THE EAGLES WERE SUCCESSFUL
You can see a white tuft of feathers on a golden eagle nest - a roughly one-month-old golden eagle chick.
We have been breeding golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) since 2010 and for a long time we could not get a harmonizing pair. It wasn't until 2018 that we acquired a young female who caught the eye with our male, and the very next year they built a nest together and we even saw mating attempts. In 2020 the female laid her first eggs (2 eggs). She sat on them honestly and one chick hatched in the second half of May. The female took care of it, fed it, but due to very cold and rainy weather the chick did not survive. Even though the breeding failed, it was a good sign for us that we had a suitable pair.
This year we again observed the eagles mating and nest building. The female honestly sat on the nest and we had to wait for the result. We did not see into the nest. On May 8, keepers noticed changes in the female's behavior - she started to walk more on the nest and brought food to the nest. There was one chick!!! We were a bit worried about it because the rains came again, but luckily this time the chick was a bit older and the female settled it in a more protected place. Today the cub is over 3 weeks old, getting on its feet and stretching its wings. We don't want to jinx it, but so far the situation is going well and we could see the first golden eagle offspring in our zoo. Keep your fingers crossed with us for the eagles, and when you walk by the eagle aviary, stop and look in the nest, maybe a little eagle will peek out at you.
There are 5 zoos in the Czech Republic breeding golden eagles. In recent years, only the Liberec zoo has had successful breedings.