How tracking golden eagles in Nevada revealed a desert ‘death vortex’

How tracking golden eagles in Nevada revealed a desert ‘death vortex’ Skip to content Subscribe today Every print subscription comes with full digital access Subscribe Now Menu All Topics Health Humans Anthropology Health & Medicine Archaeology Psychology View All Life Animals Plants Ecosystems Paleontology Neuroscience Genetics Microbes View All Earth Agriculture Climate Oceans Environment View All Physics Materials Science Quantum Physics Particle Physics View All Space Astronomy Planetary Science Cosmology View All Magazine Menu All Stories Multimedia Reviews Puzzles Collections Educator Portal Century of Science Unsung characters Coronavirus Outbreak Newsletters Investors Lab About SN Explores Our Store SIGN IN Donate Home INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM SINCE 1921 SIGN IN Search Open search Close search Home INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM SINCE 1921 All Topics Earth Agriculture Climate Oceans Environment Humans Anthropology Health & Medicine Archaeology Psychology Life Animals Plants Ecosystems Paleontology Neuroscience Genetics Microbes Physics Materials Science Quantum Physics Particle Physics Space Astronomy Planetary Science Cosmology Tech Computing Artificial Intelligence Chemistry Math Science & Society All Topics Health Humans Humans Anthropology Health & Medicine Archaeology Psychology Recent posts in Humans Artificial Intelligence Real-world medical questions stump AI chatbots By Tina Hesman SaeyFebruary 17, 2026 Health & Medicine A simple shift in schedule could make cancer immunotherapy work better By Elie DolginFebruary 12, 2026 Health & Medicine This baby sling turns sunlight into treatment for newborn jaundice By Elie DolginFebruary 12, 2026 Life Life Animals Plants Ecosystems Paleontology Neuroscience Genetics Microbes Recent posts in Life Animals Some dog breeds carry a higher risk of breathing problems By Jake Buehler4 hours ago Animals Regeneration of fins and limbs relies on a shared cellular playbook By Elizabeth Pennisi6 hours ago Animals How tracking golden eagles in Nevada revealed a desert ‘death vortex’ By Martin J. 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Joe Barnes By Martin J. Kernan 7 hours ago Share this:Share Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share on X (Opens in new window) X Print (Opens in new window) Print Golden eagles in Nevada are dying at an alarming rate, and no one can pinpoint the cause. Their carcasses litter the landscape in Dry Lake Valley, a bone-white stretch of parched earth north of Las Vegas that was a breeding ground for golden eagles, the largest bird of prey in North America. But now, new data suggest, the area has become a death vortex — a swirling black hole of deadly hazards threatening to swallow up the birds. They can’t reproduce quickly enough to replenish their numbers. In ecological terms, that means the valley has become a population sink, says Joe Barnes, a Reno-based biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. These highly territorial raptors are flying in from neighboring regions to fill the void, he says, only to meet their demise as well. In order to track the eaglets, the scientists rappelled to the nests and attached transmitter-containing backpacks to the birds.Joe Barnes And it’s part of a larger decline across the state. Though the number of golden eagles in Dry Lake Valley seems to be spiraling downward, until recently populations across Nevada were assumed to be stable. At last count, in 2017, they hovered around 3,000 individuals statewide. Based on the new data, however, Barnes estimates that we’ve lost ten percent of the population since 2014, with the potential for compounding losses in years to come, he fears. “There’s a 2 percent chance that everyone is happy and healthy, but 98 percent odds that they’re declining, and it’s a fairly strong decline,” he says. Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday. Tracking the state’s golden eagle population meant strapping transmitter-containing backpacks to every bird that Barnes’ team could capture. But these exceedingly wary, sharp-sighted creatures are no easy quarry. “You’ve got to do it all under the cover of darkness,” Barnes says. “You don’t want to tip off the eagles. Everything’s got to be camouflaged.” Rappelling into cliffside nests to tag chicks for future identification was another sort of adventure, one that James Golden, a wildlife researcher now at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, says required “guts.” “We get up this cliff, and the wind was just ripping,” Golden says. “We’re sitting there trying to figure out if it’s safe for the birds because they’re pretty young. And they’ll spread their wings as a defense to make themselves look big, and they’ll get blown right out of the nest.” In the end, the tagging didn’t hurt the eaglets. Ultimately, Barnes and Golden tagged a number of chicks, and affixed transmitters to 43 adult golden eagles across Nevada (30 of which have since died, mostly by anthropogenic causes). These and other deaths, plus births and migrations, revealed declining numbers, says ecologist Perry Williams, a professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, who ran the population statistics. The transmitters gave hourly snapshots of the eagles’ speed, direction, location, and altitude, allowing the researchers to ide