Eagles pushed back to the wild, literally

DAVAO CITY – The Philippine eagle, the country’s national bird, is literally being pushed back into the wilderness in an effort to increase its already diminishing population.

The Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) has joined hands with the Japanese conglomerate Marubeni Energy Services Corp. (MESC) to pursue the “Back to the Wild” project aimed at continuing the research on breeding Philippine eagles in captivity and testing how effective current release techniques are for the giant raptor.

MESC operates and maintains the Mindanao 1 geothermal partnership at the Mt. Apo geothermal plant in North Cotabato and has also been supportive of the PEF’s release projects in the past.

PEF executive director Dennis Salvador said their group has not given up on the effort to release captive Philippine eagles back into their natural habitat as management intervention for their captive breeding program.

He also pointed out that test releases have been successful as management intervention in some threatened animals such as the Mauritius Krestel, Golden Eagles and the Peregrine Falcons.

According to Salvador, test releases are crucial to boost the diminishing Philippine eagle population in the wild.

Releases also serve as a venue for research on eagle behavior in its natural habitat, and to find out the causes in the event that the birds die in the wild.

The PEF director stressed that the reintroduction of the eagle to its natural habitat is being pushed despite what happened to Kabayan and Kagsabua, the eagles that were earlier released.

Kabayan died of electrocution in the premises of the Mt. Apo Geothermal plant in Kidapawan City after it was released in 2004.

Kabayan was the first ever captive-bred eagle that was released into the forest as part of the PEF captive breeding program.

Salvador said the recent killing of Kagsabua in the foothills of Mt. Kitanglad in Bukidnon is also one of the grim realities that have “threatened the persistence of our country’s national heritage.”

Though suffering from a drawback in its first experimental release and the untimely death of Kagsabua, the PEF has not changed its objective of seeing the eagles thrive in the wild in the future.

“Despite the setbacks, the PEF continues to stand with its mission of saving this great species from extinction, thanks to the individuals and corporations, like MESC, who rally behind the Foundation’s goal to augment eagle population in the wild,” Salvador added.

There are at least 500 pairs of Philippine eagles, including those that have been sighted in the forests of Mindanao and Samar.

The PEF, on the other hand, has 27 Philippine eagles in captivity at the Philippine Eagle Center in Barangay Malagos, Calinan District, in this city. The center has also bred 21 eagles in captivity since the program started in the early 1990s.