). Ophelia greets him, and offers to return his remembrances (tokens of his love interest), upon which Hamlet questions her honesty and tells her to "get thee to a nunnery" (a suggestion of either erotic criticism of hypersexuality, or of escape from the Danish succession crisis that will become bloody.)


title: Prince Hamlet

text: Hamlet devises a test to see whether Claudius is guilty: he hires a group of actors to perform a play about the murder of a king in front of the royal court, and has Horatio gauge Claudius' reaction. Claudius demands the play be stopped half through because it causes him to experience guilt. When Claudius leaves the on stage "audience" deeply upset, Hamlet knows that the ghost was telling the truth. He follows Claudius into his chambers in order to kill him, but stops when he sees his uncle praying; he does not want to kill Claudius while he is in a state of grace because Hamlet wants Claudius to suffer in purgatory and Claudius has just attempted to cleanse his sin through confession. A second attempt on Claudius' life ends in Polonius' accidental death.


title: Prince Hamlet

text: Claudius, now fearing for his life, sends Hamlet to England, accompanied (and closely watched) by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Alone, Claudius discloses that he is actually sending Hamlet to his death. Prior to embarking for England, Hamlet hides Polonius' body, ultimately revealing its location to the King. Meanwhile, the death of Ophelia's father has driven her insane with grief, and Claudius convinces Ophelia's brother Laertes that Hamlet is to blame. Claudius proposes a fencing match between the two. Laertes informs the king that he will further poison the tip of his sword so that a mere scratch would mean certain death. Claudius plans to offer Hamlet poisoned wine if that fails. Gertrude reports that Ophelia has died.


title: Prince Hamlet

text: In the Elsinore churchyard, two "clowns", typically represented as gravediggers, enter to prepare Ophelia's grave. Hamlet arrives with Horatio and banters with one of them, who unearths the skull of a jester whom Hamlet once knew, Yorick. Ophelia's funeral procession approaches, led by Laertes. Hamlet interrupts, professing his own love and grief for Ophelia. He and Laertes grapple, but the fight is broken up by Claudius and Gertrude.


title: Prince Hamlet

text: Later that day, Hamlet tells Horatio how he escaped death on his journey, disclosing that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have been sent to their deaths instead. A courtier, Osric, interrupts to invite Hamlet to fence with Laertes. Despite Horatio's warnings, Hamlet accepts and the match begins. After several rounds, Gertrude toasts Hamlet, accidentally drinking the wine Claudius poisoned. Between bouts, Laertes attacks and pierces Hamlet with his poisoned blade; in the ensuing scuffle, Hamlet is able to use Laertes' own poisoned sword against him. Gertrude falls and, in her dying breath, announces that she has been poisoned.


title: Prince Hamlet

text: In his dying moments, Laertes reveals Claudius' plot. Hamlet stabs Claudius with the poisoned sword, and then forces him to drink from his own poisoned cup to make sure he dies. In his final moments, Hamlet names Prince Fortinbras of Norway as the probable heir to the throne. Horatio attempts to kill himself with the same poisoned wine, but it was stopped by Hamlet, so he will be the only one left alive to give a full account of the story. He then wills the throne of Denmark to Fortinbras before dying.


title: Prince Hamlet

text: Perhaps the most straightforward view sees Hamlet as seeking truth in order to be certain that he is justified in carrying out the revenge called for by a ghost that claims to be the spirit of his father. The 1948 film with Laurence Olivier in the title role is introduced by a voice-over: "This is the tragedy of a man who could not make up his mind."


title: Prince Hamlet

text: T. S. Eliot offers a similar view of Hamlet's character in his critical essay, "Hamlet and His Problems" ("The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism"). He states, "We find Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' not in the action, not in any quotations that we might select, so much as in an unmistakable tone...".


title: Prince Hamlet

text: Others see Hamlet as a person charged with a duty that he both knows and feels is right, yet is unwilling to carry out. In this view, his efforts to satisfy himself on Claudius' guilt and his failure to act when he can are evidence of this unwillingness, and Hamlet berates himself for his inability to carry out his task. After observing a play-actor performing a scene, he notes that the actor was moved to tears in the passion of the story and compares this passion for an ancient Greek character, Hecuba, in light of his own situation:


title: Prince Hamlet

text: The name Hamlet occurs in the form "Amleth" in a 13th-century book of Danish History written by Saxo Grammaticus, popularised by François de Belleforest as "L'histoire tragique d'Hamlet," and appearing in the English translation as "Hamblet". The story of Amleth is assumed to originate in Old Norse or Icelandic poetry from several centuries earlier. Saxo has it as "Amlethus," the Latin form of the old Jutish "Amlethæ." In terms of etymology the Old Icelandic name "Amlóði" comes from the Icelandic noun "amlóði", meaning "fool", suggestive of the way that Hamlet acts in the play. Later these names were incorporated into Irish as Amlodhe. As phonetic laws took their course, the name's spelling changed eventually leaving it as Amlaidhe. This Irish name was given to a hero in a common folk story. The root of this name is 'furious, raging, wild'.


title: Prince Hamlet

text: It has also been suggested that Hamlet's hesitations may also be rooted in the religious beliefs of Shakespeare's time. The Protestant Reformation had generated debate about the existence of purgatory (where King Hamlet claims he currently resides). The concept of purgatory is a Catholic one, and was frowned on in Protestant England. Hamlet says that he will not kill his uncle because death would send him straight to heaven, while his father (having died without foreknowledge of his death) is in purgatory doing penance for his sins. Hamlet's opportunity to kill his uncle comes just after the uncle has supposedly made his peace with God. Hamlet says that he would much rather take a stab at the murderer while he is frolicking in the "incestuous sheets", or gambling and drinking, so he could be sure of his going straight to hell.


title: Prince Hamlet

text: Ernest Jones, following the work of Sigmund Freud, held that Hamlet suffered from the Oedipus complex. He said in his essay "The Oedipus-Complex as an Explanation of Hamlet's Mystery: A Study in Motive":


title: Prince Hamlet

text: It has also been suggested that Hamlet, who is described by Ophelia as "th' expectancy and rose of the fair state, / The glass of fashion and the mould of form" (), is ultimately a reflection of all of the interpretations possessed by other characters in the play—and perhaps also by the members of an audience watching him. Polonius, most obviously, has a habit of misreading his own expectations into Hamlet's actions ("Still harping on my daughter!"), though many other characters in the play participate in analogous behaviour.


title: Prince Hamlet

text: Gertrude has a similar tendency to interpret all of her son's activities as the result of her "o'erhasty marriage" alone. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tend to find the stalled ambitions of a courtier in their former schoolmate's behaviour, whereas Claudius seems to be concerned with Hamlet's motivation only so far as it reveals the degree to which his nephew is a potential threat. Ophelia, like her father, waits in vain for Hamlet to give her signs of affection, and Horatio would have little reason to think that Hamlet was concerned with anything more pressing than the commandment of the ghost. And the First Gravedigger seems to think that Prince Hamlet, like that "whoreson mad fellow" Yorick, is simply insane without any need for explanation. Several critics, including Stephen Booth and William Empson have further investigated the analogous relationship between "Hamlet", the play, and its audience.


title: Prince Hamlet

text: One aspect of Hamlet's character is the way in which he reflects other characters, including the play's primary antagonist, Claudius. In the play within a play, for instance, Gonzago, the king, is murdered in the garden by his "nephew", Lucianus; although King Hamlet is murdered by his brother, in "The Murder of Gonzago"—which Hamlet tauntingly calls ""The Mousetrap"" when Claudius asks "What do you call the play?"—the regicide is a nephew, like Prince Hamlet. However, it is also worth noting that each of the characters in the play-within-a-play maps to two major characters in "Hamlet", an instance of the play's many doubles:


title: Prince Hamlet

text: Hamlet is also, in some form, a reflection of most other characters in the play (or perhaps vice versa):


title: Prince Hamlet

text: In act V, scene 1, the First Gravedigger is asked by Hamlet at about line 147 and following, how long he has "been a grave-maker". His reply appears to determine the age of Hamlet in a roundabout but very explicit manner. The Gravedigger says that he has been in his profession since the day that Old Hamlet defeated Old Fortinbras, which was "the very day that young Hamlet was born". Then, a little later, he adds that "I have been sexton here, man and boy, thirty years." According to this logic, Hamlet must be thirty years old. Yorick, the dead jester whose skull Hamlet holds during this scene, is said to have been in the earth "three-and-twenty years", which would make Hamlet no more than seven years old when he last rode on Yorick's back.


title: Prince Hamlet

text: This view of Hamlet's age is supported by the fact that Richard Burbage, the actor who originally played the role, was thirty-two at the time of the play's premiere.


