page_title: Steppe eagle
section_title: Status
hierarchical_section_title: Steppe eagle / Status
caption_attribution_description: English: Steppe Eagle at Sunrise in Tal Chhapar Sanctuary
context_page_description: The steppe eagle is a large bird of prey. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. The steppe eagle’s well-feathered legs illustrate it to be a member of the subfamily Aquilinae, also known as the “booted eagles”. This species was once considered to be closely related to the non-migratory tawny eagle and the two forms have previously been treated as conspecific. They were split based on pronounced differences in morphology and anatomy; two molecular studies, each based on a very small number of genes, indicate that the species are distinct but disagree over how closely related they are.
  The steppe eagle is in many ways a peculiar species of eagle. It is a specialized predator of ground squirrels on the breeding ground, also taking other rather small mammals and other prey, doing so more often when ground squirrels are less consistently found. In rather treeless areas of the steppe habitats, these eagles tend to nest on a slightly rise, often on or near an outcrop, but may even the flat, wide-open ground, in a rather flat nest. They are the only eagle to nest primarily on the ground.
context_section_description: Densities of steppe eagles vary greatly both regionally and annually. This species has specialized food requirements, making this species more dependent on food availability than many other raptors. European Russia in the 1990s was estimated to hold up to 20,000 pairs while steppe eagles were considered very rare in some parts of breeding range (i.e. central-south Siberia). Even in recent decades, the steppe eagle has been considered easily one of the most numerous migrating eagles in the world. The species has largely been regarded as "widespread and common" in winter in Indian subcontinent. Estimates of the world population were projected based on the total breeding range encompasses over 8,000,000 km² (3,100,000 sq mi) and average density very roughly of 50 km² (19 sq mi), which would put the population would be in six figures, but density were perceived to be slightly lower (i.e. 1 pair/100 km² (39 sq mi)) gives a total of 80,000 breeding pairs. A refined and more recent estimate of the global population posited that there were 53,000-86,000 remaining breeding pairs globally for steppe eagles, with 43,000-59,000 pairs estimated in Kazakhstan, 2000-3000 estimated in Russia, 6000-13,000 estimated in Mongolia, and 2000-6000 estimated in China. This study projects the global number to be between 185,000 and 344,000 individuals at peak times, which is the end of the breeding season, with only 17,700-43,000 remaining adults. The Aral-Caspian area is estimated to hold about 5742-7548 breeding pairs (51% of which are though to breed in Uzbekistan, the remainder in Kazakhstan). Post-breeding, the Aral-Caspian is thought to hold about 10,000-14,000 individuals. It is thought that the West Kazakhstan Region and Kalmykia region are the epicenter of the world population, holding the maximum genetic diversity (via haplotype) in the world, with the genetic diversity narrowing farther east in the breeding range. The Altai and Sayan region is thought to hold 43-51% of the current breeding population of steppe eagles in Russia, with the Altai Republic estimated to hold 270-280 breeding pairs. A slight recovery has been noted in the Tuva Basin, going up to as much as 200-300 pairs between 2008 and 2014. 
  The breeding range of the steppe eagle was already contracted markedly early on in 20th century, especially in the west, largely as result of habitat loss (in particular appropriation of steppes for agriculture) but also persecution and predation, factors that may have drove some pairs to elevated nest sites. Steppe eagles once bred in Romania, Moldova and, more recently, Ukraine. Careless pesticide use in Europe depleted prey populations and collapsed nearly the whole local ecosystem, which alongside habitat conversions and persecution drove the steppe eagle’s European breeding population to extinction. Range contraction is very considerable today in the European Russia area where it is almost locally extinct as well. Declines overall have been rapid and alarming. It is estimated that as of the 20 years prior to 2015, the population worldwide has declined at minimum by 58.6%. As a result, the steppe eagle was uplisted in 2015 to being endangered by the IUCN. In the borderlands of Russia and Kazakhstan, an estimated 11.9% population decline was detected in merely 6 years of study. Primary global threats appear to be habitat loss, persecution, wildfires, predation (and trampling by cattle) of chicks and electrocutions and wire collisions, especially the latter causes. Furthermore, the steppe eagles genetic diversity may be rapidly declining as well.  The diagnosed causes of decline in Xinjiang, Tibet and Qinghai were found mostly to be poaching, poisoning from rodent control programs (with systemic efforts dating back at least 60 years), poisoning also targeted towards predators, illegal trade, food shortages and wire collisions but perhaps most of all habitat destruction, often with their former homes destroyed to make way for roadworks, tourism and mine exploration, with more destruction from overharvest of trees and plants and overgr
caption: A steppe eagle and the sunrise in Tal Chhapar Sanctuary.
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