JACKSON -- The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is aiming to count golden eagle populations in lower elevations around the state starting next spring, in an effort to quantify the health of the bird whose numbers once soared in the state.

Bob Oakleaf, nongame coordinator for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, said golden eagle populations in lower elevations can fluctuate in part because of fluctuations in prey species -- namely, jack rabbits and prairie dogs. Development in recent years has also impacted the health of golden eagles and other raptor populations.

Golden eagles in the mountains appear to be doing well, with some of the same nesting sites still being used for the past 30 years, Oakleaf said. Those birds subsist on food like marmot and carrion.

In the 1980s, there were about 3,000 nesting pairs of golden eagles in Wyoming. Compare that with bald eagles, a bird recently removed from protection under the Endangered Species Act, whose numbers stand at about 200 nesting pairs.

Both birds are still protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which in part means they do not have hunting seasons.

Brian Rutledge, executive director of Audubon Wyoming out of Laramie, said golden eagles, along with other raptors, are struggling in light of the energy development around the state. Power poles are being erected in areas of the sagebrush sea -- places with no vertical structure -- and now raptors can perch there and pick off sage grouse. That, in turn, hurts the sage grouse population, which hurts the raptors as their prey base is dwindling.

"It takes them out of the natural system," Rutledge said, adding that the eagles sit all day instead of fly.

He said a rise in wind energy also threatens the bird. Turbines provide another place to perch and birds can be killed by turbines.

"We're pro-wind," Rutledge said. "We want to see it on previously disturbed landscapes."

Other energy development poses a threat to the bird.

PacifiCorp, a utility company out of Portland, Ore., recently agreed to a settlement of more than $10 million after dozens of eagles, hawks, owls and other birds were electrocuted in Wyoming. The company pleaded guilty to 34 violations of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

The company said it will spend $9.1 million to retrofit utility poles to make them less dangerous to birds for electrocution, among other things. At least 232 eagles have been killed since January 2007.

Oakleaf said although golden eagles are not high on Game and Fish's priority list, "because of situations that have happened, we will be paying more attention to them."