We Can't Protect What We Don't Understand: the Case of Eastern Golden Eagles

Bonnie Jean Feldkamp
Thu, 19 Mar 2026 21:00:00 -0700
Opinion

There's a special story unfolding at Bernheim Forest and Arboretum in Kentucky, where eastern golden eagles have made their winter home. Scientists have been tracking golden eagles since the 1970s, but the first known pair to be tracked simultaneously in eastern North America was at Bernheim.

It all began with Harper, a male golden eagle that was successfully captured and equipped with a transmitter in 2015. Four winters later, Harper's mate was also fitted with a solar-powered GPS tracking device. They named her Athena.

As part of the Eastern Golden Eagle Working Group, Bernheim is helping researchers better understand the distinct behaviors of golden eagles in the eastern parts of North America, where there is limited understanding of their winter distribution.
Updated: Fri Mar 20, 2026

There's a special story unfolding at Bernheim Forest and Arboretum in Kentucky, where eastern golden eagles have made their winter home. Scientists have been tracking golden eagles since the 1970s, but the first known pair to be tracked simultaneously in eastern North America was at Bernheim.

It all began with Harper, a male golden eagle that was successfully captured and equipped with a transmitter in 2015. Four winters later, Harper's mate was also fitted with a solar-powered GPS tracking device. They named her Athena.

As part of the Eastern Golden Eagle Working Group, Bernheim is helping researchers better understand the distinct behaviors of golden eagles in the eastern parts of North America, where there is limited understanding of their winter distribution.

Data from tracking the pair has challenged long-held assumptions about golden eagle behavior. Harper and Athena migrated separately along different paths. The pair left Bernheim and met up in Canada for nesting season near Wapusk National Park in Manitoba on Hudson Bay, where they raised eaglets. They overwintered each year at Bernheim and returned to Manitoba for nesting season in the spring, always migrating separately and reuniting at their destination.

Then, tragedy struck. One spring day in 2021, after Athena settled in her nesting spot, Harper left to hunt and never returned. Researchers did not receive any more data from his transmitter. Without the support of her partner, Athena eventually abandoned her nest to fend for herself.

Despite being protected by federal law, golden eagles still must navigate human dangers. They are apex predators, but they will also scavenge roadkill and are sometimes hit by cars. They can also be poisoned by fragments of lead ammunition while scavenging carcasses left by hunters. There is some concern regarding wind turbines placed along their migratory paths as well. Researchers do not know what specifically happened to Harper, but they believe he perished.

Athena made the journey back to Bernheim that winter, and researchers continued to track her movement and learn from her behavior. Golden eagles are considered monogamous and mate for life, so they were interested to learn if Athena would accept another mate.

Then in 2024, thanks to collaboration with Parks Canada and Wapusk National Park staff, Bernheim was able to confirm that Athena was back in her nest with an eaglet. She had accepted another mate. Bernheim had shared coordinates with Parks Canada staff, and in late winter they visited the nest site via snowmobile, riding through polar bear denning habitat and climbing trees to put cameras up in preparation for Athena's return. Thanks to that effort, researchers documented her at the nest as well as collected flight data through her solar transmitters.

Bernheim also tagged a third golden eagle that year, a bachelor they named Hermes. He is affectionately called a "migratory nomad" as he's been observed traveling closely to a caribou herd in Canada during the summer as well as bouncing between wildlife refuges and farms in southern Indiana and Kentucky during winter. He will likely settle into a specific spot once he finds a mate. Bernheim's Director of Conservation Andrew Berry said, "Hermes' travels remind us how fragmented forests and protected lands can support wide-ranging raptors and other winged migrants."

Athena returned to Bernheim in the fall of 2025 and was seen with another eagle. It is unclear if this is her new mate, but the two eagles definitely appeared familiar with one another. The eagle was seen with Athena multiple times and was successfully fitted with his own GPS transmitter in January. The two eagles often fed in the same areas, roosted nearby, and even vocalized back and forth, which Berry said "suggests a coordinated relationship."

Following a public vote, they named the fourth golden eagle Gwaihir for the greatest of the Great Eagles in J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings."

"We can't be sure when we first saw Gwaihir due to the difficulty discerning different golden eagle adults," said Berry, so "He may have been wintering at Bernheim for some time, or this may have been his first year." Both Athena and Gwaihir left Bernheim in late February and are making their way north, migrating separately using very different routes.

Whether Gwaihir is Athena's new mate is yet to be seen, but thanks to GPS tracking, researchers will soon confirm if they reunite in Canada. To have a mating pair to track and observe is remarkable for understanding the species and helping them thrive. However, if Gwaihir is not her mate and Athena has another clutch, this means her mate is still out there. The question then becomes: Do some bonded pairs overwinter separately? Or has Athena's new mate been overwintering at Bernheim and they've just not met him yet?

Either way, researchers and conservationists bear witness to their lives knowing we don't have all the answers, eager to learn and eager to help eastern golden eagles thrive in a human-dominated landscape.

Mike Lanzone holds Gwaihir at Bernheim Forest. Gwaihir was captured for GPS tracking. Photo Credit: Bernheim Forest.

Two researchers hold Athena the eastern golden eagle, fitted with her GPS tracker. Photo Credit: Bernheim Forest.