(UPDATED) Prevent habitat loss or lose the Philippine Eagle forever.
The warning from experienced veterinarian Dr. Bayani Vandenbroeck is stark. We were congregated in a back room at Doc Bayani’s Veterinary Clinic, focusing adoring looks at the Philippine Hawk Eagle and the Philippine Eagle Owl, as we discussed their plight.
In return, the birds gave us a confident gaze. However, there is little doubt that behind their sharp, piercing stare, the eagles concealed a history of struggle and suffering.
But, as fortune would have it, they had made their way into the trusted hands of Bayani and his team of dedicated vets, who have diligently served the communities of Ma’a and Catalunan Grande for over 10 years.
Vandenbroeck, 41, has a track record of coming to the aid of Philippine Eagles dating back to his university days, and is often at the beckoning call of the Philippine Eagle Center when a bird is rescued.
That is where these birds will go after a period of quarantine at Bayani’s clinic, having initially been operated on to treat life-threatening wounds.
The Philippine Hawk Eagle had been turned over by a client, while the Eagle Owl was rescued in Bukidnon and initially turned over to Central Mindanao University where they have a veterinary clinic, before being referred to Bayani. He explained the sorry situation the Eagle Owl had found himself in.
“The Philippine Eagle Owl had two wounds, one near the anus, which apparently had maggots. He also had two hematomas on the heel and the chest. Now the hematomas are practically gone, and the wounds are also closing,” the veterinarian said.
Vandenbroeck battled over the loud metal clang of the eagles banging against the cage door to detail that the birds are feeding well, which is good news for their recovery. However, this may also indicate that the eagles have been in captivity for some time.
“It seems from their behaviour, we are thinking they could have been caught for awhile, because they are not as aggressive. They would be a lot more aggressive if they were freshly caught from the wild, that banging would be non-stop,” Vandenbroeck relayed.
The Philippine Hawk Eagle, which proudly perched upon a stick inside its protective cage, displayed slightly more compliant behaviour compared to its Eagle Owl cousin. It had no wounds and was in fair health overall.
“My suspicion is it’s been captive for quite a while, and then people have just been feeding it. Someone probably noticed it, reported them, and they were forced to turn it over. People catch the bird, they try to keep it, try to feed it and keep it for themselves. Often, the turnover happens when they don’t look after the bird properly and the bird starts getting sick, or people start noticing it and then report that,” Vandenbroeck narrated.
The Philippine Eagle is a trophy, it’s very unique. You don’t see those birds often. But there is no way you can keep it. These animals are wild. Even if you domesticate them, they still will always be wild, you will never be able to handle them properly.
The Hawk Eagle is young, in theory, you could train it to be docile, but the moment it reaches adulthood those instincts are going to kick in.
The aforementioned Philippine Eagle Owl came into Vandenbroeck’s custodianship without serious physical wounds, but most of the rescued eagles are not so fortunate.
“It is not clear (about the Eagle Owl) but most of the time when we rescue the birds from the wild, it's usually down to poaching and hunting. Almost half of the eagles that were caught in the wild had bullets in them. So I have extracted a lot of bullets,” he said
Bayani and his team hit the headlines last month when they nursed back to health a Philippine Eagle, which had been blinded in one eye by a gun modified with marbles for bullets.
“The Philippine Eagle had fractured bones and the lens of the eye had been popped. The displacement of the lens towards the inside would indicate that blunt force trauma hit the outside,” the animal doctor said.
The Philippine Eagle, the Philippine Hawk Eagle, and the Philippine Eagle Owl are all critically endangered species.
There are a number of reasons for the tragic demise of these beautiful birds, but a key contributing factor is habitat loss.
Illegal logging continues to plague the island of Mindanao. Last year, the Department for Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) investigated its own personnel accused of complicity in the illegal cutting of ironwood trees within Surigao del Sur province.
Deforestation is a fairly recent phenomenon for the region, with illegal poachers and business interests kept at bay by prolonged conflict. However, since the 1990’s the problem has escalated in the Philippines' south.
In 2010, Sarangani province had 154,000 hectares (380,500 acres) of natural forests, covering 64% of its total land area. By 2020, it lost 437 hectares (1080 acres), according to Global Forest Watch.
Another contributing factor to deforestation is farming and human population expansion. As a result, the birds, who have a reduced hunting area, come to the farms when they realize there is easy prey in the form of chicken and piglets.
“The problem is, these birds get trained in a way that, where people are, there is easy food,” Vandenbroeck said. “What they don’t realize is that where people are there are also hunters (and disgruntled farmers).”
Sadly, it takes only one opportunist looking for a trophy or one sadist looking for revenge for slain livestock to take a gun to these birds.
The result of continued habitat loss is clear to Vandenbroeck: “Unless anything changes about the habitat, then the eagles could very well go extinct.
Every eagle needs between 7000-13,000 hectares as their own territory, no other Philippine Eagle can enter that. If there is not enough habitat where young eagles can potentially meet, then that’s also the challenge.
“If you protect this area because there is an eagle there, but everywhere else is being logged and the forest is being cut down, they have a chick and it grows up, where is that eagle going to go?” the dedicated veterinarian said.
In order to reverse the loss of habitat and consequent loss of the Philippine Eagle, it is clear that there needs to be the political will from politicians and key stakeholders to clamp down on illegal logging, raise awareness about the Eagle, and better protect those who come forward with a complaint.
There also needs to be an adequate compensation scheme for farmers, as Vandenbroeck explains:
“It can’t be avoided that some farms will get caught (by eagles snatching their stock), so there should be a good compensation scheme for the losses, and thus hopefully no retaliation.
Another thing we’ve had a challenge with is people are afraid to report because they could get in trouble. There should be things in place, where people who report are protected, or they can make an anonymous report.
The challenge will be preserving the habitat, encouraging reporting, and protecting the reporter.”
As our conversation reached its conclusion, we took one last glance at the Eagle Owl and Hawk Eagle before moving outside. There is something mesmerizing about those birds, and there is no doubting their majesty.
I can’t help but think that those who come face-to-face with the Eagle will feel compelled to help in any way they can. So, what can be done by the everyday citizen? Ben Sturt, Contributor
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