Come January 15, Pag-asa – which means “hope” in Tagalog – will turn 26 years old. The male Philippine eagle is the first of its species to be bred and hatched in captivity. It was the result of a long and tedious work of the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) in Malagos at Calinan District to save this very rare bird found only in the Philippines.
“Pag-asa connotes hope for the continued survival of the Philippine eagle, hope that it people get together for the cause of the bird, it shall not be doomed to die,” explains Dennis Joseph I. Salvador, the PEF executive director.
For a year, the staff members of PEF waived their salaries in order for them to save the “world’s noblest flier” from vanishing in this part of the globe. In 1992, after more than a decade’s study of eagle behavior, both in the wild and in captivity, Pag-asa was born.
The birth made headlines around the world. But what most people didn’t know was that two captive eagles at the center, Junior (male) and Diola (female), were induced with the help of humans to reproduce.
In the past, many pioneering efforts were done to breed certain endangered species in captivity but failed. According to Salvador, the breeders of captive eagles and other birds find it difficult to induce captive birds to reproduce. Many factors have to be considered like food, protection and nesting needs.
The PEF breeders were left with no other viable option but to employ artificial insemination (AI), which means they have to catch the semen from a male eagle and inject it into the genital of the female eagle.
There were five reasons why they resort to AI in breeding the eagle. For one, although the male eagle gets into all stages of the breeding cycle, he still fails to copulate. Another thing: most eagles at the center are already “sexually imprinted” on humans (meaning the eagle has already “accepted” a human as its sexual partner).
There was also a shortage of unrelated sexually mature male eagles. Some available pairs were either crippled or disabled and can’t have natural sex with each other. Finally, there were instances where pairs of eagles of both sexes would rather kill each other than have sex.
Nine months after Pag-asa was born, another eagle was bred and hatched in captivity. They named the eaglet Pagkakaisa (Tagalog term for “unity”).
“Both Pag-asa and Pagkakaisa have brought hope and unity for those who have fought so hard and so long to save the Philippine eagle from extinction,” Salvador points out. “But the struggle must continue. And we can’t afford to fail. Because when the last eagle dies, it shal be the sign of the worst yet to come: The death of our environment.”
There are only 400 pairs of Philippine eagle remaining in the wild, according to PEF. Most of them are found only on the islands of Luzon, Samar, Leyte and Mindanao. The PEF houses about 35 eagles.
The Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB), a line agency of the Department of Environment, has specifically cited the following as the habitats of Philippine eagles: Casecnan Landscape and Seascape, Quirino Protected Landscape, Samar Island Protected Landscape, Pasonanca Natura Park, Siocon Resource Reserve, Mt. Timolan Protected Landscape, Mt. Matutum Protected Landscape and Mt. Inawayan Natural Park.
These six areas were also added recently as Philippine eagle habitats: Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park, Aurora Memorial National Park, Mt. Apo Natural Park, Mt. Kitanglad Natural Park, Pasonanca Natural Park and Mt. Malindog Natural Park.
“Whenever Philippine eagle nests are sighted, the area where it thrives is protected to ensure species propagation that is critical to sustaining the eagle’s needs to survive in the wild,” the BMB said in a statement.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed the Philippine eagle as “critically endangered.” On July 4, 1995, the President Fidel V. Ramos declared the Philippine eagle as the national bird by signing Presidential Proclamation No. 615. The law ordered the environment department to secure the viability of the bird’s population.
The Philippine eagle is second only to the Madagascar sea eagle in rarity. In size, it beats the American bald eagle; it is the world’s second largest – after the Harpy eagle of Central and South America.
The eagle was being collected in the country as early as 1703, but it was not until 1896 that it was “discovered” in Samar by the English naturalist, John Whitehead, who called it the “Great Philippine eagle.”
Before it was called Philippine eagle, it was known as monkey-eating eagle (its generic name, Pithecophaga, comes from the Greek words “pithekos” or monkey, and “phagein,” meaning eater). However, it was found out that monkeys actually comprised an insignificant portion of its diet, which consists mainly of flying lemurs, civet cats, bats, rodents, and snakes. On May 8, 1978, through Presidential Proclamation No. 1732, the eagle was finally given its present name.
With a span of nearly seven feet and a top speed of 80 kilometers per hour, the Philippine eagle can gracefully swoop down on an unsuspecting “victim” and carry it off without breaking flight.
If there is such thing as forever, the Philippine eagles have proven it. “These birds remain loyal to their mates and they bond for life,” the BMB says. “Once an eagle reaches sexual maturity – at around five years for female and seven years for male – it is bound for life with its mate,” the PEF adds. “They can be seen soaring in pairs in the skies.”
During the breeding season, the eagle do aerial courtship and mate in the nest or near it. Female eagle lays only one egg every two years. Both parents alternately incubate the egg for about 60 days, although the female spends more time incubating while the male hunts.
Upon hatching, the eagle remains in the nest for about 5.5 months. Once it fledges, the eagle parents will continue to look after its young for as long as 17 6o 18 months teaching the young eagle how to fly, hunt, and to survive on its own. The young eagle matures in about six years.
Studies show that the eagle’s next is approximately 80 feet above the ground (usually on tall trees) in prominent mountain peaks overlooking a river or stream to give a good view of its territory.
Unfortunately, the Philippine eagles are on the verge of extinction. “Vestiges of human persecution among them, poaching and illegal trading, killing and misconceptions contributed to the dwindling population of the Philippine eagle,” the BMB said.
According to PEF, the Philippine eagle is still being shot or captured despite the presence of laws protecting them. “Very often, they are killed without provocation, and mostly out of fear and ignorance, or worse, just for sport,” it said.
“From 1999 to 2000 alone, five eagles were shoot in Mindanao,” the BMB reported. “In Luzon, three eagles were trapped from 2002 to 2003 at the Sierra Madre Mountain Range. Evidence from these studies revealed that eagles remain very vulnerable to hunting.”
But the biggest threat comes from the rapid disappearance of their habitat – the tropical forests. The PEF said the natural habitat of Philippine eagle is mainly dipterocarp lowland forest where it is known to nest almost exclusively ranging from 100 to 1,000 meters above sea level.
But tropical forests are fast disappearing. “Deforestation is terrible,” Salvador deplored. “The Philippine eagle has become a critically endangered species because the loss of the forest has made it lose its natural habitat.”
According to BMB, “at present, only 18% of the original forest remain and old-growth forests continue to diminish. Raptors cannot live without the forests. Loss of habitats means loss of breeding sites, cover, and hunting areas for the eagles.”
The BMB adds, “The principal limiting factor for Philippine eagle populations is the low survival rates of juveniles and sub-adults and their inability to disperse across disturbed habitats between forest fragments. The fragmentation of habitats renders the species vulnerable to hunting and other forms of persecution, including the capture of birds and nestlings for private and public display.”
Efforts to save the Philippine eagle started way back in 1965 by Jesus A. Alvarez, then director of the autonomous Parks and Wildlife Office, and Dioscoro S. Rabor, another founding father of Philippine conservation programs.
From 1969 to 1972, General Charles Lindbergh, an aviator, spearheaded a drive to save the bird. In 1973, Peace Corps volunteer Robert S. Kennedy joined the Smithsonian-Peace Corps Environmental Program for the Philippines and came to assist in saving the Philippine eagle.
The Philippine eagle may join the dodo into extinction if they are not to be saved now. “We should do our best to save this wonderful creature because when it is gone, it is gone from the list of animals in the world,” Dr. Rabor reminded. (To be continued)
