Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate the species composition of prey caught in the forest, savanna and emerging habitats in which African Crowned Eagles Stephanoaetus coronatus breed in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. At the 17 nest sites, the remains of 195 prey individuals were collected. The five dominant prey species caught were Rock Hyrax Procavia capensis, Vervet Monkey Chlorocebus pygerythrus, Blue Duiker Philantomba monticola, Greater Canerat Thryonomys swinderianus and Bushbuck Tragelaphus scriptus. All of these species respond positively to urban expansion. Only eagles that nested inside protected areas were recorded preying on domestic animals. In terms of biomass, Bushbuck was one of the dominant taxa, and the remains of an estimated 28.8 kg Bushbuck ram was found under a nest. The surprisingly high proportion of Rock Hyraxes and low proportion of Vervet Monkeys caught in emerging habitat may indicate that African Crowned Eagles nesting in this habitat are adapting to a more specialised feeding strategy compared with those nesting in habitats that are more natural. Future studies should investigate how and why prey proliferates in emerging habitats and examine the association between land uses and the diet of African Crowned Eagles.

The African Crowned Eagle, Stephanoaetus coronatus, is a large raptor with a particularly long breeding cycle, even considering its size (Newton 1979). The incubation period is 49–51 days, the nestling period is 104–115 days and the length of the post-fledging period is contentious and varies considerably within its distribution in Africa (Steyn 1982). In some regions where the bird breeds biennially, this period is up to 350 days (Brown and Amadon 1989, Shultz 2002), whereas in other regions the post-fledging period is shorter as pairs bred annually, even for nine years in succession (Vernon 1984). The reason for this discrepancy has been ascribed to environmental quality and seasonal variability, and differences in the main prey base, densities and mortalities between populations (Newton 1979, Jarvis et al. 1980, Steyn 1982, Vernon 1984, Boshoff et al. 1994, Shultz 2002). Furthermore, it is unclear if the fledglings disperse from the nesting area of their own free will or are evicted by the parents (Brown 1966, Oatley 1970).