The Lesser Spotted Eagle (Aquila pomarina) inhabits almost all deciduous forest regions of Armenia. Some fragmental data regarding distribution and abundance of the species were collected in different periods (Leister and Sosnin 1942, Dal 1954, Adamian and Klem 1999) and the breeding biology was studied on the pare in Khosrov Nature Reserve (Geylikman, Hunanyan 1975). Due to economic and energy crisis and following economic growth in Armenia from 1990-s until now the land use pattern and the forest management in Armenia was strongly altered. The mentioned factors might have a negative impact on the large forest raptor species since they are more vulnerable and sensitive to changes in their habitat. Considering that the following objectives were chosen for particular study: (1) to refine knowledge on distribution and abundance of Lesser Spotted Eagle in Armenia; (2) to study habitat preferences of the species; (3) to identify current and potential threats for the species.
Foraging Lesser Spotted Eagle
Results
Based on the data collected during 1998-2007 it was possible to conclude the following:
1. Distances between neighboring nests are 14. 2 and 14. 3 km (based on 4 nests)
2. The average distance between the nest and limits of the hunting territory of a pair is 4. 05±0.39 km (n = 15, P<0. 05)
3. The average percentage of the forest cover within the species’ home range is 26. 07±3. 89 % (n = 15, P<0. 05);
4) There is a correlation between percentage of forest cover within the home range and the distance from the nest to the limits of hunting territory of Lesser Spotted Eagle (RPearson = 0. 548, P<0. 017)
5) The correlation can be described by the linear regression model (R = 0.548, F=5. 581, P<0. 034).
Extrapolation of these data for the rest of appropriate species’ habitats in Armenia outcomes in the maximum possible population size of the species in the country, which preliminary can be estimated as about 48-52 pairs.
The species in Armenia is facing to a number of direct and indirect threats, such as lack of enforced regulation in use of pesticides, poaching, human disturbance during breeding season and habitat loss.
Habitat of the Lesser Spotted Eagle(left) and its nest on the oak tree(right)
Outcomes
1. The article regarding the subject was published. K. Aghababyan, V. Ananian, S. Tumanyan. 2008. To the Distribution and Abundance of Lesser Spotted Eagles in Armenia. // Research and Conservation of the Greater and Lesser Spotted Eagles in Northern Eurasia. Materials 5th Conference on Raptors of Northern Eurasia Ivanovo, February 4-7, 2008
2. Two amateur ornithologists (Sirnush Tumanyan and Tatevik Tamazyan) were trained in data collection and analysis and one of them, a student of Biological Department of Yerevan State University defended Master’s Thesis on the subject “To ecology of Lesser Spotted Eagles in Armenia”
3. The results of the project were used for the new edition of the Red Data Book of Armenia and would be useful for the future forest management planning and environmental assessment procedures.
 | Acopian Center for the Environment – ACE Center for Health Services Research and Development, Byron Crape – CHSR Innovations in Support of Reproductive Health Project – NOVA |  |
An advanced ArcGIS training for fifteen representatives from a total of eight health organizations in Armenia took place from May 11-14, 2009 at the computer lab of the American University of Armenia. The advanced GIS training was subcontracted to The Acopian Center for the Environment by USAID Project NOVA in the frame of “GIS in Health Training and Workshop for the Armenian Organizations for policy formulation, datadriven decision-making, planning, monitoring and evaluation”.
Training was conducted by Mr. Thomas Lyman, M.Ed., Senior GIS/GPS Specialist at the AcopianCenter for the Environment and by Mr. Byron L. Crape, MSPH, PhD from the School of Public Health at AUA. They were assisted by Ms Meike Schaefer, M.Sc., GIS Specialist at the AcopianCenter for the Environment, AUA, Mr Armen Asryan, MIS, from USAID project NOVA, and Ms. Anahit Bobikyan, translator.
Advanced GIS Training
The advanced GIS training was complemented by and built on the introductory training given by Mr. Armen Asryan the previous week. It was expected that all participants were familiar with the concept of Geographic Information Systems, the particular configuration of ArcGIS 9.2, and the basic tools and functions of this software. The Advanced GIS Training for Health Professionals included practice in using many of the common tools and extensions for analyzing data, joining object features (OIDs) such as EXCEL Tables, DBF, and CSV files to spatial features (FIDs), and editing files and tables to update and “populate” fields where data was missing.
Roundtable
Following the GIS training, participants were asked to prepare presentations to be given at a Roundtable Discussion held the following week, again at AUA. These presentations were based on actual health data supplied by their own organizations or from the training material provided by NOVA, using the tools and techniques covered in the two GIS training workshops.