title: Prince Hamlet

text: However, a case has been made that at an early stage in "Hamlet"—with its apparent history of multiple revisions—Hamlet was presented as a sixteen-year-old. Several pieces of evidence support this view. Hamlet attends the University of Wittenberg, and members of the royalty and nobility (Elizabethan or medieval Danish) did not attend university at age 30. Additionally, a 30-year-old Prince Hamlet would clearly have been of ruling age. Given his great popularity (mentioned by Claudius), this would raise the question of why it was not he, rather than his uncle, who was elected to succeed to the throne upon the death of King Hamlet.


title: Prince Hamlet

text: The line about the length of the Gravedigger's career does not appear in the First Quarto of "Hamlet"; in that text Yorick is said to have been in the ground only twelve years. Furthermore, in Belleforest, possibly one of Shakespeare's sources for the story, it is said that Amleth has "not attained to man's estate". And in the original spelling of the First Folio (F1) text, one of the two authoritative texts for the play, the Gravedigger's answer to how long he has "been a grave-maker" reads "Why heere in Denmarke: I haue bin sixeteene heere, man and Boy thirty yeares." "Sixteene" is usually rendered as "sexton" (a modernization of the second quarto's "sexten"), even in modern texts that take F1 as their "copy text". But modernizing the punctuation—a normal practice in modernized texts—renders "Why heere in Denmarke: I haue bin sixeteene heere—man and Boy thirty yeares." In other words, this reading suggests that he has been a gravedigger for sixteen years, but that he has lived in Denmark for thirty. According to this logic, then, it is the Gravedigger who is thirty, whereas Hamlet is only sixteen.


title: Prince Hamlet

text: However, the difference between a sexton and a grave digger must also be taken into account. A sexton oversees many different jobs around the church and surrounding areas. A grave digger simply digs graves. There are sextons who also dig graves and some that do not. It is completely possible that the Gravedigger has been a sexton for 30 years, but has not been digging graves for that entire time. This could be another example of the character's very round-about way of speaking.


title: Prince Hamlet

text: However, this reading has the disadvantage that in the Folio the length of time Yorick has been in the ground is said to be twenty-three years, meaning that he had been dead seven years by the time Hamlet was born. Another theory offered is that the play was originally written with the view that Hamlet was 16 or 17, but since Shakespeare wrote his plays to be performed, and not read, these lines were likely changed so Burbage (who was almost always the protagonist in Shakespeare's plays) could play the role.


title: Prince Hamlet

text: In the comic book series "Kill Shakespeare", Hamlet is the central character. After he is exiled from Denmark, his ship is attacked and he washes up on England. He is encountered by Richard III of England, who tells him that he is the "Shadow King", a figure of prophecy. He tells Hamlet that he must find and kill the wizard William Shakespeare and retrieve his quill. He goes off, but is relentlessly pursued by assassins from Richard and his lieutenant, Iago. He is eventually captured by the fool known as Falstaff, who helps him get out of the woods after an encounter with a being known as a Prodigal. He is shot in the leg by Iago, but is saved by Juliet Capulet and Othello. Hamlet stops Othello from killing Iago, but is taken captive by Juliet and her resistance army. After going with them into a town and seeing the cruelty of Richard, Hamlet flees into the woods, where he is forced to face the ghost of his father. He defeats the ghost and is eventually picked up by two travellers: Lysander and Demetrius.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: Arbutus unedo is an evergreen shrub or small tree in the family Ericaceae, native to the Mediterranean region and western Europe. The tree is well known for its fruits, which bear some resemblance to the strawberry — hence the common name "strawberry tree". However, it is not closely related to true strawberries of the genus "Fragaria".


title: Arbutus unedo

text: Its presence in Ireland also lends it the moniker "Irish strawberry tree", or cain, or cane apple (from the Irish name for the tree, "caithne"), or sometimes "Killarney strawberry tree". The strawberry tree is the national tree of Italy because of its green leaves, its white flowers and its red berries, colors that recall the Italian flag.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: "Arbutus unedo" was one of the many species described by Carl Linnaeus in Volume One of his landmark 1753 work "Species Plantarum", giving it the name it still bears today.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: A study published in 2001 which analyzed ribosomal DNA from "Arbutus" and related genera found "Arbutus" to be paraphyletic, and "A. unedo" to be closely related to the other Mediterranean Basin species such as "A. andrachne" and "A. canariensis" and not to the western North American members of the genus.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: "Arbutus unedo" and "A. andrachne" hybridise naturally where their ranges overlap; the hybrid has been named "Arbutus" × "andrachnoides" (syn. "A." × "hybrida", or "A. andrachne" × "unedo"), inheriting traits of both parent species, though fruits are not usually borne freely, and as a hybrid is unlikely to breed true from seed.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: It is sold in California as Arbutus x Marina named for a district in San Francisco where it was hybridized.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: "Arbutus unedo" grows to tall, rarely up to , with a trunk diameter of up to . It grows in hardiness zones 7–10.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: The leaves are green and glossy on the upper side, dull on the underside, long and broad, laurel-like and with a serrated or serrulated margin.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: The hermaphrodite flowers are white (yellow when desiccated), bell-shaped, in diameter, and flower from a reddish hanging panicle in autumn. They are pollinated by bees, and have a mild sweet scent.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: The fruit is a red berry, diameter, spherical in shape with a rough surface. It matures in about 12 months, in autumn, at the same time as the next flowering. It is edible; the fruit is sweet when reddish. Seeds are small, brown and angular and are often dispersed by frugivorous birds.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: The name unedo is attributed to Pliny the Elder, who allegedly claimed that ""unum tantum edo"", meaning "I eat only one". It is not known whether he meant that the fruit was so good he could eat only one, or whether he meant that the fruit was uninteresting so he ate only one.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: "Arbutus unedo" is widespread in the Mediterranean region: in Portugal, Spain and southeastern France; southward in Algeria, Morocco, Libya, and Tunisia, and eastward in Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. It is also found in western France, Albania, Bulgaria and southwestern Ireland.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: Its disjunct distribution, with an isolated relict population in southwestern and northwestern Ireland, notably in Killarney and around Lough Gill in County Sligo, which is its most northerly stand in the world, is a remnant of former broader distribution during the milder climate of the Atlantic period, the warmest and moistest Blytt–Sernander period, when the climate was generally warmer than today. The red-flowered variant, named "A. unedo rubra" by William Aiton in 1785, was discovered growing wild in Ireland in 1835.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: "Arbutus unedo" is quite an easy plant to cultivate, and is adaptable to many climates. Once established it is fairly drought resistant, frost resistant, shade tolerant and salt tolerant.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: Lower production of fruit mass has however been reported in case of summer droughts, and frosts in flowering time were seen to decrease the numbers of fruits.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: "Arbutus unedo" is naturally adapted to dry summer climates, and has become a very popular ornamental plant in California and the rest of the west coast of North America. It can grow easily in USDA hardiness zone 7 or warmer.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: It also grows well in the cool, wet summers of western Ireland and England, and temperate regions of Europe and Asia. Pests include scales and thrips, and diseases include anthracnose, "Phytophthora", root rot, and rust.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: Unlike most of the Ericaceae, "A. unedo" grows well in basic (limy) pH soils, even though it does better in more acidic soils.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: The fruit production is not very high and is highly variable on the weather, and that may be part of the reason this plant is not frequently cultivated. The average yield in a two years study is around 46 kg per hectare, and 180 grams per cubic metre of crown. However, very little work has so far been done in terms of genotype selection.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: "Arbutus unedo" has been seen to form a mycorrhizal relationship. Inoculation with "Pisolithus tinctorius" has shown to greatly improve the plant's root mass, size, tolerance to drought and nutritional status.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: The seed should undergo a one-month cold stratification period, then soaked for 5 to 6 days in warm water to improve germination success. Seedlings are prone to damp, and should be cared for in the first year.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: Layering can take up to two years, but has a good success rate, while cutting is done with a long mature wood, preferably with a heel in November to December. The success rate however is not very high.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: "Arbutus unedo"'s fruits have a high content of sugars (40%), and antioxidant vitamins such as vitamin C, beta-carotene, niacin, tocopherols, and organic acids that are precursors to omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids (nearly 9%). They are edible fresh, but that is an uncommon consumption, especially because the mature fruit tends to bruise very easily, making transportation difficult.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: They are used mostly for jam, marmalades, yogurt and alcoholic beverages, such as the Portuguese "medronho", a type of strong brandy. Many regions of Albania prepare the traditional drink rakia from the fruits of the plant ("mare" or "kocimare" in Albanian), whence comes the name of the drink, which is "raki kocimareje". In order to reduce the high content of methanol in the drink, the spirit is distilled twice.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: The flowers are pollinated by bees, and the resulting honey is bitter tasting but still considered a delicacy.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: "Arbutus unedo"'s leaves have been employed in traditional and folk medicine in the form of a decoction said to have the following properties: astringent, diuretic, urinary anti-septic, antiseptic, intoxicant, rheumatism, tonic, and more recently, in the therapy of hypertension and diabetes.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: The leaves are reported to have a high concentration of flavonol antioxidants, especially quercitin, best extracted with a decoction, and together with the fruits are a source of antioxidants.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: The nectar contains the isoprenoid unedone (2-(1,2-dihydroxypropyl)-4,4,8-trimethyl-1-oxaspiro[2.5]oct-7-en-6-one) which is biologically active against a common and debilitating parasite of bumble bees, "Crithidia bombi", so could provide a naturally occurring way for bees to withstand the burden of disease which has been reported to be a contributing factor in pollinator declines. The compound is glycosylated to an inactive form unedone-8-O-glycoside once consumed by the bee (perhaps to reduce any toxic effects against the bee herself) then transformed back to the active aglycone by the bee's microbiome in the hindgut where the parasite is most prevalent and damaging - suggesting that the microbiome assists in the anti-parasitic process.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: In landscape design, ecosystem restoration or permaculture based designs, "A. unedo" can have many purposes. While the ornamental one is the most common, this can be a valuable plant also for restoring degraded ecosystems and preventing desertification. Being a pioneer plant and growing well also in poor soils, can be used in a wide array of situations.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: Its Mediterranean habitat, elegant details of leaf and habit and dramatic show of fruit with flowers made "Arbutus unedo" notable in Classical Antiquity, when it was called Andrachne, and for which Theophrastos (4th c. BCE) wrote about it, as well as the ancient army medical herbalist Pedanios Dioscorides [De Materia Medica, Book II-150]; in addition, Pliny thought it should not be planted where bees are kept, for the bitterness it imparts to honey.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: The first evidence of its importation into northern European gardens was to 16th-century England from Ireland. In 1586 a correspondent in Ireland sent plants to the Elizabethan courtiers Lord Leicester and Sir Francis Walsingham. An earlier description by Rev. William Turner ("The Names of Herbes", 1548) was probably based on hearsay. The Irish association of "Arbutus" in English gardens is reflected in the inventory taken in 1649 of Henrietta Maria's Wimbledon: "one very fayre tree, called the Irish arbutis standing in the midle parte of the sayd kitchin garden, very lovely to look upon" By the 18th century "Arbutus unedo" was well known enough in English gardens for Batty Langley to make the bold and impractical suggestion that it might be used for hedges, though it "will not admit of being clipped as other evergreens are".


