Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos)

The amount of golden eagles has grown close to the maximum: the territories are full. This has also added to the damages caused to reindeer. An eagle hunts mainly calves that it can carry to its nest. They can also kill a grown reindeer if an eagle flies to the back of a reindeer and pulls its nails through the lungs.

The strongest golden eagle population in Finland is in the reindeer husbandry area. The state pays compensations for the reindeer herding cooperatives from nesting eagles on the bases of their territories.

The white-tailed eagles are not part of the compensation system. However, their populations have grown during the past few years particularly in the areas of big lakes and reservoirs. The main food of white-tailed eagle is fish, but most of the lakes are frozen for the best part of the year. It is known that white-tailed eagles used carcasses of reindeer for their food, but they also hunt reindeer. There is no research on this issue.