When Eagles and Human collide in a Single Habitat

By Julius R. Paner

Last Sunday, February 9, 2014 I joined a group of bloggers from Davao City to co-celebrate with the first hatch day celebration of a Philippine Eagle “Mabuhay”, the very first offspring sired by the famous “Pag-asa” on February 9, 2013 at the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) in Malagos, Baguio District, Davao City.

Over the years, I have been a fan of the Philippine Eagle, considered as one of the three largest breed of eagles in the whole world. When I joined the event last Sunday, my interest of the bird had grown larger, definitely as large as the wing span of this beast which is recorded as having the broadest wing span among all eagles on earth. My interest is not only about the unique features of the eagle, but also to the other aspects for which the human race should take into consideration for the eagles to survive.

Physically and to some extent uniquely, the Philippine Eagle is the only blue-eyed bird of prey in the world, with eyes that can see eight times the distance than that of the humans. This carnivorous creature who hunts lemurs, squirrels, civets, snakes and monkeys for its food, is monogamous in nature. It has also an exceptional courtship behavior where in most cases; the male eagle offers food and nesting materials to his partner.

Female eagles lay a single egg once every two years. Parent eagles wait until their offspring is able to make it on its own (usually within two years) before producing another. Egg is incubated alternately by the parents for about 58 to 60 days, with the male eagle doing most of the hunting during the first 40 days of the eaglet’s life while the female stays with the young.

According to some PEF personnel, there are present issues in the country that has greatly affected the flight of eagles in the Philippines. Previously I was fed with the appealing yet frustrating fact that a pair of eagle (male and female) requires something like 10,000 hectares of forest as their habitat. Meaning, when they develop an offspring in two years time, that offspring needs another 5,000 hectares of forest, or half of the couple’s territory.

Indeed, the threat to survival of the Philippine Eagle is very evident nowadays. Data from PEF revealed that there are only about 400 pairs of Philippine Eagles left in our forest today, a very optimistic estimate. They are being hunted for food, sport and out of ignorance. Several experiences about the liberated eagles are very alarming. The release of “Kagsabua” sometime in 2008 was a failure as he was shot dead. “Hineleban”, another eagle released last 2009, was also shot dead, as well as “Hagpa” in 2010. There were a total of four eagles already that were considered casualties of human cruelty.

The Philippine forest cover is continually being denuded, leading to the loss of nesting places for the eagles. The forests are becoming increasingly unhealthy and unable to satisfy the needs of the eagles for food and shelter. What we must realize is that a forest that is unable to fulfill an eagle’s needs will soon be unable to fulfill our own. And we have done almost nothing about it as human being. Our continuous encroachment for farming activities into the forest even worsens the situation.

The direction of PEF is to take a comprehensive approach to conservation, engaging in research, off-site and on-site protection, community-based efforts and public education to promote better understanding and achieve results in the preservation of the eagles and their habitat. This is commendable. As of the moment, there are a total of 34 eagles housed in the PEF center. We must, however, be half-happy and half-sad about this. While the eagles are safe in the center, it is definitely not the type of habitat that they deserve.

With “Mabuhay” now a 1-year old eagle, PEF expects to propagate more eagles either through natural breeding or artificial insemination. But the question still remains obvious, how long will it take for these eagles to stay in a caged environment? Is the government working hard to cater to the needs of the eagles in terms of natural habitat requirements?