title: Arbutus unedo

text: The form "A. unedo" f. "rubra" and the hybrid "A." × "andrachnoides", have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: The tree is mentioned by Roman poet Ovid, in Book I: 89–112 "The Golden Age" of his "Metamorphoses": "Contented with food that grew without cultivation, they collected mountain strawberries and the fruit of the strawberry tree, wild cherries, blackberries clinging to the tough brambles, and acorns fallen from Jupiter's spreading oak-tree."


title: Arbutus unedo

text: The name of the Italian promontory Mount Conero, situated directly south of the port of Ancona on the Adriatic Sea, derives from the Greek name κόμαρος (komaròs) indicating the strawberry tree which is common on the slopes of the mountain. Mount Conero, the only coastal high point on the Adriatic sea between Trieste and the Gargano massif in the region of Apulia, assists navigators to sail across the Adriatic sea since ancient times.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: "The Garden of Earthly Delights", a painting by Hieronymus Bosch, was originally listed by José de Sigüenza, in the inventory of the Spanish Crown as "La Pintura del Madroño" – "The Painting of the Strawberry Tree".


title: Arbutus unedo

text: The tree makes up part of the Coat of arms of Madrid ("El oso y el madroño", The Bear and the Strawberry Tree) of the city of Madrid, Spain. In the center of the city (Puerta del Sol) there is a statue of a bear eating the fruit of the "Madroño" tree. The image appears on city crests, taxi cabs, man-hole covers, and other city infrastructure. The fruit of the "Madroño" tree ferments on the tree if left to ripen, so some of the bears become drunk from eating the fruits.


title: Arbutus unedo

text: The strawberry tree () began to be considered one of the national symbols of Italy in the 19th century, during the Italian unification, because with its autumn colors is reminiscent of the flag of Italy (green for its leaves, white for its flowers and red for its berries).


title: Arbutus unedo

text: For this reason the poet Giovanni Pascoli dedicated a poem to the strawberry tree. He refers to the Aeneid passage in which Pallas, killed by Turnus, was posed on branches of a strawberry tree. He saw in the colours of that plant a prefiguration of the flag of Italy and considered Pallas the first "national cause martyr". Pascoli's ode says:


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Persepolis Football Club () is an Iranian professional football club based in Tehran, that competes in the Persian Gulf Pro League.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Persepolis was founded in 1963 by Ali Abdo and has been in the first division of Iranian football since 1968. Persepolis also had three teams in bowling, basketball and volleyball in its first years of establishment. Persepolis F.C. is the football club of the multisport Persepolis Athletic and Cultural Club. The club is owned by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. There have been many attempts to privatize the club with no success due to the large debt the club has accumulated.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: The club has played at its home ground, Azadi Stadium, since 1973. They contest the Tehran derby, which is regarded as one of the biggest in Asia, with archrivals Esteghlal, a match that is always closely followed by Iranian football fans. According to the Asian Football Confederation, Persepolis is the most popular football club in Asia.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: At the AFC Champions League, Persepolis has the records of the most attendances (11 matches among 20 matches with the most attendances) and five matches with the most attendances. Persepolis has also broken the record of 100,000 attendances in four matches at AFC Champions League. Persepolis has won a record fourteen Iranian league titles, as well as six Hazfi Cups, four Super Cups and the 1990–91 Asian Cup Winners' Cup. Many notable players have played for the club, including former Bayern Munich players Ali Karimi, Ali Daei, Vahid Hashemian and former Hamburger SV player Mehdi Mahdavikia. However, Ali Parvin is widely regarded as the club's greatest ever player. Parvin spent 18 years with the club from 1970 to 1988.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Shahin produced many talented players like Parviz Dehdari, Masoud Boroumand, Homayoun Behzadi, Jafar Kashani, Hossein Kalani, Hamid Shirzadegan, and many more that played for Iran national football team. These talents made Shahin popular in the 1960s but its very popularity was viewed as a threat by the Iran Football Federation and the "Keihan Varzeshi" newspaper (Iran's most important sports publication at the time).


