Experts discover mate of rescued Philippine Eagle in Apayao
BAGUIO CITY – Wildlife experts in Apayao province, who rescued and nursed back to health last year a Philippine Eagle they named “Nariha Kabugao,” have found its mate when they checked up on the bird in the forests of Flora town.
The remote Cordillera province’s second Philippine Eagle was detected at the end of January during a reconnaissance operation conducted by foresters, conservationists and biologists of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Philippine Eagle Foundation.
Apayao is the country’s fourth biosphere reserve, having received that designation from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) in July last year due to its extensive 298,826-hectare forest cover and indigenous fauna and evidence that it is a Philippine Eagle habitat. An eagle nest discovered in Calanasan town in 2015 established that Philippine eagles thrived there.
Active nest
Last year, “Nariha,” a female raptor, was recovered by Apayao hunters with shrapnel wounds from air gun pellets. It was treated and released to the wild in April, with a GPS (global positioning system) tracker attached to it, which government wildlife survey teams were following.
The male eagle’s presence was confirmed in a second survey trip on Feb. 7, according to operational reports acquired by the Inquirer on Thursday.
According to DENR Cordillera director Paquito Moreno in a statement, “Philippine eagles are solitary and territorial by nature so an eagle cannot go near another raptor’s territory unless it was the mate.”
A DENR report on Feb. 7 to Moreno said an active nest filled with fresh leaves was found in the forests of Flora’s Barangay Upper Atok on Jan. 31. Beneath the nest were broken egg shells, which suggested that an eaglet had hatched but had not survived or the egg had been infertile and was expelled from the nest, the report said, citing PEF senior biologist Rowell Taraya.
The team also documented the existence of flying foxes (a large bat species) near the area, which serve as food for the eagle.
Despite heavy rains, the government team hiked for hours through dense forests on Feb. 4 and Feb. 6 to locate the second bird, and finally found it hunting down flying foxes at 2:45 p.m. on Feb. 7.
The group said local officials need to regulate hunting near the raptor area so as not to disrupt the eagles, and allow them to multiply in the biosphere.
They also suggested routine monitoring there to determine when the pair of eagles would have produced offspring.
“The Philippine eagle is what Apayao and the region can be known for. So we need to take action for this species’ conservation and protection,” Moreno said.
