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Vol. 48 No. 1, 2009
Autumn Migration of Eleonora’s Falcon Falco eleonorae Tracked by
Satellite Telemetry
Pascual
López-López1,2,*, Rubén Limiñana2, and Vicente
Urios2
1Cavanilles
Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, Terrestrial
Vertebrates Group, University of Valencia, Polígono de la Coma s/n,
46980 Paterna, Valencia, Spain
2Estación Biológica Terra Natura CIBIO – Fundación
Terra Natura, University of Alicante, Apdo, 99 E-03080, Alicante, Spain
Pascual
López-López, Rubén Limiñana, and Vicente Urios (2009) The
migration route of Eleonora's Falcon Falco
eleonorae
has largely been a mystery. To date, the most widely accepted
hypothesis on Eleonora,s Falcon’s migration suggested a coastal route
through the Mediterranean Sea eastwards, crossing the Suez Canal, and
proceeding southwards through the Red Sea following the East coast of
Africa to the wintering grounds in Madagascar and the Mascarene
Is. This study provides the first description of autumn migration
routes of 2 Eleonora's Falcons (a juvenile male and an adult male)
tracked by satellite telemetry from their breeding colonies in the
Western Mediterranean to their wintering grounds in southeastern
Africa. Contrary to previous suggestions, Eleonora's Falcons
migrated inland across the African continent and did not follow the
presumed migration route across the Mediterranean Sea. We discuss
the possible origin of this migratory behavior and provide data on
routes, timing of migration, and scarce existing data of ringing
recoveries.
Key words: Satellite
tracking, Conservation, Madagascar, Falcons, STAT.
*Correspondence: Tel: 34-96-3543660. Fax:
34-96-3543670. E-mail:Pascual.Lopez@uv.es;
lopez.pascual@gmail.com
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