Two baby eagles in Iowa town of Riverdale along the Mississippi have been removed from their nest to become part of a migration study. Two young eagles in Riverdale join a study to protect raptors from manmade hazards like wind turbines and power lines.
"Eagle populations have increased dramatically as of late, and increasingly eagles are moving away from large riparian corridorsto interior portions of the state," says Drew Becker, fish and wildlife biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
"We want to better understand where these eagles are going so we can perhaps limit their mortality when they're in those portions of the state, and intelligently cite development of not just wind facilities, but communication towers, transmission lines, just development in general."
On this news buzz edition of River to River, host Ben Kieffer talks with Becker about the study and what can be learned from the recovery of eagle populations over the last couple decades.
Watch the eagles in real time on the Alcoa eagle cam.
Other segments on the program include a discussion on: proposed tuition increases for Iowa’s three public universities, an expansion of Iowa State University's mosquito surveillance program, the implication of the FDA recommendation that food manufacturers cut the amount of sodium added to foods by a third, and how the virtual city of Springfield studies the future of driving at the National Advanced Driving Simulator in Iowa City.
