COMMON Name:Philippine Eagle
Scientific Name: Pitheco-phaga jefferyi
Sex: Male
Age: 20 years old (as of 2012)
Origin:Philippine Eagle Center Malagos, Baguio District, Davao City
Date of Hatch: 15 January 1992
Parents:Junior (male) and Diola (female)
On November 11, 1991, Diola laid her third fertile egg that hatched after 56 days of combined natural and artificial incubation. The eaglet was named Pag-asa (Hope), the first Philippine Eagle bred and hatched in captivity through artificial insemination. Pag-asa is the result of 14 years or research.
Pag-asa passed through the process of rearing by humans. He stayed in the laboratory and ate through “forcep feeding” until he was old enough to feed by himself. During the first two months, he was already observed practicing his innate eagle abilities such as wing flapping and grabbing. At four months old, he was transferred into a bigger aviary where he can exercise his skills both in flight and other raptorial behavior.
On August 31 and on September 3, 1995, Pag-asa at the age of 3 years and nine months issued sex vocals several times upon seeing his caretaker and surrogate mate – Eddie Juntilla.
His early breeding behavior reflects adaptability to captive condition as a result of excellent rearing and caring. Pag-asa started copulating with his caretaker during the 1996-breeding season at the age of four. During the 1997-breeding season, Pag-asa was mounting but still no semen/seminal fluid was produced even up to this moment.
We learned from the more senior members of the Philippine Eagle Foundation that though he is much celebrated now, fact is, we almost lost Pag-asa. Thirteen years ago, people like Dennis Salvador, Doming Tadena and Lito Cereño, who now head PEF and its various programs, were but first-time “fathers” who didn’t quite know what to do with the small hole that Pag-asa made on its shell on its 58th day of incubation.
Pag-asa was only the third fertile egg in their years of eagle breeding research. At that time, they didn’t know that after its first pip, a baby eagle takes about 36 hours to rest and gather strength before resuming work on its shell and breaking into the world. There was a bit of panic in the air, for all they knew was that the baby was silent and unmoving for 30 hours. Feeling both panicked and eager, the team, along with Dr. James Grier, who in 1992 was already a respected zoologist but like everyone else was a first-timer with baby Philippine Eagles, decided to help the chick out of its shell. “A Caesarean operation,” Cereño jokingly said.
The “Caesarean operation” was a big mistake. The operation hit some of Pag-asa’s blood vessels that had not yet come off the shell. “We feared his life was literally draining out of him,” Cereño recounted. They slowed down their work on the shell and hydrated the chick continuously by wiping him with cotton swabs dipped in water. Gradually, the vessels regained their color.
They didn’t know they were very lucky. They didn’t know they were assisting the chick too early and it was just getting its own body ready for the outside world. As fate would have it, they completely removed Pag-asa from its shell at the exact time that the last stage of its hatch process, the retraction of the yolk sac, occurred. Had they pulled him out before the sac retracted, Pag-asa would have died. Without knowing it, their timing was perfect.
Caltex Philippines, Pilipinas Shell, remain contributors to the Pag-asa Support Fund to this day. As Pag-asa’s adoptors, they provide for his needs as well as funds that go into research on the breeding behavior and rearing of Philippine Eagles. Thirteen named and two unnamed eagles at the Philippine Eagle Center are without benefactors.
