Center, Internet, Wildlife Damage Management
Human–Wildlife Interactions
Generational Habituation and Current Bald Eagle Populations
Date of this Version
Spring 2013
Document Type
Article
Citation
Human–Wildlife Interactions (Spring 2013) 7(1): article 7
doi: 10.26077/xbeg-wp43
Abstract
Bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) populations have expanded, even as increasing human presence and activity near nesting sites has increased. The generational habituation hypothesis may explain current bald eagle behaviors associated with human presence. Generational habituation begins when a juvenile imprints on a nest area near human activity, then selects a similar nest site when it is reproductively mature. Successive generations also may imprint on nest sites near human activity, expanding the population into areas that once were considered suboptimal nesting habitat. Generational habituation has implications in several areas important to basic and applied ecology in a wide range of taxa. Generational habituation may be responsible for relatively rapid changes in a population’s general behaviors, particularly in human-dominated systems.