Newest eaglet needs ‘parents’

DAVAO CITY – Wanted: a parent to adopt an eagle bred in captivity, the 21st of its kind at the Philippine Eagle Center in Malagos, Calinan district, this city.

The Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) is looking for kind-hearted individuals or organizations who would adopt the eaglet hatched last Nov. 23. The egg was laid by eagle Princess Maasim Sept. 28 as a result of a cooperative artificial insemination technique with long-time partner eagle Tsai.

The PEF, a non-profit organization, runs the Malagos center which now has 37 Philippine eagles in captivity within a six-hectare reservation area in Calinan.

The newest eaglet was the 21st that the Malagos center produced since its captive breeding program successfully hatched the famous eaglet Pag-asa in 1992. However, of the 21 eagles that the program produced, only 17 have so far survived.

According to the PEF, adopting an eagle would cost at least P100,000 annually which would be for the upkeep of the raptor. And of the 37 eagles that are now kept at Malagos center, only 18 have their respective sponsors or properly adopted.

"The rest are up for adoption aside from the latest eaglet," said Maria Reinita Navarro of the PEF.

Navarro said that the latest eaglet has been doing fine and feeding well as appropriate for its age while it is still kept at the captive breeding laboratory in Malagos.

Meanwhile, the eagles produced by the PEF captive breeding program are considered to so far represent the most successful breeding of large tropical raptors in the world.

Navarro admitted funds have come in slow for the continued operation of the Malagos center which has emerged as an important institution in the preservation of the Philippine eagle, the country’s national bird.

Aside from the propagation of the Philippine eagle and other raptors, the PEF is also involved in the rearing and rehabilitation of injured birds, feeding and nutrition, cryogenic research as well as the development of laboratory techniques on the management of the giant raptor.

The PEF has also embarked on the propagation of other species, other than the Philippine Eagle, such as the Philippine Hawk Eagles, the Serpent Eagles, Scops Owls, Grey-Headed Fishing Eagles and the White-bellied Sea Eagles.

Navarro said the PEF continually seeks innovative techniques on cooperative artificial insemination and even natural breeding among the existing gene pool of Philippine eagles at the Malagos center.

The PEF is also into rearing of young eagles for imprinting, natural pairing, falconry and hacking or release of the eagles back to the protected forests in the wild.