Wounded sea eagle rescued in Bataan

BALANGA CITY – A blooded baby eagle trembling in pain from a gunshot wound on its left wing span in the vast cogon field of the upland village of Duale in the Bataan industrial town of Limay was rescued by a former Army soldier Sunday afternoon.

Basilio Sadsad, chief of the volunteer village watchmen of Duale said that Joel Tacardon, a retired Army trooper, found the wounded rare sea eagle chirping in the hilly section of the Mariveles mountain ranges while he was crossing along a 38 radius slope.

Tacardon took the endangered eagle and turned it over to barangay officials who sought the help of a local broadcast reporter, Pat Villanueva, to find ways to save the sea eagle.

Barangay officials readied a makeshift cage to house the eagle inside the barangay hall and fed him with fish caught from nearby Manila Bay.

Villanueva has contacted the local Department of Environment and Natural Resources office in Pilar town, this province, about the discovery of a sea eagle suffering from a gunshot wound inflicted preferably by an unidentified hunter using a .22 caliber rifle.

Mila Ramirez, DENR’s wildlife officer in Bataan, said the bird is classified as juvenile sea eagle. She said that mature sea eagles have white feathers on their breasts but the captured eagle is still colored gray. – Raffy Viray and Ric Sapnu