Too hot to handle: how Martial Eagles (Polemaetus bellicosus) manage the heat in the Kruger National Park, South Africa
type: CreativeWork
description: Climate change poses a serious threat to biodiversity across the globe. Shifting weather patterns and increasing temperatures present serious challenges to species' ability to persist in an environment. However, how species react to changing climatic conditions can vary between species, with some species better able to adapt to such changes than others, either through physiological processes or behavioural adaptation. Changing climatic conditions can alter a species' ability to acquire the resources they need to survive, but the mechanism of how this occurs can be complex. For predatory species, in particular, we do not have a good understanding of how different climatic conditions may affect predator-prey interactions, which may be key to understanding how well a species can persist in the future. The ability of predators to cope with a changing climate may be influenced by the level of specialism in their diet, with more generalist species expected to be better able to cope with changes in climate than more specialised species because they can in theory, switch between prey. By contrast, predatory species with more specialised diets may be more vulnerable to the effects of climate change, should the availability of their key prey species be strongly affected by climatic conditions, since they may have limited opportunities to switch to an alternative food source. However, empirically, we know little about how predator species switch between different prey types under different climate conditions. In this study, we explore the influence of climate on the ability of a generalist predator, the Martial Eagle (Polemaetus bellicosus), to provision prey and how their diet varies with climate conditions. We installed cameras to remotely monitor nests in the Kruger National Park, where previous studies revealed a large population decline and where temperatures during the breeding season have increased dramatically over the last few decades. We recorded a total of 772 camer…
abstract: Climate change poses a serious threat to biodiversity across the globe. Shifting weather patterns and increasing temperatures present serious challenges to species' ability to persist in an environment. However, how species react to changing climatic conditions can vary between species, with some species better able to adapt to such changes than others, either through physiological processes or behavioural adaptation. Changing climatic conditions can alter a species' ability to acquire the resources they need to survive, but the mechanism of how this occurs can be complex. For predatory species, in particular, we do not have a good understanding of how different climatic conditions may affect predator-prey interactions, which may be key to understanding how well a species can persist in the future. The ability of predators to cope with a changing climate may be influenced by the level of specialism in their diet, with more generalist species expected to be better able to cope with changes in climate than more specialised species because they can in theory, switch between prey. By contrast, predatory species with more specialised diets may be more vulnerable to the effects of climate change, should the availability of their key prey species be strongly affected by climatic conditions, since they may have limited opportunities to switch to an alternative food source. However, empirically, we know little about how predator species switch between different prey types under different climate conditions. In this study, we explore the influence of climate on the ability of a generalist predator, the Martial Eagle (Polemaetus bellicosus), to provision prey and how their diet varies with climate conditions. We installed cameras to remotely monitor nests in the Kruger National Park, where previous studies revealed a large population decline and where temperatures during the breeding season have increased dramatically over the last few decades. We recorded a total of 772 camer…
author: Walker, Kyle
language: en
keywords: Conservation Biology
date published: 2024-02
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:22:39Z
provider: University of Cape Town
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Department of Biological Sciences

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41169