Sanctuary offers hope for endangered Philippine eagle
Surprisingly loud chirps accompany a clumsy flurry of tiny wings as a wispy-haired chick breaks through its shell, its birth offering rare cause for celebration in the struggle to save the Philippine eagle from extinction.
Tropical rainforest destruction and relentless hunting have decimated the population of the majestic bird—one of the world's biggest and most powerful—with just hundreds believed to be left in the wild.
A small band of conservationists at a tiny sanctuary on the fringes of Davao, the southern Philippines' biggest city, is trying to ensure their survival by running the world's only breeding programme for the eagles and by rehabilitating the wounded.
"The centre serves basically as insurance, or a Noah's Ark so to speak, for the species," Philippine Eagle Foundation executive director Dennis Salvador told AFP on a recent visit.
"But it certainly doesn't substitute for a population in the wild."
The foundation estimates there are about 800 of the Philippines' national bird remaining in the wild, though it is impossible to count accurately due to their remote habitats. International conservation groups say there could be as few as 250 left.
In more than three decades of trial and error experiments by the foundation that have yet to fully understand the eagles' breeding habits, just 27 have been born in captivity.
The eagles are notoriously hard to pair, with the larger female known to attack and even kill an unwanted suitor in the wild. Once they do find a suitable partner, it is generally for life, although even in the forests the couples will generally only reproduce every two years.
"It's difficult because we don't really know what happens in the wild, and we can't replicate that here in captivity," said Anna Mae Sumaya, the foundation's curator.
