Our Latest News

Planned fuel reduction burn in the southwest

29/10/2009

The Parks and Wildlife Service and Forestry Tasmania are conducting a planned burn in the Southwest National Park and on lands managed by Forestry Tasmania today.
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Volunteer Campground Hosts Sought for Cockle Creek

21/10/2009

The Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) is seeking people with a passion for the beautiful Cockle Creek area in Tasmania's far south area to be volunteer campground hosts for several weeks during the coming summer.More

Community consultation on Bay of Fires boundaries

16/10/2009

Tasmanians are encouraged to comment on proposed boundaries to define the State's newest national park. In March 2009, the Premier announced the State Government's intention to establish the Bay of Fires National Park on Tasmania's north-east coast.
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Wedge-Tailed Eagle, Aquila audax

Wedge-tailed eagle

The Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagle is brownish-black to almost black when mature. The feathers are edged with a lighter brown. The legs are feathered and the bird has a long, wedge-shaped tail. It is a massive bird, standing over a metre tall, weighing up to 5 kg, and with a wing span of up to 2.2 m.

Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagles have been isolated for 10 000 years from their mainland counterparts and have become a separate subspecies.With only about 130 pairs successfully breeding each year in Tasmania, the wedge-tailed eagle is listed as endangered. The major threats to the species include habitat loss, nest disturbance, collisions and electrocutions with powerlines and persecution through shooting, trapping and poisoning by thoughtless persons. Please see our Living with Wildlife pages and threatened species pages for full details of this species' plight.

Habitat

The wedge -tailed eagle is found in a wide variety of habitats, including open plains, forests and mountains.

Diet

Wedge-tailed Eagles are effective hunters, taking small mammals such as wallabies and rabbits. They also feed on carrion.

Breeding

Wedge-tailed Eagles use very traditional nests almost always in very large eucalypts sheltered from the wind. They are very shy nesters and will often desert their nests if disturbed by land clearing, particularly early on in the breeding season, which is August to January. Although 1-3 eggs are laid, usually only one chick is raised. Breeding eagles need over 10 ha of surrounding forest especially uphill of a nest tree.

Call

Calls are infrequently heard, but include  a double "pee-yaa" and a soft "pseet-you".