📝 Draft site — Eagle Exchange Hub is new and still under active development. Our goal is an accurate, honest resource; we're verifying every figure, source, and contact. Some details may still be inaccurate or out of date as we correct them. Thanks for your patience.
New 2024 study: rehabilitated golden eagles yield 4× return on wild population  —  Read the findings →
A Balanced Golden Eagle Resource

Golden eagles, from every angle.

A balanced home for everything golden eagle.
Ranchers, falconers, researchers, and policymakers — one fully-sourced hub where every perspective gets the same honest science, data, and tools.

Report a Loss Now See how it works →

Free. No account needed Routes to your state's USDA Wildlife Services office

15 states
Western range
served
Data & Research
USDA Wildlife Services U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Teton Raptor Center American Sheep Industry North American Falconers Association
A Balanced Hub

Built for everyone who works with golden eagles.

Ranchers, falconers, researchers, and policymakers all hold a real, good-faith stake in the golden eagle — and every one of them belongs here. Alongside the practical rancher tools throughout this site, Eagle Exchange Hub is a balanced, fully-sourced home for the science, the field craft, and the policy.

A falconer holding a golden eagle on the glove against open country
For Falconers

A living craft, taken seriously.

Eagle falconry is recognized here as the skilled, non-lethal management tradition it is — with the research, the legal framework, and the case for its role laid out in full.

The falconry research →
Population Index Golden eagle · Western U.S. · long-term monitoring 1970 1998 2026 Illustrative · USGS / Millsap population studies
For Researchers

Data you can audit.

Population trends, migration corridors, and GPS-tracking studies — every figure traced to a peer-reviewed source or federal dataset, with uncertainty shown honestly.

Browse the research →
For Policymakers

Evidence built for decisions.

Clear, fully-sourced information for data-driven wildlife management — the science and the regulatory context, presented without spin to support balanced policy.

The regulatory basis →
New Here? Start With This.

Eagle Exchange Hub, in plain English.

Golden eagles are killing lambs across the western range. They are also a federally protected bird whose numbers are slowly falling. That tension is real, and the rules around it are confusing. This website exists to make it simple.

Golden eagle perched
The Protected Predator
Golden Eagles
A federally protected species — roughly stable range-wide, with documented local declines in some regions.
Ewe and young lamb on rangeland
The Vulnerable Livestock
Lambs & Sheep
Young lambs under about a month old are the most vulnerable to eagle predation on western ranches.
The Conflict
Golden eagle in flight
What it is

A free, independent website — not a government office, not an activist group.

Eagle Exchange Hub brings together everything a western rancher needs to handle golden eagle livestock loss, all in one place. The core tools are free and need no account. There is no hidden agenda — just the tools, the data, and the right phone numbers, organized so you are not figuring it out alone under pressure.

Sheep grazing on western rangeland
What it does

It walks you through every step after an eagle kills your livestock.

  • 📸Document the loss the right way — photos, GPS, and a clear record, before the evidence disappears in the first 72 hours.
  • 📞Report it to the correct USDA Wildlife Services office — your report is routed to your state automatically.
  • 🗺️See where eagle attacks are happening on a live map covering the western states.
  • 🧤Connect with licensed specialists and falconers who can legally help remove a problem eagle.
  • 📋Understand your legal options — depredation permits, compensation programs, and the deadlines that matter.
Falconer with a golden eagle
Who it helps

Three groups with a real stake in this — one straight platform.

  • 🐑Ranchers losing livestock get practical, plain-language tools and a clear path to documentation, compensation, and relief.
  • 🧤Falconers get recognition for a legal, non-lethal way to remove problem eagles — and a platform making the case for their role.
  • 🏛️Agencies & lawmakers get honest, fully-sourced data they can rely on to make better, fairer decisions.
Who We Serve

Eight stakeholders.
One straight story.

Golden eagle depredation pits good-faith interests against each other — ranchers, conservationists, agencies, scientists. Eagle Exchange Hub refuses to pick a villain. We give every stakeholder the same honest data, and a platform that genuinely understands their position.

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For Western Producers

Ranchers

You're losing real animals and real money to a federally protected predator — and you never signed up to absorb that cost alone. We hand you the documentation tools, the compensation pathway, and the legal options. No lectures. No judgment.

File a field report →
🧤
For the Falconry Community

Falconers

Falconry isn't treated as a hobby here — it's recognized as one of the most surgical, non-lethal management tools that exists. We're building the case for a sustainable, biology-based take framework that lets your skill actually work at scale.

See the falconry case →
🔬
For Researchers

Scientists

Every figure on this site traces to a peer-reviewed source or a federal dataset — Millsap, Bedrosian, Katzner, Mojica. We present uncertainty honestly and never cherry-pick a result. Audit us; that's the point.

