Forestry Activities and Their Influence on the Raptor’s Populations in the Southern Forest-Steppe Zone and Steppe Zone (on the Example of the Kharkiv Region of Ukraine)

Abstract

Our investigation was conducted in the forests of the Kharkiv region (Ukraine) from 2003 to 2018. We studied the impact of forestry on the Raptors nest-sites occupancy. Out of 970 identified Raptors breeding territories; 152 (or 15.67% of the nesting population of birds of prey in the region) were subjected to forestry activity for some extent. On 58 breeding territories; the effect of logging on the occupancy was studied and reactions of nesting pairs on the forestry impact were determined. Of these; 34 breeding pairs (58.62%) continued to breed in the old nests; 23 pairs (39.65%) have lost their nesting trees or abandoned the territory after the vegetation cover or landscape structure were destroyed by deforestation activities. In 1 case; we observed an establishing of a new breeding territory of the Booted Eagle right after the selective logging that made the inner area of the forest more accessible to the Booted Eagle ( Hieraaetus pennatus ). We also noted that more than 80% of the breeding territories of the Eastern Imperial Eagles ( Aquila heliaca ) in the Kharkiv region are localized near old logging plots in the forest depths.