The projects (five in all) were presented at the Round Table / Workshop on May 20, 2009. During this workshop, the importance of GIS for decision making and health strategic planning was discussed in depth and recommendations for GIS applications in Armenia were presented by the participants. The need for further cooperation with and among the participants (especially RA MoH, NIH and NSS) was recognized and the need for standardized and consistent health data acquisition was stressed.
Duration: 2009
ACE (American University of Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia)
ACCL (Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, PA, USA)
The AUA Acopian Center for the Environment in cooperation with Acopian Center for the Conservation Learning (Hawk Mountain Sanctuary) in 2009 conducted a pilot nest survey of Levant Sparrowhawk – one of the least known Western Palearctic raptors.
Several long term trips were organized to Aragats Mt and Meghri area, Yerevan city parks were surveyed as well on a frequent basis.
Red fields – study areas
Field trips took substantial part of the project during April – August.
The main aims of the survey were:
The surveys have successfully resulted in overall 17 breeding sites/pairs:
1. Aragats Mt slopes. No nest found and no territorial pair observed here in 2009.
2. Yerevan city. 6 breeding sites found, of which:
a) one nest was lost because of the strong wind;
b) one nest wasn’t found, but a male and a female were showing a strong territorial behavior at a putative breeding site;
c) one nest with three chicks;
d) one – with 4 chicks;
e) two nests with two chicks.
3. Meghri valley. 11 nests found in this area represent the highest known breeding density in Armenia.
Due to some circumstances there were missed fledging events for four of the 11 nests – it is not known how many chicks produced each of these four nests. As for the others:
a) four nests hold 2 chicks each;
b) three nests – 3 chicks in each.
During the surveys a nest searching technique was developed and tested as most suitable from few other methods tried.
For all of the surveyed sites and nests there were recorded various parameters, such as nesting site GIS data, habitat description, behavior of breeding birds, nestlings and fledglings, interaction with other species and various other ecological information. Data on food was collected and taken few video footages and a number of photographs.
The information collected in 2009 helped to achieve initial objectives of the pilot project and will significantly contribute to the future surveys of the Levant Sparrowhawk in Armenia.
*************************************************************
During the Levant Sparrowhawk surveys we were granted with the discovery of a closely related Shikra (Accipiter badius), two pairs of which were found breeding for the first time in the country.
Duration:
This project is intended to fill gaps in the National Strategy of Biodiversity Monitoring regarding the inventory and information management about Armenia’s butterflies and their habitats. At the same time it will strengthen the newly formed partnership with Butterfly Conservation Europe. The project will follow changes in species’ distribution and abundance in butterfly populations, and will examine the damages to their habitat caused by climate change and human interference. Currently, about 60% of the database is complete. In 2013 a complete database and species accounts will be prepared with all related graphics. The publication is expected by February 2014. The first ever Monitoring Atlas on Butterflies of Armenia will be regularly updated thereafter.
Butterfly Monitoring Atlas, sample page.
Duration:
This project will fill gaps in the National Strategy of Biodiversity Monitoring regarding the inventory and information management on breeding birds of Armenia. It will also provide input to the European Breeding Bird Atlas, where Armenia is underrepresented. The European Bird Census Council recently appointed Dr. Karen Aghababyan as the National Coordinator of the European Breeding Bird Atlas 2. The project will trace the 3 long-term changes in breeding bird species’ distribution and abundance, as well as their habitat degradation caused by climate change and human-induced threats.
Currently, Armenia is divided into 10km by 10km grids. The field data collection routes are set up. The counting methodology is piloted. Over the next four years, Dr. Aghababyan will organize large-scale fieldwork involving hundreds of professionals and volunteers. The European Bird Census Council will use the country-specific atlases to compile a European-wide atlas, the EBBA2. With the massive amount of bird data collected, the EBBA2 will become one of the most comprehensive biodiversity data sets in the world.
AUA Acopian Center for the Environment Continues to Support White Storks with the Help of Villagers and Yerevan Zoo
More than a year after the completion of its White Storks Project, the AUA Acopian Center for the Environment continues to receive calls for support from villagers in the Ararat Plain seeking advice on how to care for stork chicks that are displaced or injured from natural or human causes.
From the start of the current breeding season in early Spring to date, the Center’s logs show 37 such calls. More than half of these callers received advice on how to handle the emergency and care for the nestlings—young storks yet unable to fly. For the remainder, the AUA Acopian Center sent a vehicle to the villages to provide either veterinarian care on the spot or bring the nestlings to Yerevan for care.
To date, 13 nestlings were transferred to Yerevan to be placed under special care. Eight of these have survived. The injuries of the others were too severe, making their survival impossible with wildlife rehabilitation capabilities available in Armenia.
