New eaglet hatched at Davao breed center

DAVAO CITY — Another eaglet has "landed."

The Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) announced yesterday that another eaglet was hatched using cooperative artificial insemination techniques, at the Philippine Eagle Center in Malagos, Calinan District here last Sunday.

The eaglet is the third Philippine eagle hatched through artificial insemination. The two others are Pag-asa and Pagkakaisa.

The PEF said the eaglet started to pip from its shell at about 6:20 a.m. last Saturday, 55 days after the egg was laid. It only fully cracked at about 5:32 p.m. the following day.

"This success underscored our team’s growing capability to work even with difficult birds and represents hope that we can indeed realize specific recovery goals," said Doming Tadena, the eagle center’s deputy director for captive breeding.

The eaglet now brings to 20 the number of Philippine eagles bred in captivity, two of them at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños, Laguna and the rest at the Malagos Center.

The still unnamed eaglet is the offspring of eagles Junior and Kahayag, who are part of the center’s few breeding pool.