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: The conflict between them became worse and on 9 July 1967, two days after Shahin's 3–0 win against Tehranjavan F.C., the Iran Sports Organization declared Shahin F.C. as dissolved. League attendance dropped and other clubs including Pas, Rah Ahan, and Oghab tried to sign Shahin players.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Persepolis Athletic and Cultural Club was established in 1963 by Ali Abdo. Abdo had returned to Iran from the United States and was a championship boxer.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Persepolis F.C. started the 1968 season with Parviz Dehdari as manager. Despite the efforts to sign and disperse Shahin players to various clubs, Parviz Dehdari and Masoud Boroumand transferred the popularity of Shahin to Persepolis F.C. by taking most Shahin Players to join Persepolis. The team was initially quite weak, and participated in the 2nd division of the country. The best player on the team then was Mahmoud Khordbin.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: The club, using four Shahin players, had a friendly match with "Jam Abadan", a respected team at the time. After the match the remainder of the Shahin players joined Persepolis. That year no league competition was held, as many teams had been dissolved, so a 44-team tournament was held, and Persepolis, along with Pas, Taj, and Oghab finished top of the group.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: The next year they represented as the first Iranian club in the Asian Champion Club Tournament held in Thailand, but they were not successful and were eliminated in the group stage.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: In 1962, the Iran Universal (Iran National "Iran Nacional") automobile factory was opened. In 1969, The boss of the factory, Mahmoud Khayami, who was also the owner of a football team, was a big fan of Shahin. Khayami, who wanted to improve his football team, entered into negotiations with Persepolis and was able to get all the former Shahin players except Aziz Asli and Mahmoud Khordbin to join his new team, Paykan Tehran F.C.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Paykan won the championship that year, but the new players moved back to Persepolis at the end of the season.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Persepolis had an impressive season with 13 wins and 1 draw, in 14 weeks. In 1972, Abdo announced Persepolis as the first professional football club in Iran. The club did not enter the domestic league and only played against foreign clubs, and a few months later it became amateur again Next year the Takht Jamshid Cup was established.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: In the third year of establishment of Takhte Jamshid cup Persepolis lost just two matches of thirty matches of that year.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Persepolis is the most successful club in the Takht Jamshid Cup league, clinching two championship titles and finishing three times as runner-up.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: When the Iranian Revolution took place in 1979, Abdo returned to United States. Although Persepolis won the Espandi Cup, the club fell apart and many of the old players did not return.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: The club's property was sequestered by The Oppressed and Veterans Foundation () and the club placed under the responsibility of The Physical Education Organization () of Iran.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: In 1981, the Physical Education Department declared that the name of the club would change, but club officials, players, and fans opposed the move. The team didn't appear in the match against Homa in the Tehran league as a protest against the Physical Education Department. They lost the match 3–0 by default and Homa became champion. In 1986, The club was taken over by the Oppressed and Veterans Foundation and renamed "Azadi" (meaning "freedom", ). Players declared that they wouldn't play for the club if the name change went through. After a brief period the Foundation did not want the club any more, and it was taken over by the Physical Education Department again.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: On 16 February 1987, the Physical Education Department renamed the club "Pirouzi" (meaning "victory", ) with players' agreement, although fans still call the team by its original name, Persepolis. On 10 April 2012 the club chairman Mohammad Rouyanian announced that the club will officially only be known as Persepolis.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: In the 1980s the club only played in the Tehran League and various elimination tournaments. Persepolis was successful during this time and maintained its popularity, winning the Tehran League five seasons in a row. During all that time, Ali Parvin served as player-manager.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: The 1990s were a dream decade for the team, with four league championships, two Hazfi Cups, dozens of great players, and renewed support. At one point more than six Persepolis players were starters on Iran's national team.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: The team won the national championship in the 1995–96 season. At one point in that season they were 10 points behind Bahman. They came back and finished first, six points ahead of the league runner-up. They won the league again the next season, again finishing ahead of the runner up by six points. They were stopped by the Korean side Pohang Steelers in the semi-finals of the Asian Champions' Cup. Persepolis finished third, defeating Iraq's Al-Zawraa in the third place match.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: The next season they showed good form again, but due to their commitments in the Asian Champions' Cup and the large number of national team players they had, they withdrew from the league. The poor scheduling and mismanagement of both the I.R.I.F.F. and AFC officials led to this unprofessional event. This prevented Persepolis from possibly winning a third consecutive league championship. Persepolis did not have much luck in the Asian Champion's cup either, as they were once again stopped in the semi-finals, this time by Chinese club, Dalian Wanda. They lost the third place match as well to Al-Hilal.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: The 1996–97 and 1997–98 Persepolis teams are considered by many to be among the greatest Iranian clubs to ever play. National team players and future superstars such as Ahmadreza Abedzadeh, Khodadad Azizi, Karim Bagheri, Ali Daei, Mehdi Mahdavikia, Mehrdad Minavand, Ali Karimi and many more were among the players who played for the club in those years.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: After the World Cup 1998, several of Persepolis' best players were transferred to European clubs, but Persepolis was able to keep a talented squad. Future national team members Ali Karimi and Hamed Kavianpour would join the team at this time. They won the 1998–99 championship as well as the Hazfi Cup that season. They also won the 1999–2000 league championship, finishing third again in the Asian Champions Cup. This would be their last championship in the Azadegan League era.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Most of Persepolis' championships at the time were won while Ali Parvin was the manager, and Amirali Abedini was the chairman.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Persepolis entered the newly established IPL looking to dominate once again, but near the end of the season they were in a very close race with their rival Esteghlal.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Esteghlal led the league by two points going into the final day of the regular season. Esteghlal's loss to Malavan and Persepolis' 1–0 win against Fajr Sepasi in their last games of the season gave Persepolis a one-point lead and another championship. Their 2001–02 season championship made them the first-ever IPL champions.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: The 2002–03 season proved to be extremely difficult and Persepolis finished third, never managing to come close to the eventual winners, Sepahan. They also fell apart in the newly created AFC Champions League, failing to advance out of the group stage.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: When Akbar Ghamkhar took over as club chairman, he made several changes in an effort to improve the team. He made public the amount of player and staff salaries, severely angering Parvin, the highest paid player on the team. Ghamkhar hired coach Vinko Begović, and entered into contracts with several prominent players. Persepolis started off very well in the 2003–04 season but things deteriorated. Begovic left the team and German manager Rainer Zobel was bought in. Parvin was brought back, taking the position of technical director. The club finished fifth in the standings in the 2004–05 season.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Ghamkhar was replaced with Hojatollah Khatib. He decided to bring back Parvin. The club experienced major financial problems as some of the spending decisions made in previous years had overextended the club. Persepolis finished the 2005–06 season in ninth place, the lowest it had ever placed. Parvin left the club in February 2006, vowing to never return to Persepolis, after a 4–2 loss to Fajr Sepasi in Azadi Stadium. After the game, the fans began cursing at Ali Parvin and the players.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Khatib resigned as chairman and Mohammad Hassan Ansarifard was elected to the post by the club council. Arie Haan was brought in as the new manager, helping the team make it to the 2005–06 Hazfi Cup final, but he was fired by the club just before the 2006–07 season began. Turkish manager Mustafa Denizli signed with the team on 17 August 2006. With the final cup match being his first one as the club's manager, Denizli was not able to help the club win the Hazfi Cup in 2006, a cup that the team needed to gain entry into the Asian Champion's League and to receive financial benefits by doing so.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: The club did not win the Hazfi Cup the next year either, losing to Sepahan in the semifinals in June 2007. The club finished third in the IPL 2006–07, and Denizli left the club after Ansarifard resigned as chairman in June 2007.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Habib Kashani became the club chairman in June 2007 and selected Afshin Ghotbi as head coach of Persepolis for the 2007–08 season.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Ghotbi Promised to lead Persepolis to the IPL championship and started the IPL with a 3–2 win over Sanat Naft. Persepolis was undefeated until the 17th round, where they suffered a 2–1 loss to Sepahan. On 9 January 2008, the disciplinary committee of the Iranian Football Federation announced because of a serious injury to a security soldier by the Sepahan fans, Sepahan would be charged with a five-point deduction. This was later reduced to three points. Persepolis was also docked six points by FIFA because of unpaid wages to a number of former players. This placed Persepolis behind Sepahan in the standings.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Near the end of the season Sheys Rezaei and Mohammad Reza Mamani were expelled by the team after both players showed poor behavior towards club players, coaches, and management as well as other non-football-related issues. Habib Kashani and Mahmoud Khordbin both suffered heart attacks. Persepolis cut Sepahan's seven-point lead to two points by the last game of the season.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: In the last week, Persepolis defeated Sepahan when Sepehr Heidari scored a 90+6th-minute goal in front of over 110,000 fans in Azadi Stadium to give Persepolis its second championship in the IPL and a berth in the Asian Champions League. In the 2007–2008 Golden Ball award ceremony Persepolis, Afshin Ghotbi, and Mohsen Khalili won the Team, Manager, and Player of the year titles.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Ghotbi's contract expired at the end of the season and he decided to leave the club. His assistant, Hamid Estili, was very close to management but, Kashani and other club officials resigned because of conflicts between them and the Iran Physical Education Department. Dariush Mostafavi was selected as club chairman. Mostafavi promised to bring Ghotbi back. Negotiations were successful, and on 4 July 2008, Ghotbi signed a two-year contract with Persepolis. Ghotbi had many problems with Mostafavi and resigned on 19 November 2008. When talking to the popular Iranian show 90, Ghotbi showed tears before leaving Persepolis and the fans that loved him who had given him the nickname Emperor.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: However, Ghotbi left the team in mid-season after a series of losses and eventually became head coach of the Iran national football team.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Due to the mismanagement of the club, Persepolis had underachieved in the recent seasons of the Iran Pro League. The selection of incompetent coaches, and the acquisition of low quality players have enhanced the present deep in form. After the resignation of Ghotbi, his assistant Afshin Peyrovani was named as interim head coach of the club, led the team in 11 matches in Iran Pro League but he was replaced with former Portugal and Saudi Arabia manager, Nelo Vingada. Vingada's contract was terminated at the end of the season.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: After Vingada was sacked as head coach of the club, former Croatia and Dinamo Zagreb manager, Zlatko Kranjčar was hired as his successor but he was soon replaced with former Persepolis and Iran national football team captain, Ali Daei. At the end of the 2009–10 Season, Persepolis finished fourth in the league but they became Hazfi Cup champions. In the Hazfi Cup final, Persepolis defeated Azadegan League side Gostaresh Foolad Tabriz 4–1 on aggregate to qualify for the 2011 AFC Champions League. In the 2010–11 season, Persepolis finished fourth in the league and was eliminated in the group stage of the 2011 AFC Champions League but at the end of the season Persepolis won the 2010–11 Hazfi Cup after defeating rivals Sepahan, Foolad and Malavan. The technical committee chose Hamid Estili as Daei's successor on that day. Under the management of Daei, Persepolis won back to back trophies for the first time in 13 seasons.