How have people impacted red-tailed hawk populations?
Europeans spreading across Minnesota has been beneficial to red-tailed hawks because they like to hunt over fields where farmers have cleared the trees away. Also, rodents tend to prosper in places where people are. We have turned forest savanna into open fields that make great hunting grounds. One third of the state was originally prairie. Here, red-tailed hawks were more common than in the forests, but keep in mind that prairie grasses were eight to ten feet tall. Cleared fields and neatly mowed highway shoulders have made prey much easier to find.