“We are pulling together the community resources as best as we can,” says Karen Aghababyan, chief scientist of the AUA Acopian Center. In one instance, the AUA Acopian Center sought the help of Yerevan Zoo for 4 nestlings that were thrown out of their nests during strong winds in the Ranchpar and Apaga villages.
“Such an incident, under natural conditions, eliminates the nestlings’ chances of survival. If they are not in their nests, their mothers stop caring for them,” says Dr. Aghababyan. According to him, it is best to return the nestlings to their nests immediately. But this is not always possible as necessary equipment may not be readily available. “When this happens [i.e., too much time passes] the mother may reject the nestlings if returned to the nest,” explains Dr. Aghababyan.
The concerned villagers cared for these four storks and then called the AUA Acopian Center for advice. As too much time had gone by, the AUA Acopian Center sent a vehicle to the villages to transfer the birds to the Yerevan Zoo.
“We are happy to serve as a transitory home for these four orphaned stork nestlings that hopefully will soon rejoin their flock,” say Mr. Ruben Khachatryan, director of the Zoo. He adds that “To serve nature conservation and wildlife is one of Yerevan Zoo’s main objectives.”
The storks will stay at the Zoo until they learn to fly and hunt, which is expected to happen in the coming month. While their ability to fly will develop naturally, their hunting skills require learning. “Their hunting skills will be tested at the Zoo. They will also have additional occasions to learn from other storks back in the Ararat Plain in August,” explains Dr. Aghabayan.
He adds that while the Acopian Center typically does not want to intervene in the natural processes affecting stork populations, “there are many instances where the birds are injured as a result of man made environments, such as electrical wires, pesticides in water, and the like.” He stresses that the Center’s efforts to save the storks is a small compensation for all the instances where we humans cause harm to the stork population. “Also it provides great educational opportunity for the communities involved,” concludes Dr. Aghababyan.
The White Stork Project focuses on using the very common and abundant White Stork as a potential bio-indicator of environmental changes in Armenia. By studying migration patterns and reproductive ecology of White Storks, it will be possible to determine potential impacts of climate change and increased pesticide/herbicide use in Armenia. The project is unique in that it uses villagers as citizen scientists or ‘Nest Neighbors’ in the data collection process. Their involvement with the research gives them a better understanding of wildlife ecology and improves the relationship between people and nesting storks. Prior to migration, Acopian Center scientists distribute calendar-questionnaires in the villages and show the villagers how to record information on stork arrival, departure and number of fledglings. After the storks have migrated, Acopian Center scientists collect the calendars and enter the information into a GIS database.
Help support this important project in Armenia by adopting your own stork nest. and becoming a White Stork Guardian.
During the spring, our staff also bands the nestlings and takes water and soil samples in stork feeding areas for later analysis. The Acopian Center for the Environment launched a survey on pesticide use in the Ararat Valley after the first results from soil and water sampling indicated the presence of pesticide contamination. Substantial information on almost 1000 confirmed nest sites in Armenia has been collected through 2009.
During the fall, Acopian Center researchers conduct award ceremonies to honor ‘Nest Neighbors’. At these celebrations, certificates and gifts are awarded, accompanied by songs and plays about storks performed by school children and speeches delivered by village representatives.
Dr. Aghababyan launched ‘Nest Neighbors’; working with farmers and villagers, to increase public understanding of storks and their habitat. By becoming involved in wetland conservation, Armenians are starting to take notice of what is being decided for natural resource use at local, national and international levels. Now, over 500 families are involved in ‘Nest Neighbors’ and regularly monitor the stork population.
Since 1994 the Whitley Awards have been awarded annually. They are one of the largest nature conservation awards available, recognizing outstanding efforts by leading local conservationists whose work is based on sound science and which fully involves local communities.
Dr. Karen Aghababyan’s research on the white stork is focused in the Ararat Valley, home to agriculture for thousands of years. During the Soviet years the wetland areas were reduced by Government draining and although they are slowly recovering a new threat has emerged – Armenia has been granted $200 million for infrastructure development, including draining the Ararat wetlands at the base of Mount Ararat, for conversion to agriculture. For centuries the White Stork has been regarded with great affection in Europe. Although they were once prolific, the intensification of agriculture and draining of wetlands has resulted in a decline in the populations. Traditionally storks like to keep their feet wet feeding in wetlands ditches or ponds where they catch frogs, lizards and small rodents. Although many Armenians feel indifferently towards wetlands, White Storks are seen as a cultural icon. They are seldom persecuted and when storks nest close to people, on anything from telegraph poles to roofs, it is a sign of good luck. Dr. Aghababyan has made birds popular in Armenia, teaching bird identification courses in English, Russian and Armenian. Using the White Stork as a flagship species, Dr. Aghababyan launched ‘Nest Neighbors’; working with farmers and villagers, to increase public understanding of storks and their habitat. By becoming involved in wetland conservation, Armenians are starting to take notice of what is being decided for natural resource use at local, national and international levels. Now, over 500 families are involved in ‘Nest Neighbors’ and regularly monitor the stork population.
