Friday 26 / April / 2024
Manila: The Philippines' Department of Environment may soon send Philippine Eagles to the US as part of plans to boost the survival of the endemic but critically endangered national bird of the Southeast Asian country.
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Roy Cimatu raised the possibility after his department sent a pair of Philippine Eagles to Singapore this month to boost conservation efforts, the first time the government made such a move to check the species’ looming extinction.
“There will be a next time,” Cimatu said Friday on the sidelines of the DENR’s 32nd anniversary celebration in Quezon City.
He noted that a US-based institution was interested in looking after a pair of Philippine Eagles to help conserve the species.
“That institution specializes in species that are already vanishing, are endangered,” he said without identifying the interested party.
Cimatu is optimistic that deploying another pair of Philippine Eagles abroad would help boost efforts to save the species from extinction.
Last month, the environment chief signed an agreement to lend a pair of Philippine Eagles to DENR's foreign partner, the Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS), for conservation-related purposes, including breeding, in the city-state.
This marks "a new chapter in Philippine biodiversity conservation by reaching beyond our borders and cooperating with another sovereign State, the Republic of Singapore," he said.
Cimatu said lending the pair is a biosecurity measure for ensuring that there will be Philippine Eagles left in Singapore for breeding in case a catastrophe, such as an outbreak of avian flu, hit the Philippines and wiped out the species' population.
“If all Philippine Eagles are in our country and something eradicates these birds, this species will be gone,” he noted.
Such loss would have an ecological impact as according to the DENR, the Philippine Eagles are apex predators responsible for regulating populations of small animals that may pose danger to humans and crops.
"With its dwindling population due to habitat loss and illegal hunting, experts estimate that there are less than 400 pairs left in the wild," the department said in a statement, highlighting the urgency to intensify Philippine Eagle conservation efforts.
Cimatu said 15-year-old male Philippine Eagle, Geothermica, and his 17-year-old female partner, Sambisig, left for Singapore last week.
“The birds’ departure served as (the) highlight of this year’s Philippine Eagle Week (PEW),” he said.
Proclamation 79 series of 1999 declared June 4-10 of every year as PEW to help promote public awareness of and action to prevent the extinction of the Philippine Eagle.
The DENR and the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) have already committed to provide WRS technical assistance in caring for Geothermica and Sambisig.
According to the DENR, however, the pair and its offspring will remain the property of the Philippine government.
The pair will be quarantined for about a month before settling at Singapore's Jurong Bird Park, the PEF said in a statement.
The Jurong Bird Park, Asia's largest bird park, offers a 20.2-hectare hillside haven for nearly 3,500 birds of 400 species.
The WRS expects the pair of Philippine Eagles to be popular with crowds in Singapore.
Known as the largest of the extant eagles in the world in terms of length and wing surface, the Philippine eagle (Pithecophagajefferyi) is listed as a “critically endangered” raptor on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List and the country’s National List of Threatened Species under DENR Administrative Order 2004-15.
Wild population of the species throughout the archipelago remains precarious. Hunting and loss of forest habitat remain the primary threats to its survival.