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: After Daei's resignation, Hamid Estili, Mustafa Denizli, Manuel José and most recently Yahya Golmohammadi managed Persepolis for a record 4 head coaches in only two seasons. Golmohammadi led Persepolis to the final of the Hazfi Cup, but losing to Sepahan on penalties. After the Hazfi Cup, Golmohammadi announced that he would not be managing Persepolis the following season.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: However, Daei returned to the club and signed a three years contract before the start of 2013–14 season. Under Daei Persepolis finished second with 55 points, 2 points behind Champions Foolad. Persepolis retained its place in the AFC Champions League after a two-year absence.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: After a poor start to the 2014–15 season which left Persepolis in 9th place, Daei was sacked and was replaced by Hamid Derakhshan.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: On 5 April 2015, Hamid Derakhshan resigned as head coach of Persepolis and was temporarily replaced by Hossein Abdi.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: On 15 May 2015 Ivanković won his first Tehran derby after a 1–0 victory over Esteghlal. Later that week on 19 May 2015 Persepolis defeated Al-Hilal 1–0 in the first leg of AFC Champions League round of 16. In the second leg they lost 3–0 against Al-Hilal and were eliminated.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: After the departure of Mohammad Nouri, the club named Hadi Norouzi as the captain for the 2015–16 season. Persepolis was also very active in the summer transfer season, adding Iranian international Ramin Rezaeian, Croatian defender Luka Marić and Honduras international Jerry Bengtson.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: On 1 October 2015, the club captain Hadi Norouzi died in his sleep at the age of 30 after an apparent heart attack. His death caused a profound shock in Iranian sports.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: After the death of Hadi Norouzi Persepolis improved their form and their long unbeaten streak propelled them to the top 3 midway through the season. After a historic 4–2 win against Esteghlal in the Tehran derby, the team moved into first place. However, after a loss to Naft Tehran on 28 April, the team dropped down to third place. Persepolis won the following week match against Gostaresh Foolad and moved into second place, behind Esteghlal Khuzestan on goal difference. A final day win on 13 May 2016 against Rah Ahan was not enough for Persepolis as Esteghlal Khuzestan also won and were crowned champions of Persian Gulf Pro League 2015–16.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Before the 2016–17 season, Persepolis added national team members Alireza Beiranvand, Jalal Hosseini, and Vahid Amiri. Persepolis started the season strong and never dropped below third place. They set records for least ever goals conceded and most ever points accumulated after 17 weeks in a Persian Gulf Pro League season. On April 15, 2017, Persepolis became the champions of the season with three weeks remaining to the end of the season. After a victory against Machine Sazi, Persepolis claimed its third championship in the Persian Gulf Pro League and its 10th championship in total. Persepolis defended its championship in the Persian Gulf Pro League 2017–18 and won Super cup.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: On 30 May 2017 Persepolis made history again after advancing to the Quarterfinals after defeating Qatari club Lekhwiya 1–0 in the AFC Champions League Round of 16. This was the first time in club history that Persepolis made Quarterfinals in the current Champions League format. Persepolis beat Saudi club Al Ahli 5–3 on aggregate to make it to the Semifinals, where they lost to Al Hilal 6–2 on aggregate. the following year Persepolis advanced to AFC Champions League Final in 2018 and lost 2–0 in First-leg. Persepolis were held to a goalless draw by Kashima Antlers of Japan in the second leg of the AFC Champions League. On 16 May 2019, Branko Ivanković made another history with Persepolis by hat-trick of championship of Iran premier football league in Persian Gulf Pro League. However, he left the club at the end of season after 4 years, winning a record 7 trophies for a foreign coach.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Persepolis Football Club was named after the historical landmark, Persepolis, the capital of the Achaemenid Empire. The club logo incorporates elements from the location.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: The first design of Persepolis' crest used the Faravahar, an ancient Persian and Zoroastrian symbol. The Faravahar is a man with falcon wings, each with three feathers. This version of the crest used in early years. After that there was not a crest on the shirt until the 1980s. In the middle of the 1980s the design of the crest changed. This version had two bull heads attached to one body as seen on a column at Apadana. A cup is designed on the top of the body and Olympic rings are seen under the cup. The bull is the symbol of productivity in ancient Persian beliefs and Persian Literature and the cup on the top of the column represents the championship. In the mid 1990s the crest changed again and became more stylized; the crest became bent and the Olympic rings were dropped, the cup became more explicit while bull heads leaned to the cup. This version used until 2004; the following crest was simpler still. The Olympic rings returned to the crest and the bull of past versions was turned into Homa, another mythological creature and symbol used in the architecture of Persepolis. In 2012, during 2011–2012 season, and before 74th Tehran derby, club released a new version of its logo This current version of the club's logo incorporates the previous version into a whole red shield shaped frame entailing the name of Persepolis in Persian and English.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: One of Persepolis' nicknames is "Sorkhpoushan" ("The Reds", ), stemming from their traditional kit, which is predominantly red. From the foundation of the club, the common home kit includes a red shirt, red (in some seasons black or white) shorts, and red socks. White and black colours are also seen in the kit. In the early 1970s the shorts were black; white shorts were used in the late 1970s, and red shorts became predominant in the 1980s.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: In the 2006–07 season, fans saw the team wear red and white striped shirts. The away kit of the club is commonly with a white background.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: When Persepolis F.C. was created, the sport club already had a number of buildings such as gymnasiums, swimming pools, and bowling alleys in the . The facility is in the north of Tehran hosted 1976 Bowling World Cup and renamed Shahid Chamran Bowling after the revolution. There was initially no stadium for the football team. Ali Abdo bought some land in the Ekbatan area of Tehran and constructed a stadium there. At the time it was known as Apadana stadium. Persepolis played only one game at the stadium due to poor organization of the seating and a lack of co-operation with other Iranian clubs. Persepolis only used the stadium as a training ground.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Around the time of mid-1970s, Abdo had to sell much of the club's property to keep the club functioning due to its poor financial situation; he sold Apadana Stadium to Rah Ahan for 200,000 Tomans in 1975. Apadana Stadium is now called Rah Ahan Stadium. Due to the Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1979 club properties were confiscated by the Oppressed and Veterans Foundation (Bonyad Mostazafan, ); Bowling Abdo, the club's original headquarters, burnt down, Abdo returned to the United States.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Before the construction of Azadi Stadium in 1971, Persepolis played its matches at Amjadieh (Shahid Shiroudi) Stadium. They have played almost all of their home games at Azadi Stadium, except for the 2002–03 season, when they played all but two of their home matches at Tehran's Takhti Stadium while renovations were taking place at Azadi.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: In mid-2006 Persepolis considered buying Shahre Ghods Stadium, but the deal fell through due to Persepolis' poor financial situation and the long distance between the city center and the stadium.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Inside the complex, there are training areas, a hotel and pools. There is also a sauna, steam and weight rooms, a restaurant, conference rooms and offices.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Derafshifar Stadium was given to Persepolis in 2013 and it was considered as the club's property. President Mohammad Rouyanian announced that after his efforts Iranian government accepted the assignment of Derafshifar Stadium to Persepolis and he said that it is an enterprise in order to increase the club's properties.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Persepolis became the owner of Shahid Kazemi Stadium in the winter of 2016. The stadium with a capacity of 15,000 is to be used for training sessions and friendly matches. The complex has a sauna, steam room, weight room, restaurant and conference room.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: In January 2017, the club announced they would renovate the complex by adding a second natural grass pitch, adding parking lots, and a cafeteria. As well as upgrading the already existing conference room, changeroom, gym and swimming area.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: It is first Iranian sport university which opened in 2013. Dariuosh Soudi was appointed as the first president of the university and Mehdi Mahdavikia was the first student of this university. This university has 600 students and accepts students in thirteen different fields.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: In June 2013 Persepolis launched their first full-time television channel, with the channel to be available on Hot Bird satellites across the world. The manager of Persepolis TV was Reza Rashidpour. However the channel closed in October 2013.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: The radio of the club started working after revealing new version of Persepolis official website. This radio worked through recording programs and make them ready for fans to download from the club's official website. The number of recordings and programs was more than thirty different entertaining parts and the number of downloads of each program was more than one million. President Rouyanian came on an agreement with "Iran Seda" internet radio to put its link in the official website of the club and make it possible to listen to the live commentary of the 77th Tehran derby through it. The commentator of this match was Eskandar Koti one of the most famous commentators in Iran.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: The club started producing energy drinks since 2013. This product is advertised widely in IRIB TV channels.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: The club established these restaurants as an economic movement in order to improve its fans feeling of living with the club through their routine life. Persepolis restaurants chain based in different cities of Iran. The first Persepolis restaurant opened in Shiraz where the Iranian precious historical places "Takhte Jamshid" and "Persepolis" are located. As of May 2014, there are four branches of Persepolis restaurants open in Iran.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Persepolis is one side of Iran's and Asia's most important club football match which is called Tehran Derby. The rivalry between Persepolis and Esteghlal was derived from the previous significant derby between Shahin and Taj.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: This match was declared as the most important derby in Asia and 22nd most important derby in the world in June 2008 by "World Soccer" magazine.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: After the departure of Shahin players to Persepolis, the club became too popular and its arch-rival Taj (meaning "crown" in Persian) was the royal team supported by the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza. As the two biggest and most successful clubs in Iran, nowadays the rivalry continues on an annual basis with both teams often challenging each other for the championship. In each transfer season, both clubs try to attract rival team players.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Esteghlal has the most wins in the derby, but Persepolis has the largest margin of victory. Historically defeating Esteghlal 6–0 on 7 September 1973.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Another Persepolis rival is Sepahan, the club based in Esfahan. Both clubs were dependent upon Shahin; one hired most of the Shahin players in its early years and the other was the branch of Shahin F.C. in Esfahan. The rivalry renewed in the early 2000s (decade), when Esfahan rose in Iran football. Sepahan and Zob Ahan became strong, replacing Tehran popular teams in the 2002–2003 season. Both of Iran's important football competitions, IPL and the Hazfi Cup, were won by Esfahan teams that season.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Started in 2009 when Tractor returned to first tier of Iranian football league after 8 years and their fans had passion about this event. Mustafa Denizli is one of the club's most popular coaches in this rivalry.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: On 6 October 2015, the club decided to retire the squad number 24 in memory of Hadi Norouzi, who died of heart attack in sleep at the age of 30. He played for Persepolis at the time.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: The table below shows Persepolis managers that have won noteworthy titles or had a great impact on the team. For a more detailed and chronological list of Persepolis managers from 1964 onwards with their trophies, see List of Persepolis F.C. managers.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: Persepolis is one of the highest supported teams in Iranian football. It is said in unofficial counts that the club has over 40 million fans.


