Eagle Center: Saving the bird icon Saving the bird icon

By Gerry T. Estrera
By using the Philippine eagle as the focal point of conservation, the Philippines, in the process, is saving the country’s national bird and its habitat.
 That what Dennis Salvador, the executive director of the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF), said.
 “If Filipinos don’t get their act together for the cause of the endangered bird, it shall be doomed to die,” Salvador said.
 PEF, which manages the eagle center in Malagos, Calinan District of Davao City, is a non-governmental organization which deals with the conservation and protection of endangered “Pithecophaga jefferyi,” described by American aviator Charles Lindbergh as “the world’s noblest flier.”
 PEF’s work is divided broadly into two roles: “in situ” and “ex situ” conservation of the endangered bird.  “In situ” is the raising of birds in its original habitat while “ex situ” is the method of propagating the species in captivity.
 The PEF embarked on a captive breeding project since the 1980s, succeeding in January 1992 with the birth of “Pag-asa” (hope).  However, it took at least 21 years for the first tropical eagle born in captivity – to sire an offspring.  Last year, the 158-gram chick was hatched. 
 “This (recent) accomplishment underscores the fact breeding these birds in captivity remains difficult,” Salvador said in a statement four days after the eaglet hatched.  “We are certainly a long way off in coping with losses in the wild.”
 Many pioneering efforts in the past failed to breed certain endangered species in captivity.  According to Salvador, breeders of captive eagles and other birds find it a herculean task to induce captive birds to reproduce.  Many factors like food, protection and nesting needs have to be considered.
 Breeders at the Philippine Eagle Center are left with no other viable option but to employ artificial insemination – meaning they have to catch the semen from a male eagle and inject it into the genital of the female eagle.
 Salvador cites five reasons why they resort to artificial insemination method: (1) while the male gets into all stages of the breeding cycle, he still fails to copulate; (2) most eagles at the center are already “sexually imprinted” on humans (meaning the eagle has already accepted a human as its sexual partner); (3) there’s shortage of unrelated sexually mature male eagles; (4) crippled or disabled eagles can’t have natural sex with each other; and (5) some pairs of eagles of both sexes would rather kill each other than have sex.
 The newly-hatched eaglet was the 25th Philippine eagle produced by the eagle center since 1992.
 The eagle center is one of the most often visited places in Davao City.  Some 30 kilometers northwest and about an hour’s ride from the heart of the city, it hosts about 100,000 tourists and visitors every year.
 Almost always, people who have a close encountered with the country’s bird icon are mesmerized by its beauty.  “They are impressive birds,” said Chad Gessele, an American from Oregon who edits Better Life Television, Inc.  “Before my mini-trip there, I knew of these things, knew their basic statistics, but seeing them up close is a different deal.”
 In July 1995, then President Fidel V. Ramos signed Proclamation No. 615 naming the Philippine eagle as the country’s national bird.  He said that the bird is found only in the Philippines and as such it should be a source of national pride.
 The Philippine eagle is listed by the International Union of Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources as among the country’s threatened birds.  If the national bird dies, according to Ramos, “so will all the country’s efforts at conserving its natural resources and treasures.”
 Salvador cited deforestation as the culprit as to why the eagles are fast disappearing from this part of the world.  “Deforestation is terrible,” he pointed out.  “The Philippine eagle has become a critically endangered species because the loss of the forest had made it lose its natural habitat.”
 Studies have shown that a pair of Philippine eagle needs at least 7,000 to 13,000 hectares of forest as a nesting territory.
 The captive breeding is one of the eagle center’s top programs as its main objective is to augment wild populations of the endangered bird while serving as a “genetic insurance” for the species. 
 Studies conducted by the eagle center indicate that more than 90% of fledglings and juveniles do not reach breeding age or adulthood primarily because of human persecution (mainly shooting followed by trapping-capture incidents).   A Philippine eagle is considered adult when it reaches the age of six to seven years.
 If the old breeding pairs in the wild are not being replaced, Salvador explained, it is more likely that the whole Philippine eagle population could suddenly collapse.
 “Before we know it, we’d probably lose the Philippine eagle. We’ll have a national bird that doesn’t exist,” Salvador warned.