Monitoring of Long-legged Buzzard’s Population in Armenia

Project time period:

2006-2008

 

Project Description:

Birds of prey are excellent environmental indicators and flagship species for natural-resource conservation. Increasing of Armenian agriculture and other branches of industry can have a negative impact on the environment. To track the possible influence of industry to our nature we would like to start monitoring of subpopulations of model species in some regions of Armenia.

As a species to be monitored we have chosen Long-legged Buzzard (Buteo rufinus) because it is the most common rodent-eating bird that breeds in whole Armenia.

It will include mapping of nests and a survey of reproductive success. In 2006 we will conduct a pilot survey to see how many nests we can find.

Then in 2007 and later on we will investigate their feeding, reproductive success and analyze collected data on GIS Arc View.

The project will include education of local inhabitants about the importance of rodent-eating raptors for agriculture and nature ecosystems.

The surveys were conducted by students, who have completed BITC courses in AcopianCenter for the Environment.

Yerevan State University
State Pedagogical University