title: Persepolis F.C.

text: The club is based in Tehran and is popular in all parts of country. Persepolis also has a fan base in Afghanistan and Persian Gulf countries.


title: Mr. Holland's Opus

text: Mr. Holland's Opus is a 1995 American drama film directed by Stephen Herek, produced by Ted Field, Robert W. Cort, and Michael Nolin, and written by Patrick Sheane Duncan. The film stars Richard Dreyfuss in the title role of Glenn Holland, a dedicated high-school music teacher who attempts to compose his own music while struggling to balance his job and life with his wife and profoundly deaf son. The cast also includes Glenne Headly, Olympia Dukakis, William H. Macy, and Jay Thomas.


title: Mr. Holland's Opus

text: The film was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay. Richard Dreyfuss received nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama and the Academy Award for Best Actor.


title: Mr. Holland's Opus

text: In the fall of 1964, 30-year-old Glenn Holland is a successful and talented musician and composer from Portland, Oregon. He switches gears, taking a position as a music teacher at John F. Kennedy High School so that he can spend more time with his young wife Iris and work on his symphony. The film covers his 30-year teaching career, set amongst the changes in American society.


title: Mr. Holland's Opus

text: Holland at first struggles in his new job, but learns how to connect with his students by using rock and roll and other popular music to convince them that music is a fun and worthwhile pursuit. He becomes a popular teacher at the school and rises to the task of creating a school marching band with help from the football coach, Bill Meister, with whom he becomes lifelong friends. Holland persuades principal Helen Jacobs to maintain funding for the school's arts programs, despite a shrinking budget and the objections of vice principal Gene Wolters.


title: Mr. Holland's Opus

text: The time Holland devotes to his classes, the marching band, orchestra, productions and mentoring both struggling and talented students leaves him little time to work on his symphony, or to spend with his family. When his son, Cole, is found to be deaf, he is severely disappointed that he will never be able to share his love of music. He fails to learn American Sign Language properly, leaving him unable to communicate with his son and creating a rift between him and Iris, who has to raise Cole mostly by herself. As the years progress, Holland grows closer to his students at Kennedy High and more distant from his own son. An argument with his teenage son finally makes Holland realize the error of his ways and he learns to communicate with his son and help him visualize the music he can't hear, and repairs his relationship with his wife.


title: Mr. Holland's Opus

text: In 1995, Principal Wolters shuts down the school's arts programs, citing further cuts from the Education Board and the need to prioritize reading, writing and math, and Holland is laid off as a result. Holland makes an impassioned plea to the Board to no avail and becomes despondent, believing that his teaching career has amounted to nothing. On his last day, Holland's wife and son, now a teacher himself, help him clear out his office and take him to the auditorium. It is packed full of current and former students who greet him with a standing ovation. Gertrude Lang, a struggling clarinetist from Holland's first year teaching, now Governor of Oregon, gives a speech praising Mr. Holland, that his legacy is more than just the symphony; it is all the people he has helped and influenced over 30 years. She joins past members of the school's orchestra, who have been practicing the symphony in secret, on stage. Mr. Holland conducts them in its premiere performance.


title: Mr. Holland's Opus

text: The movie was written by Patrick Sheane Duncan, directed by Stephen Herek, and was filmed in and around Portland, Oregon, with many exterior and interior scenes taking place at Ulysses S. Grant High School. Other scenes were filmed in Portland's St. Johns neighborhood and Hollywood District.


title: Mr. Holland's Opus

text: The film features an orchestral score by Michael Kamen and many pieces of classical music. Kamen also wrote "An American Symphony" ("Mr. Holland's Opus"), the work on which Mr. Holland is shown working throughout the movie. Kamen's arrangement won the 1997 Grammy for Best Instrumental Arrangement.


title: Mr. Holland's Opus

text: Two soundtrack albums were released for this film in January 1996. One is the original motion picture score, and includes all of the original music written for the film by Michael Kamen. The second album is a collection of popular music featured in the film:


title: Mr. Holland's Opus

text: In the United States, gross domestic takings totaled US$82,569,971. International takings are estimated at US$23,700,000, for a gross worldwide takings of $106,269,971. Rental totals reached $36,550,000 in the US. Although the film is included among 1995 box-office releases (it ranks as the 14th-most successful film of that year), it was only released in a few theatres in New York and Los Angeles on December 29, 1995, because Disney felt, accurately, that Richard Dreyfuss' performance had a good chance of getting an Oscar nomination if it beat that year's in-theatre deadline.


title: Mr. Holland's Opus

text: The film holds a 75% "Fresh" rating from 28 reviews at Rotten Tomatoes. The site's consensus states: "A feel-good story brought to life by a terrific ensemble cast, "Mr. Holland's Opus" plucks the heartstrings without shame -- and with undeniable skill." CinemaScore reported that audiences gave the film a rare "A+" grade. "The New York Times" film review cited Dreyfuss for "a warm and really touching performance"; "Variety" also called his performance "quite effective and surprisingly restrained". "Variety" further noted the "nostalgic aura" that permeates the film, "which encourages viewers to think fondly of — and pay tribute to — the one teacher in their lives who made a difference". Roger Ebert gave the film 3 1/2 out of 4 stars, commending its starring and supporting casts and agreeing with the film's message of the ability of high school teachers to inspire their students, as well as the importance of cultural offerings on the curriculum.


title: Mr. Holland's Opus

text: Writer Patrick Sheane Duncan was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay at the 53rd Golden Globe Awards. Dreyfuss was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama.


title: Mr. Holland's Opus

text: Inspired by the motion picture, its composer, Michael Kamen, founded The Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation in 1996 as his commitment to the future of music education.


title: Mr. Holland's Opus

text: A world premiere musical version adapted from Duncan's screenplay will be staged from August 12 to September 17, 2022 at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunquit, Maine. Book, lyrics and direction are by Tony Award winner BD Wong with music by Wayne Barker.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: Steller's sea eagle (Haliaeetus pelagicus), also known as Pacific sea eagle or white-shouldered eagle, is a very large diurnal bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. It was described first by Peter Simon Pallas in 1811. No subspecies are recognised. A sturdy eagle, it has dark brown plumage with white wings and tail, a yellow beak, and yellow talons. Typically, it is the heaviest eagle in the world, at about , but in some standard measurements, may be ranked below the harpy eagle ("Harpia harpyja") and the Philippine eagle ("Pithecophaga jefferyi").