Review the sources →
🛡️
For Federal Staff

USFWS & USDA

We operate downstream of your authority — never around it. Everything here works inside BGEPA, the MBTA, 50 CFR Parts 21 & 22, and the existing depredation-permit and Wildlife Services frameworks. We add operational capacity, not conflict.

Read the regulatory basis →
🏛️
For Legislative Staff

Policy & Legislative

The directive came from the top; the machinery jammed. We lay out the policy gap in plain terms — the arbitrary 2009 falconry cap, the interstate coordination failure, the research delayed to 2028 — with the data to defend a fix.

See the policy brief →
🗺️
For State Agencies

State Wildlife Agencies

State authority over wildlife is real, and we respect it. We bring documented incident data, satellite telemetry, and operational capacity to the table — and leave the call on how it's used in your state where it belongs: with you.

Explore the data map →
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For Industry Groups

Sheep Industry

We're aligned with the industry. We surface documented losses other sources won't publish, push for faster and fairer compensation, and make the case — with evidence — that practical relief and eagle conservation are not opposites.

Find industry partners →
🦅
For Conservation Groups

Raptor Conservation

We want more golden eagles, not fewer. Our model favors relocation over lethal removal, funds rehabilitation and telemetry research, and targets population recovery. The species' slow decline is our concern as much as yours.

See the population science →
The Scale of the Problem

Golden eagle depredation costs western ranchers millions — and most have no roadmap for what to do next.

Eagle Exchange Hub exists to change that.

3,400+
Sheep estimated killed by eagles — Wyoming alone (2024)
USDA NASS estimated eagle kills in Wyoming in 2024. Wyoming is the only western state publishing eagle-specific annual data — true western totals are not centrally tracked and are likely far higher.
~15%
Eagle's share
of estimated predator kills on Wyoming sheep operations attributed to golden eagles (USDA NASS 2024)
4×
Rehabilitation return
Each rehabilitated golden eagle released yields 4+ additional wild birds — Hagen et al. 2024
Depredation Heat Map ● Sample Data
847
Reports Filed
23
Counties Active
$2.4M
Losses Logged
94%
Permit Rate
[ Interactive Map ]
Sample data — illustrative, not live.
Depredation Intelligence

See where eagle conflicts are actually happening.

County-level heat map built from every verified report and 50 years of USDA historical data. Spot regional hotspots, seasonal patterns, and year-over-year trends at a glance.

  • Filter by species, state, season, and loss type
  • Your live reports appear instantly after submission
  • 50+ years of USDA historical depredation data
  • Export raw data for your own analysis
Explore the Map →
Latest Research
2024 · Wildlife Biology
"Dead birds flying": can North American rehabilitated raptors mitigate anthropogenic mortality?
Hagen, Goodell, Millsap & Zimmerman
2022 · Ecological Applications
Age-specific survival rates, causes of death, and allowable take of golden eagles in the western United States
Millsap et al.
2013 · J. Wildlife Management
Golden Eagle population trends in the western United States: 1968–2010
Millsap et al.
Science-Backed

Don't argue from opinion. Cite the peer-reviewed record.

Five decades of science on golden eagle biology, population dynamics, and depredation — explained in plain language for ranchers, attorneys, and policymakers alike.

  • Latest 2024 raptor rehabilitation findings (Hagen et al.)
  • Millsap allowable-take data used by USFWS in permits
  • Wind energy mortality research and electrocution studies
  • Migration corridors and seasonal behavior maps
Browse the Research Hub →
How It Works

From incident to resolution
in 5 steps

We've mapped the entire response workflow so ranchers aren't figuring it out under pressure.

1

Discover the loss

Document fresh evidence within 72 hrs — photos, GPS, feathers, tracks.

2

File a USDA report

Our digital form routes to the correct state Wildlife Services district automatically.

3

Get a site visit

A USDA agent confirms the kill, establishing official documentation for your permit.

4

Apply for a permit

Federal depredation permits authorize legal removal of problem birds.

5

Deploy a solution

Licensed falconers, hazing equipment, or USDA removal — matched to your situation.

“

We lost 11 lambs in one spring before we found this resource. Having the USDA forms, a specialist referral, and the science all in one place — that's what Wyoming ranchers have been missing for 20 years.

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Wyoming Sheep Producer Sublette County, WY  ·  1,400-head operation
Take Action

Experienced a loss?
Don't wait — evidence degrades fast.

The 72-hour window after a confirmed kill is critical. File a report now and get connected with the right people today.

File a USDA Report → Find a Specialist
Independent educational resource — not affiliated with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, any government agency, or activist organization. Educational use only; not legal or professional advice.