the dominant species. golden or white tailed sea eagle

[corvuscorax]

Just wondered if anyone has any info regarding interaction between golden eagles and white tailed sea eagles , i was watching a wildlife programme some years ago where the prog makers were putting out dead reindeer to attract eagle species to veiw interaction between the two eagles. it showed a sea eagle feeding from the carcass when suddenly a golden eagle attacked and misplaced the sea eagle, the narrator said the golden eagle is the more dominant and aggressive of the two and nothing risks the wrath of a hungry golden eagle. has anyone heard of such instances of domination or aggression by one eagle on the other.

[RoyW]

There are examples where White-tailed Eagles have displaced Golden Eagles from prey, but in general Golden Eagles have been found to be the more successful species in most direct conflicts (it has been suggested that they are more aggressive, and more maneuverable in flight). There are always likely to be exceptions though, with well fed Golden Eagles likely to give up prey to White-tailed Eagles fairly readily when challenged.

There does seem to be evidence that White-tailed Eagles do sometimes displace Golden Eagles from some territories though, with White-tailed Eagles seemingly doing better than Golden Eagles in coastal territories where they are able to take advantage of a greater variety of food sources. It may be that this sort of territory is a sub-optimal habitat for Golden Eagles, and that they have only occupied this type of habitat in the UK in areas where they are at quite high density, and there were no competitors already using the habitat.