Hunting strategy changed This is why red kites have avoided roads during corona
The coronavirus pandemic has forced red kites in Switzerland to rethink their diet. During the lockdown, there was less traffic - and therefore fewer roadkill. The birds, some of which fed on these road casualties, had to adapt their hunting strategy.
08.12.2025, 23:44
SDA
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- Red kites have adapted their hunting strategy during the coronavirus pandemic.
- As there were fewer roadkill animals, the birds reorganized themselves.
- During the pandemic, the animals increasingly sought proximity to humans, who fed them.
As a new study by the Swiss Ornithological Institute in Sempach LU shows, they also did this: "Before the lockdowns, red kites specifically sought out proximity to roads when the natural food supply was scarce in order to eat the carcasses of animals that had been hit by cars," explained study author Benedetta Catitti in an interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency.
During lockdowns, however, they avoided these areas. Instead, the birds oriented themselves more towards places where they were fed by humans, as the researchers showed in the study published in the journal "Biology Letters". After the lockdowns, they adapted their behavior again and preferred to stay close to the road, even if places with human feeders remained popular.
"It's a fascinating example of how animals can flexibly adapt their behavior to survive," said Catitti. According to the researcher, this adaptability could also be a key factor in the continued success of red kites in Switzerland. This is because the red kite has been able to spread significantly in Switzerland again in recent decades. "It is generally important to understand how we humans intervene in the ecology of animals and how animals react to us, even in very subtle and often unrecognizable ways," continues Catitti.
Red kites with backpacks
In order to be able to study the red kites, the researchers fitted young red kites with GPS trackers shortly before they left the nest. "These trackers are like a kind of rucksack that we can put on the birds," says Catitti. The trackers also include a solar panel that supplies them with power. This means we always know exactly where the birds are.
The data from this is also used for many other studies. For example, it was discovered that red kites tend to spend the winter in Switzerland instead of flying south as they get older.
For the study on the impact of the pandemic, the researchers analyzed data from 199 red kites. The pandemic has provided a unique opportunity to study the influence of human behavior on animals, explained Catitti. It was like a huge, natural experiment that could hardly have been carried out artificially.