The former distribution of White‐tailed Eagles in Iberia, the Mediterranean and the Middle East: a case study of the importance of understanding historical distribution in informing current conservation and restoration interventions

The importance of considering historical data in developing conservation and restoration measures for individual species and for wider ecological restoration has been pointed out by recent reviews but often remains neglected in practice. This paper provides a case study illustrating the issue through a review of the former breeding distribution of the White‐tailed Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla in North Africa, Iberia, the Mediterranean Basin (excluding the Black Sea) and the Middle East. The species has a significant role in coastal and freshwater ecosystems as a scavenger and predator. Subfossil, historical and 19th/20th century ornithological sources indicate that it was formerly widespread in the region. Records of breeding in the ornithological literature from the 1840s to 1980 yield 103 definite and 37 probable breeding records (multiple records of the same pair not included). These records, especially earlier in the period, are biased towards areas more likely to be visited by ornithologists and to areas where significant breeding populations survived later, such as the Nile Delta, Albania/Greece/Montenegro, modern Turkey and Sardinia. Breeding also persisted in the Tigris/Euphrates river system in modern Syria and Iraq to at least the 1920s, Israel to the 1950s and in Algeria to around 1980. There are individual breeding records from elsewhere in the region. A critically endangered population persists in northeastern Greece and European Turkey. From these data and the known dispersal capacity, it can be securely inferred that the species formerly bred in suitable habitat throughout the region. Analyses based on current distribution would significantly underestimate the species' climatic tolerances and biogeographical scope for restoration.