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: The Steller's sea eagle is endemic to Northeast Asia, where it lives in Russia, Korea, Japan, China, and Taiwan. Steller's sea eagle lives in coastal northeastern Asia and mainly preys on fish and water birds. The Kamchatka Peninsula in Far Eastern Russia is known for its relatively large population of these birds; about 4,000 of these eagles live there. Steller's sea eagle is listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List (IUCN Red List) of threatened species. Steller's sea eagle females are bigger than males.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: This species was described initially as "Aquila pelagica" by Prussian naturalist Peter Simon Pallas, in 1811. The species name is the Ancient Greek "pelagos" "the open sea/ocean". Dutch naturalist Coenraad Jacob Temminck named it "Falco leucopterus" "white winged eagle" in 1824, and Heinrich von Kittlitz called it "Falco imperator" in 1832. George Robert Gray moved the species into the genus "Haliaeetus" in 1849.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: "Steller's sea eagle" has been designated the official name by the International Ornithologists' Union (IOC). It is named after the German naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller. It also is known as Steller's fish eagle, Pacific sea eagle, or white-shouldered eagle. In Russian, the eagle has been called "morskoi orel" (sea eagle), "pestryi morskoi orel" (mottled sea eagle), or "beloplechii orlan" (white-shouldered eagle). In Japanese, it is called "ō-washi" (large eagle or great eagle). In Korean, the eagle is called "chamsuri" (true eagle). In Mandarin, it is called "hǔtóu hǎidiāo" (tiger-headed sea eagle).


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: A 1996 analysis of the cytochrome b gene of mitochondrial DNA showed that Steller's sea eagles diverged from a lineage that gave rise to the bald eagle and white-tailed eagle around 3-4 million years ago. All three of these species have yellow eyes, beaks, and talons, unlike their next-closest relative, Pallas's fish eagle.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: "H. pelagicus" is monotypic, although a dubious subspecies has been named; "H. p. niger". The latter name was given to the population that lacked white feathers except for the tail, and may have resided all year in Korea. Last seen in 1968 and long believed to be extinct, a female matching "H. p. niger" in appearance was hatched in captivity in Tierpark Berlin (Germany) in 2001. Both her parents had typical coloration, indicating that "H. p. niger" is an extremely rare dark morph rather than a valid subspecies, as had been suggested earlier. One of the offspring of the dark Berlin female, a male hatched in 2014 that now lives in Skandinavisk Dyrepark (Denmark), also is a dark morph.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: Steller's sea eagle is the largest bird in the genus "Haliaeetus" and is one of the largest raptors overall. Females vary in weight from , while males are rather lighter with a weight range of . The typical weight is variable, possibly due to seasonal variation in food access or general condition of eagles, but has been reported as high as a mean weight of to a median estimate weight of , excluding expired eagles that were poisoned by lead and endured precipitous weight loss by the occasion of their deaths.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: At its average weight, the Steller's seems to outweigh the average harpy by around and the average Philippine eagles by more than . Steller's sea eagle can range in total length from , apparently males average about in length, while females average about , marginally shorter on average than the harpy eagle and about shorter than the Philippine eagle.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: The wingspan is from and the wing chord measurement is . The sea eagle's wingspan is one of the largest of any living eagle, at a median of per Ferguson-Lees (2001) or a median of per Saito (2009). Steller's sea eagles' absolute maximum wingspan is less certain; many sources place it at up to 2.45 m (8 ft 2 in). However, less substantiated records indicate that it may also reach even greater wingspans. Three separate sources claim unverified Steller's sea eagles spanning up to , and , respectively.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: Steller's sea eagle is unique among all sea eagles in having a yellow bill even in juvenile birds, and possessing 14, not 12, rectrices.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: As in most "Haliaeetus" eagles, the tarsus and tail are relatively short compared with other very large eagles at and in length, respectively, the Philippine eagle surpassing it by up to and apparently. In all sea and fish eagles, the toes are relatively short and stout, with the bottom of the foot covered in spicules and the talons being relatively shorter and more strongly curved than in comparably sized eagles of forests and fields, such as the "booted eagle" group (i.e. "Aquila") or "harpy eagles", all of these specializations developed in the aid of capturing fish rather than medium-sized mammals and large birds, although clearly these are not excluded from capture.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: As in all fish and sea eagles, as well as the majority of the world's fish-eating raptors, Steller's sea eagle has spicules, which are bumpy waves all along the bottom of their feet, which allow them to hold fish that may otherwise slip out of their grasp. The feet are very powerful despite not bearing talons as long as those of a harpy eagle. In one case, a wildlife veterinarian was badly injured when a female eagle grabbed his arm and embedded her talons, piercing through to the other side of his arm.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: The bill is large. The skull is around in total length, the culmen is from and the bill from the gape to the tip is around . A Steller's sea eagle's bill is probably the largest of any living eagle, just surpassing to the Philippine eagle with a sole known culmen measurement (from a mature female) of , and are similar in robustness (if slightly shorter in culmen length) to those of the largest accipitrids, the Old World vultures.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: Mature "H. pelagicus" eagles have mostly dark brown to black plumage, with strongly contrasting white on the lesser and median upper-wing coverts, under-wing coverts, thighs, under-tail coverts, and tail. Their diamond-shaped, white tails are relatively longer than those of the white-tailed eagle. The bold, pied coloration of adults may play some part in social hierarchies with other eagles of their own species during the nonbreeding season, although this has not been extensively studied. A very rare dark morph, once regarded as a separate subspecies "H. p. niger", lacks white in its plumage, except for the tail. The eyes, bill, and feet of adults are yellow.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: The downy plumage of chicks is silky white on hatching, though it soon turns a smoky brown-grey. As in other sea eagles, remiges and rectrices of the first-year plumage are longer than those of adults. Juvenile plumage is largely a uniform dark soot-brown with occasional grey-brown streaking about the head and the neck, white feather bases, and light mottling on the rectrices. The tail of the immature eagle is white with black mottling distally. The young Steller's sea eagle has dark brown irises, whitish legs, and blackish-brown beak. Through at least three intermediate plumages, mottling in the tail decreases, body and wing feathering acquires a bronze cast, and the eyes and bill lighten in colour. Definitive plumage is probably reached in the fourth to fifth year of life, based on data from captives. Young of the typical morph and the rare dark morph are alike; the difference only becomes clear once they have gained the adult plumage.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: First and intermediate plumages are difficult to distinguish from those of the white-tailed eagle, which co-occurs in the entire breeding range of "H. pelagicus", but beyond their bulkier, larger overall form, they can fairly reliably be distinguished at reasonable range by their considerably more massive bill and their darker and more uniform body plumage. This is not to mention the differing shape of the Steller's diamond-shaped tail and wings (paddle-like in Steller's against the square-looking wings of the white-tailed), especially in flight, as well as a generally distinct under-wing pattern.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: Steller's sea eagle is known to make a deep barking cry, "ra-ra-ra-raurau", in aggressive interactions, its call similar to the white-tailed eagles, but deeper. During the display at the beginning of the breeding season, they have been heard to make calls to each that sound like very loud, deep-voiced gulls.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: Steller's sea eagle breeds on the Kamchatka Peninsula, the coastal area around the Sea of Okhotsk, the lower reaches of the Amur River, and on northern Sakhalin and the Shantar Islands, Russia. Many eagles migrate from breeding grounds to Korea, Japan and China in winter. Most birds winter south of their breeding range, in the southern Kuril Islands, Russia and Hokkaidō, Japan. Steller's sea eagle is less prone to vagrancy than the white-tailed eagle, as it lacks the long-range dispersal typical of juveniles of that species, but vagrant eagles have been found in North America, at locations including the Pribilof Islands and Kodiak Island, Texas, Nova Scotia, Massachusetts, and Maine and inland in Asia to as far as Beijing in China and Yakutsk in Russia's Sakha Republic, and south to as far as Taiwan.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: The large body size ("see also" Bergmann's rule) and distribution of Steller's sea eagle suggests it is a glacial relict, meaning it evolved in a narrow subarctic zone of the northeasternmost Asian coasts, which shifted its latitude according to ice age cycles, and never occurred anywhere else. Their nests are built on large, rocky outcroppings or at the tops of large trees on the coast and alongside large rivers with mature trees. Habitat with large Erman's birches ("Betula ermanii") and floodplain forests of larches, alders, willows, and poplars are preferred. Some eagles, especially those that nest on seacoasts, may not migrate. The timing, duration, and extent of migration depends on ice conditions and food availability.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: On Kamchatka, eagles overwinter in forests and river valleys near the coast, but are irregularly distributed over the peninsula. Most wintering birds there appear to be residential adults. Steller's sea eagles that do migrate fly south to winter in rivers and wetlands in Japan, but occasionally move to mountainous inland areas as opposed to the seacoast. Each winter, drifting ice on the Sea of Okhotsk drives thousands of eagles south. Ice reaches Hokkaido in late January.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: Eagle numbers peak in the Nemuro Strait in late February. On Hokkaido, eagles concentrate in coastal areas and on lakes near the coast, along with substantial numbers of white-tailed eagles. Eagles depart between late March and late April, adults typically leaving before immatures. Migrants tend to follow seacoasts and are usually observed flying singly. In groups, migrants are typically observed flying apart. On Kamchatka, most migrants are birds in transitional plumages. They are also occasionally seen flying over the northern ocean or perching on sea ice during the winter.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: Steller’s Sea eagle occasionally turns up in western Alaska. In December 2021, for the first time, one has been documented in the lower 48 states, first on the Taunton River in Massachusetts and then in Georgetown, Maine.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: A single individual has been moving around North America, having first been seen on August 30, 2020 at Denali National Park, Alaska. The next possible, but not confirmed, sighting was in Texas from an anonymous photo, not long after a winter storm blew into the state. The bird was then confirmed in several locations in New Brunswick, Quebec, and Nova Scotia throughout the summer and into November. In December, the bird was seen for a couple days on the Taunton River in Massachusetts and then moved north to the Maine coast (Georgetown, Boothbay, and Pemaquid), where it has been residing since December 30, 2021. Its visit to Massachusetts was the first time the species has been confirmed in the lower-48 states. Most recently, it has been seen on the east side on Newfoundland on April 22, 2022. Marks on the wing indicate that all these sightings are of the same individual.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: Steller's sea eagle mainly feed on fish. Their favored prey in river habitats are salmon ("Oncorhynchus" spp.) and trout. Among these, pink salmon ("O. gorbuscha") and chum salmon ("O. keta") are reportedly favored, sometimes intensely supplemented by grayling ("Thymallus" sp.) and three-spined stickleback ("Gastrossteus aculeatus"). While pink and chum salmon average approximately in mature mass, respectively, Steller's sea eagle not infrequently preys on fish up to . In coastal areas, nesting eagles may feed on Bering wolffish ("Anarchichas orientalis"), "Hemitripterus villosus", smooth lumpfish ("Aptocyclus ventricosus") and "Myoxocephalus" spp. Like most "Haliaeetus" eagles, they hunt fish almost exclusively in shallow water. Relatively large numbers of these normally solitary birds can be seen congregating on particularly productive spawning rivers in August through September due to an abundant food supply.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: On Kamchatka, aggregations of as many as 700 eagles have been reported, though much smaller groups are the norm. In summer, live fish, typically in the range of in length, are fed to the young at the nest. Normally, the parents catch about two or three fish for the young to eat each day. In autumn, when many salmon die after spawning, dead fish tend to be consumed more often than live ones, and these are the main food for Steller's sea eagles that overwinter in inland rivers with unfrozen waters.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: On Hokkaido, eagles are attracted by abundant Pacific cod ("Gadus macrocephalus"), which peak in the Rausu Sea and the Nemuro Straits in February. This resource supports an important commercial fishery, which in turn helps to support eagles. Alaska pollock ("Gadus chalcogrammus"), along with the cod, is the most important food source for wintering eagles in Japan. These eagles may walk boldly within a few feet of fishermen when both are capturing fish during winter, but only familiar ones they have encountered previously; they behave warily and keep their distance if strangers are present.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: Fish make up about 80% of the diet of eagles nesting in the Amur River; elsewhere, other prey form almost an equal proportion of the diet. Along the sea coast and in Kamchatka, water birds are the most common prey. Water birds taken by this species include ducks, geese, swans, cranes, herons, and gulls. They also show a strong local preference for slaty-backed gulls ("Larus schistisagus").


