Everton Miranda and colleagues found that harpy eagles rely on specific prey that lives in canopy forests, including sloths and monkeys. Eaglets starved in areas of high deforestation where canopy-based food was limited. The authors calculated that areas with over 50% deforestation are unsuitable for harpy eagles to successfully raise offspring and estimate that around 35% of northern Mato Grosso is unsuitable for breeding harpy eagles. This may have caused a decline in numbers of breeding pairs by 3,256 since 1985. The authors conclude that as breeding harpy eagles rely on specific food and rarely hunt in deforested areas, harpy eagle survival depends on forest conservation. Reference: “Tropical deforestation induces thresholds of reproductive viability and habitat suitability in Earth’s largest eagles” by Everton B. P. Miranda, Carlos A. Peres, Vítor Carvalho-Rocha, Bruna V. Miguel, Nickolas Lormand, Niki Huizinga, Charles A. Munn, Thiago B. F. Semedo, Tiago V. Ferreira, João B. Pinho, Vítor Q. Piacentini, Miguel Â. Marini and Colleen T. Downs, 30 June 2021, Scientific Reports.DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-92372-z
