THE Philippine Eagle continues to nest in Calansan, Apayao province, where 15 of them are currently roaming the forest.
Apayao Governor Elias Bulut Jr. reiterated the efforts of the province in preserving and protecting the Philippine Eagles.
“The area of Calanasan, which was declared as a sanctuary through our efforts in partnering with the United States Foreign Service, will include this area within the 286,000 hectare protected areas and biodiversity under UNESCO. We are now doing the legwork with four of our provincial employees undergoing training in the United States Foreign Service, aside from our partnership with the Philippine Eagle Foundation who provided technical people who have identified new species and discoveries in the area,” Bulut said.
In April 2015, the first Philippine Eagle was located by the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) biologists and Isnag research assistants in the lush, lowland forests of Apayao.
Finding the elusive nest needed a total of 3,456 hours of observation for over three months straight.
The field work spanned five years in rugged and remote jungles with observers spending time mostly on platforms atop trees, scanning ridges and valleys for the highly secretive national bird.
“These Philippine Eagles are similar to that in Davao. There are 15 eagles in Calanasan but we still have not included those in Cabugao and Conner because what we want to do is to perfect the management of the eagles in the initial municipality and replicate the management with the other municipalities,” the governor explained.
At present, the area in Calanasan, where the Philippine Eagles are staying, is still not open for bird watching since the Provincial Government together with their German partner who developed the drone is still in the process of conducting search initiatives aside from the tagging of the eagles.
In 2015, the tedious nest search tested the team’s skills, patience and determination of the PEF Biologist and expedition team headed by Tatiana Abaño.
The adult eagles from Apayao was measured to have a wing span of one and one half meters which would take four years for a female to conceive an egg, three months for it to hatch and around five months before it could fly.