Mating season of RP eagles on

DAVAO CITY — With the mating season of the Philippine eagle (Pithecophaga Jefferyi) now on, the Philippine Eagle Center in Malagos district here is expecting to breed more eagles in captivity.

Domingo Tadena, breeding program chief of the Malagos center, said the eagles’ mating season runs from September to January.

The gene pool of almost two dozen giant raptors at the center has been prepared for this breeding season, with hopes that more eaglets could be hatched this time.

"We have been finding ways of how the breeding program can be more enhanced so we could hatch more (eaglets)," Tadena told The STAR.

The Malagos center, which is run by the Philippine Eagle Foundation, has so far bred 13 eagles in captivity since the program started in 1987. Pag-asa and Pagkakaisa were the first eagles bred in captivity; they were hatched in 1992.

The center successfully hatched four eaglets in last year’s breeding season, the biggest number so far.

"It was a long and arduous process for us here in the center and we have really been working hard on the breeding program itself," Tadena said.

The present population of Philippine eagles is estimated at 500, most of them found in densely forested areas in Mindanao and Leyte.

The Malagos center houses two dozen of these giant raptors, while the University of the Philippines in Los Baños, Laguna has two. The rest are in the wild.

Aside from the captive breeding program, Tadena said the center is also working on the release of the eagles back to their natural habitats.

"That’s why we have also intensified our educational community outreach program so we will be able to educate more people on the importance of taking care of the environment, (and thus protect) the habitats of these birds," he said.

Several places in Mindanao have been identified as possible release sites for the eagles kept at the Malagos center.