BARELY three weeks after rehabilitated young "Kagsabua" was freed to a natural park in Bukidnon, another juvenile Philippine Eagle was rescued by a team from the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) and DENR on March 24, 2008 in San Isidro, Calabugao in Impasug-ong, Bukidnon.
Arriving late afternoon after driving three hours from the province's capital of Malaybalay, the team went to an abandoned community store where an eaglet was temporarily housed.
Standing disheveled on a concrete floor full of its own feces, the bird's situation was appalling, according to PEF Senior Animal Keeper Edison Dayos. Its right leg was tied with a plastic straw to a banana trunk and its feathers and face were dirty.
Dayos led the rescue team.
Toto Demana, the captor, claimed the bird dived at him in the forest while he was on his way home last March 20, 2008.
He said he just heard loud flapping of wings and then a huge bird came flying at him. He retaliated by slapping the bird's head with his slippers.
"Pila ra man gud nang kusog sa langgam, mao tong nakuyapan dayon (The bird is not that strong so it tumbled down)," Demano explained. He tied the bird, brought it home inside a sack, and fed it with pork and domestic chicks for four days.
But according to Domingo Tadena, PEF deputy director for conservation breeding, the eagle could have been playing and practicing its hunting skills.
Demana's walking might have driven out a small animal in hiding, which the juvenile dived for. Demana could have just been in the way. Juvenile eagles spend a lot of time on test hunts, and they seem to be unafraid of people, he added.
In Davao City, standard examination showed that the bird is less than a year old. It had no signs of diarrhea, had clear eyes and clean ears.
However, much of its flight and body feathers were dirty and worn out because of mishandling and poor housing conditions. X-ray results also showed a gun pellet lodged on the right leg and a broken collarbone.
According to Dennis Salvador, PEF Executive Director, young Philippine eagles are very vulnerable to capture and shooting because they are very naive and oblivious to human presence. In hope of getting rewards, locals catch these birds when they see them. They then turn the bird over to rich people or politicians. Unfortunately, money is awarded in gratitude.
These innocent gestures of rewarding a captor, although well meaning, sends a wrong message, Salvador said. In the uplands where people are mostly poor, news about these rewards can easily be misinterpreted, he added.
The bird is now under care at the Philippine Eagle Center, Davao City, undergoing medication and rehabilitation from trauma. If it recovers, PEF plans to bring it back to the forest where it belongs. They will attach a transmitter so PEF and DENR biologists can track and follow its progress.
The Philippine Eagle is a protected Philippine bird. It is also one of the rarest and most endangered species of bird. The Philippine Eagle Foundation and the DENR is implementing a national conservation program to save this magnificent bird from getting extinct. (Jayson Ibanez, Philippine Eagle Foundation)