HRH The Princess Royal and Sir David Attenborough (not pictured) presented the Whitley Award to Dr. Karen Aghababyan in 2007 at London’s Royal Geographical Society. It was the first time anyone from Armenia has won the Award.
1988 – present: Bird ringing or bird banding, unfortunately, is not a target activity for Birds of Armenia. Nevertheless, during implementation of our projects we used the chances of ringing various species in small numbers. Among ringed birds are species such as:
The major ringing (banding) activity was conducted within the framework of the White Stork Project – there have been 284 White Stork nestlings ringed.
Thus Birds of Armenia keeps a database of ring (band) records for Armenia, information for ring recoveries for the last 20 years, and distributes and manages rings among local responsible ringers.
In 2008 ring (band) data regarding a White Stork was obtained. The bird was found in Saudi Arabia 1418 kilometers far from its ringing site.
Duration: 2008-present
Birds of Armenia (Armenia)
Youth in Action Programme (Belgium)
PSOVI (Georgia)
Raptors are essential part of the wildlife, indicating the health of ecosystem. Change in the Raptors’ number might indicate different type of environmental issues. One of the easiest ways to get imagination of the abundance of different raptor species is to count them on migration since they are getting together on special areas, called “bottleneck sites”.
One of such sites is situated close to Batumi in Western Georgia (Ajaria), on the Black Sea coast, which is close to another raptor counting place – Borchka in Eastern Turkey. Hundreds of thousands of raptors fly through the area during autumn migration (from late August to October).
In 2008 the activity involved 28 volunteers and student trainees from Belgium, Holland, Georgia and Armenia.
In 2009 other countries have joined the initiative, such as Turkey, France, Sweden, Holland, Belgium, Georgia etc. Apart from participation in the count BOA also took part in organizing and implementing the “Young Birdwatchers Exchange Program”, which aims to bring together birdwatchers from a number of countries. In frames of this project BOA has distributed a recruitment announcement in Armenia, interviewed applicants and selected the most appropriate candidates. Before leaving to Batumi the selected applicants were provided with preliminary training in Armenia, both in auditorium and in the field. BOA provides each of the local candidates with a copy of “A Field Guide to Birds of Armenia”, a pair of binoculars and a spotting scope for use throughout the count.
Upon arrival to Batumi Karen Aghababyan as a leader teacher gives an intensive raptor identification course for the first three days for all the students of “Young Birdwatchers Exchange Program”.
To teach the student BOA using a part of the Bird Identification Training Course (BITC).
Results
During the counting period (by 6-22 /Sep/2008), there were counted 815374 raptors in average more than 67000 per day. We had huge number of Honey Buzzard, Black Kite, Montagu’s Harrier, Booted Eagle, Levant Sparrowhawk, etc., and also Snake Eagle, Osprey, Lesser Spotted and Steppe Eagle, etc.
During the count of 2009 the Crested Honey Buzzard (Pernis ptilorhynchus) was recorded, the second time for Caucasus.
|
|
To this day AUA Acopian Center for the Environment continues its cooperation with the Batumi Raptor Count (BRC) by developing and delivering environmental education programs to youth from all parts of the Caucasus. In 2013, Hasmik Ter-Voskanyan (in August) and Siranush Tumanyan (in September) led youth groups, including some from Armenia.
In early September, Dr. Karen Aghababyan, AUA Acopian Center chief scientist, attended the International Batumi Bird Festival organized by BRC. During his visit, Dr. Aghababyan discussed opportunities for expanding cooperation between the organizations through development of nature-based tourism as well as strengthening environmental-education and bird-monitoring programs.
“This is a relationship we want to develop further,” says Alen Amirkhanian, director of the AUA Acopian Center. “Batumi provides an unparalleled setting in the Caucasus to educate and conduct research on the environment. Importantly we are able to do this jointly with people from all parts of the Caucasus and Europe. Developing this type of cooperation is essential for addressing environmental protection needs,” says Amirkhanian.
BRC is a vital nature conservation program in the region. It monitors the more than 850,000 birds of prey that migrate through the “Batumi Bottleneck” every fall. It also works to protect the birds from illegal shootings and trappings, practices that continue to this day.
Batumi is a Black Sea coastal city in the Ajara region of the Republic of Georgia.