Crowned Eagle Project

The African Crowned Eagle Project, initiated by Shane McPherson and now led by the Sumasgutner Lab, investigates how one of Africa’s most powerful raptors persists and thrives in a rapidly urbanising landscape. Often called the “leopards of the sky” for their extraordinary strength and hunting abilities - including preying on monkeys and antelopes - crowned eagles in Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal, form the densest breeding population documented anywhere in Africa. The project focuses on understanding how these iconic apex predators coexist with humans and exploit urban ecosystems.

The research began with extensive camera-trap surveys to characterise the prey spectrum of crowned eagles in the city, providing rare insights into urban hunting ecology. More recently, the project has expanded to include high-resolution GPS tracking combined with tri-axial accelerometers, enabling fine-scale behavioural inference alongside movement data. These sensors allow researchers to distinguish behaviours such as passive soaring, active flight, perching, and hunting, and to link them to specific locations in the urban landscape. By mapping movement paths, hunting hotspots, and behavioural states, the project reveals how crowned eagles navigate complex city environments, balance risk and opportunities, and exploit prey resources. Integrating prey data, spatial ecology, and accelerometer-based behaviour provides a powerful framework for understanding how apex predators adapt to, and persist in, human-dominated systems.