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MANILA, THE PHILIPPINESGathering rattan of their ancestral forest on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao in late March, a bunch of Indigenous Manobo Simuwawnon heard a commotion.
They rushed towards the racket and found a bunch of Manobo hunters huddled over an agitated animal in a entice. Supposed for wild pigs and chickens, the entice had captured one thing surprising: a big raptor with a cottony white underbelly and a shaggy crown of brown feathers.
Among the hunters needed to eat the chicken for dinner. However Jerry Cotic, a village official with the rattan-gatherers, thought the unusual-looking creature deserved to stay. He, together with fellow tribal member Richard Mahumoc, hatched a plan to purchase the raptor from the trappers and hand it over to wildlife authorities.
Over the subsequent three days, whereas Cotic stayed with the hunters and the chicken, Mahumoc and different Indigenous leaders raised 5,000 Philippine pesos (roughly $100) from the folks of their village. He returned to the forest and purchased the chicken. With the stressed raptor restrained in a rice sack, he rode two hours on his motorcycle to Bislig Metropolis, the place his accomplice, Reynalyn Homosexual-od, had already alerted the native setting and pure assets workplace of the rescue.
It was solely when he handed the chicken over that Mahumoc realized what they’d saved: a Philippine eagle, the nation’s nationwide chicken. With fewer than 700 breeding pairs alive immediately, it’s additionally one of many world’s rarest birds of prey. (Be taught extra concerning the Philippine eagle.)
Its numbers have been steadily falling for the previous fifty years attributable to human persecution, logging of the nation’s old-growth forests, and the conversion of lowland forests to farms and human settlements. However COVID-19 has added much more strain. Earlier than the pandemic, just one or two eagles a yr have been rescued by authorities. Between April 2020 and March 2021, nevertheless, the nonprofit Philippine Eagle Basis, a rescue, rehabilitation, and analysis basis in Davao Metropolis, rescued 10—a historic excessive.
“Quite than the same old narrative of ‘nature is therapeutic,’ we predict it’s a distinct case for the Philippine eagles,” mentioned Jayson Ibañez, analysis and conservation director of the inspiration. “We imagine there is a rise within the frequency of intrusion within the forests.”
An icon within the crosshairs
The Philippines has had one of many world’s longest coronavirus lockdowns. With the financial system slumping, conservationists have seen an uptick within the searching of protected animals for meals and unlawful commerce. When ecotourism halted, rangers misplaced their jobs and conservation areas have been left unprotected from poachers and different incursions.
Of the ten eagles rescued by the Philippine Eagle Basis, two had been caught in traps meant for sport. (Philippine eagles typically floor stalk prey similar to palm civets and snakes, making them susceptible to such traps.) Two had been captured by farmers after the raptors had killed their piglets, chickens, pet canines, and cats; two had been wounded with improvised searching rifles; three had been discovered within the forest, weakened by hunger; and a two-month-old chick had been rescued from a farmer hoping to promote it.
As an apex predator, the Philippine eagle serves as a barometer of forest well being: The existence of a breeding pair is testomony to a wholesome ecosystem, as every couple wants some 17,300 acres of forest to outlive. Weighing between 10 and 18 kilos, with a wingspan that averages 6.5 toes, the Philippine eagle is among the many world’s largest birds. It’s discovered on solely 4 of the archipelago’s 7,641 islands, largely in Mindanao.
Due to public consciousness campaigns and a nationwide wildlife conservation regulation that imposes jail time and steep fines for killing protected animals, the Philippine eagle is now not actively hunted as a trophy. “However poverty and lack of higher alternatives within the uplands can nonetheless drive some to see these eagles as meals or as a novelty and, due to this fact, a possibility to earn cash,” Ibañez mentioned. (Right here’s how the Philippines is saving among the world’s rarest animals.)
Younger eagles are significantly in danger, in line with Juan Carlos Gonzalez, curator for birds on the Museum of Pure Historical past on the College of the Philippines, Los Baños, as they attempt to establish new territory with towering treetops for his or her nests and ample prey. Birds that settle in degraded areas, for lack of something higher, typically encounter livestock and other people—conferences that normally finish badly for the birds.
A narrative that brings hope
The setting division shortly turned over Mahumoc’s rescued eagle to the Philippine Eagle Basis. Workers named him Rajah Cabungsuan, after the village the place he’d been trapped, they usually estimated he was about 5 years outdated. Over eight months, Rajah Cabungsuan stayed on the Philippine Eagle Heart on the foothills of Mount Apo. Veterinarians ensured that he was free from accidents and ailments, and keepers stored him completely satisfied and wholesome as he regained his power.
He was “vivid, alert and responsive,” in line with a veterinary evaluation, and he gained “substantial weight” throughout his keep on the heart.
In November, Rajah Cabungsuan was outfitted with a GPS tracker and returned to his forest in Surigao del Sur province. He was the fifth of the ten rescued raptors to be launched. (One of many malnourished birds died; the 4 others stay on the basis’s 20-acre eagle heart, awaiting their eventual launch or enrollment within the captive breeding program.)
Reflecting on the uptick in chicken rescues, Gonzalez, of the Museum of Pure Historical past, mentioned, “It’s bittersweet. You’ve gotten a number of injured birds, however at the very least you bought to rehabilitate them—it means folks have consciousness. It’s higher to have the information of ten rescues up to now few months slightly than ten lifeless Philippine eagles.”
Previous to the discharge of every rehabilitated raptor, the Philippine Eagle Basis works with native officers to run wildlife training campaigns in communities residing in and close to the eagle’s territory.
The inspiration additionally trains members of Indigenous communities to turn out to be forest guards. It offers instruments, like binoculars for monitoring eagles and their nests, and teaches guards to look at raptor conduct, take away traps that would hurt eagles, and cope with unlawful hunters in a non-confrontational method.
Impressed by their expertise with Rajah Cabungsuan, Mahumoc and Homosexual-od are actually each skilled rangers. The couple says they hope to watch the eagle carefully as he soars over their tribe’s ancestral land. And so they hope someday to witness him elevating his circle of relatives.
“For us, he’s additionally Simuwawnon,” mentioned Homosexual-od. “His return to our land is a giant affect on our younger folks, [showing them] that we have to defend our forests.”
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