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