VII. International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle, Bratislava, Slovakia, 2013

The 7th International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca) was held on October 2-5, 2013 at the Barónka Hotel in Bratislava, Slovakia, organised by Raptor Protection of Slovakia (RPS) in cooperation with the Czech Society for Ornithology and MME/BirdLife Hungary, under the auspices of the Ministry for Environment of the Slovak Republic, supported by the International Visegrad Fund. Results of research by 43 experts from ten countries, including three countries of the Visegrad region - Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary - were presented in 20 lectures and five posters. The conference featured several accompanying events, such as an excursion to imperial eagle breeding sites in the surroundings of the conference venue, a demonstration ofwork by a dog specially trained in Hungary for seeking poisoned bait and birds, and an exhibition of drawings and paintings by children from the Visegrad region focusing on birds of prey. During the conference a workshop was held to start the process ofupdating the present International Action Plan for the species from 1996. Furthermore, the action plan for improving the conservation status ofpopulations of the eastern imperial eagle in the Visegrad countries was agreed by the experts from those countries.