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: Common and thick-billed murres ("Uria aalge" and "U. lomvia", respectively) dominated the diet around the Sea of Okhotsk, followed by black-legged kittiwakes ("Rissa tridactyla"), slaty-backed gulls, crested auklets ("Aethia cristatella"), and pelagic cormorants ("Phalacrocorax pelagicus"). Small chicks of murres and cormorants were sometimes taken alive in Russia and brought back to nests, where they independently fed on remains of fish in the eagles' nests until they were killed themselves. In Russia, upland grouse, such as black-billed capercaillie ("Tetrao parvirostris") and willow and rock ptarmigan ("Lagopus lagopus" & "L. muta") can be an important prey species; grouse are not typically taken by other "Haliaeetus" species. Other landbirds hunted by Steller's sea eagles have included short-eared owls ("Asio flammeus"), snowy owl ("Bubo scandiaca"), carrion crow ("Corvus corone") and common raven ("Corvus corax"), as well as (rarely) smaller passerines. In one case, a Steller's sea eagle was observed feeding on a great albatross (genus "Diomedea"), a rare vagrant from the sub-Antarctic oceans. This sea eagle may supplement its diet with various mammals (especially hares), crabs, mussels, "Nereis" worms and squid when given the opportunity.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: Mammalian carnivores are apparently readily hunted. Those recorded as prey have included sable ("Martes zibellina"), American mink ("Neogale vison"), Arctic fox ("Vulpes lagopus"), red fox ("Vulpes vulpes"), and small domestic dogs ("Canis familiaris"). Smaller mammals have also been recorded as prey, including northern red-backed vole ("Clethrionomys rutilus") and tundra vole ("Microtus oeconomus"). Carrion, especially that of mammals, is readily eaten during the winter. Around 35% of eagles wintering in Japan move inland and feed largely on mammalian carcasses, predominantly sika deer ("Cervus nippon"). In winter, immature Steller's sea eagles may frequent slaughterhouses to pirate bits of offal. This eagle has been recorded preying occasionally on young seals. It was estimated in one study (Brown & Amadon), that some seal pups carried off in flight by the eagles weighed at least 9.1 kg (20 lb), which (if true) would be the greatest load-carrying ever known for a bird; however, the prey weights were not verified. Often seals and sea lion of any size are eaten as carrion and, using the huge bill, may be dismembered where found rather than flown with.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: Steller's sea eagles hunt most commonly from a perch in a tree or rocky ledge located above the water, although they may also hunt on the wing, while circling above the water. Once located, prey is captured by diving. Eagles sometimes hunt by standing in or near shallow water on a sandbank, spit, or ice-floe, grabbing passing fish. Compared with its white-tailed and bald eagle relatives, Steller's sea eagle reportedly is a more "aggressive, powerful, and active" raptor. Where feeding occurs in groups, kleptoparasitism is common. Kleptoparasitism is most beneficial in procuring food during periods of food abundance and in large feeding aggregations. Immatures use kleptoparasitism as much as adults, but are attacked more often by adults than birds of similar age. Adults appear to benefit most from this behavior. The bold color patterns of adults may be an important signal influencing the formation of feeding groups. However, a video from Russia shows a juvenile Steller's sea eagle aggressively displacing an adult from food during a protracted battle. Outside the breeding period, these eagles probably roost communally near their feeding sites. When salmon and trout are dying in winter after their summer spawning, feeding groups of Steller's sea eagles may mix with smaller golden eagles ("Aquila chrysaetos") and white-tailed eagles to exploit this food source. This area is the only one in the golden eagle's nearly circumpolar range where they are extensively dependent on fish for prey.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: Kleptoparasitism is sometimes recorded within the species. Occasionally, the smaller species may steal a fish away from the Steller's, especially if it is distracted by aggression from conspecifics, and both juvenile and adult Steller's may lose fish to the smaller species even face-to-face, especially a less assertive bird, such as immature Steller's. One video shows a golden eagle engaging an immature Steller's in a conflict and ultimately displacing it after maintaining a superior grip despite its smaller size. In other cases, the Steller's have been photographed coming away with the prey after using its superior size to dominate, usually by bearing down its mass and large bill over the smaller eagles. Cinereous vultures (Aegypius monachus) and bearded vultures (Gypaetus barbatus) are the only larger rational birds that a Steller's sea eagle may encounter in the wild.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: In other cases, the three eagle species have been observed to feed in close proximity and seem to be outwardly indifferent to each other's presence. In inland areas, where golden, bald and white-tailed eagles compete over food sources which are not as abundant as these fish and, more importantly, compete for nesting ranges, aggressive interspecies competition can be more common. White-tailed eagles and golden eagles have even killed one another in Scotland, in cases of competition for abutting nesting ranges. As in many sea and fish eagles, Steller's sea eagle may attempt to steal (and occasionally succeed in procuring) fish from osprey ("Pandion haliaetus") where they coexist. Steller's sea eagles co-occur with cinereous vultures, the largest living accipitrid, during the winter in the Korean Peninsula and Northeast China. In one case, a cinereous vulture, the largest living accipitrid, was observed to be pursued in flight and kleptoparasitized by a Steller's sea eagle.


title: Steller's sea eagle

text: This eagle builds several aeries, being bulky constructions of twigs and sticks, at a height up to and diameter up to . They usually place such nests high up on trees or on rocky outcrops at above the ground, sometimes in trees up to . Alternate nests are usually built within of each other. In one case, two active nests were found to have been located within .