Eagle On the Edge - Living in the forbidding terrain of Russia's Far East, Steller's sea eagle may be the most impressive raptor you've never heard of

International Wildlife, Sept-Oct, 2000 by Lucille Craft

With the moon still high over Kuril Lake on the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia's Far East, Alexander Ladyguin rises in the subzero darkness to light his log cabin's iron stove and prepare porridge. Ladyguin and his wife, Olga, eat quickly, then set off on skis over billowing snowdrifts to a tiny igloo next to a creek a few miles away.

Ladyguin (rhymes with paraffin) pulls a salmon from the creek, splits it open and arranges the morsel invitingly on a gravel bar beside the igloo. Then he and his wife shovel snow from the igloo's entrance and wriggle inside.

Near a small opening, the lanky Moscow State University ornithologist arrays his camera, tripod, scope and notebook, and he and Olga swaddle themselves in sleeping bags and wait.

Shortly after dawn, a group of massive, white-shouldered birds glides over the lake in search of breakfast.

Brushing snow from his notebook, Ladyguin watches as they descend to the gravel and begin feeding on the salmon. The birds are Steller's sea eagles, and although Ladyguin has been studying the species for more than a decade, the boyish-looking 33-year-old scientist still gapes in awe.

"Every bird is a mystery," says Ladyguin. "But to observe such a large, impressive bird very close and very often-that's amazing!"

Ladyguin is one of the few scientists to get such an intimate view of this striking raptor in its Russian habitat.

Until recently, the forbidding and remote terrain of Russia's Far East, where Steller's eagles dwell, has kept scientists at bay. (A key military outpost during the Soviet era, Kamchatka was off-limits to scientists until the mid-1980s.) As a result, relatively little was known about this bird of prey. But Ladyguin's work-together with that of researchers in other areas of Russia and in northern Japan, where some of the birds winter-has allowed scientists to sketch a clearer portrait of Steller's sea eagle. As the bird comes into focus, disturbing facts emerge:

Pollution, overfishing and even tourism are decimating eagles and could wipe out the species in the next 50 years.

One of eight varieties of sea and fish eagles, Steller's was named after German biologist Georg Steller, who explored Kamchatka and Alaska in the eighteenth century. Weighing as much as 20 pounds and with wings stretching 7 feet, the Steller's is among the largest of eagles- outweighing even its sizeable cousin the American bald eagle. Its imposing dimensions are matched by a strikingly patterned plumage, brown-black except for white tail, shoulders and crown.

But its prime anatomical advantage over other fish-eating birds is a large and deeply arched beak. Placing a Steller's beak beside that of a falcon, kite or osprey is like setting a hatchet beside a penknife. This lethal tool is ideal for feeding in Russia's Far East, where the hide of an adult sockeye salmon is so tough that native people use it for shoes and clothing. White-tailed eagles, which inhabit the same territory, may struggle for hours merely to pry an opening around a fish's gills or front fin. Only the Steller's eagle, with its stiletto talons and fearsome yellow beak, has the hardware to make quick work of leathery salmon skin.

Being a heavyweight in the bird kingdom has its disadvantages, however. A Steller's eagle can burn off an entire day's calories by flying for just 45 minutes. To husband their energy, eagles nest within easy striking distance of their prey in lakes, oceans and rivers. They also tend to glide, rather than flap, exploiting updrafts of warm air for lift. Steller's eagles also resort to "kleptoparasitism"-swiping fish from each other. "To steal a caught and opened fish is less 'expensive' in terms of energy," explains Ladyguin.

Scientists estimate there are a total of between 3,200 and 4,200 breeding pairs, distributed along the Sea of Okhotsk and Bering Sea coasts and the basin of the Amur River. Kamchatka is the most eagle- friendly of all these areas and about a quarter of all Steller's eagles breed and winter here. Buffeted by blizzards from October through May, Kamchatka seems hostile and barren, but it is actually a teeming oasis of wildlife supported by its vast

fishery. Kuril Lake at the southern tip of the peninsula alone is the destination for as many as 8 million salmon during the spawning season, from July to March. This bounty sustains thousands of birds of various species through the long winter, including great groups of Steller's eagles.

Ladyguin first heard about gatherings of Steller's eagles at Kamchatka while he was a student in Moscow. But only a handful of scientific articles on the species had been published when he decided to make the eagles his thesis subject in 1986. In 1987, he and his wife moved to Kamchatka to undertake the first in-depth studies of the eagles there. He lived on the frosty peninsula until 1994, following the birds from their wintering feeding grounds at Kuril Lake to their summer breeding grounds 250 miles north at the Kronotskiy Biosphere Reserve. Since then, he has continued to observe the birds each summer.