Description and Rationale
The Philippine Eagle
Noah Kim
The majestic bird flies high in the sky, soaring above the trees. Its wings with the wingspan of eight feet flap up and down creating great gusts of wind. It glides in perfect balance through the air. The eye of this eagle scans the rooftops of trees carefully looking for prey. It spots a potential prey and locks on and swoops down like a skydiver hitting the target with dead accuracy. As it carries away the bloody monkey sill howling, a shot from a gun rings out from the bottom of the forest and king of the jungle falls to the ground, dead.
The Philippine Eagle (also known as the monkey-eating eagle) is known as the symbol of the Philippines. (The beautiful bird due to many hazards has reduced its total population to almost nothing). These include illegal hunting, but the most common reason is that the eagle needs a large range of forest to hunt and to live in. But these necessities have been denied to them through deforestation. This environmental backdrop severely hurts the eagle to the max. Without their forests they can’t feed their young. Also with deforestation is that it induces mudslides and floods that damage the bird’s survivability even further.
The goal of this project is to induce the people that the Philippine Eagle is worth saving and to that the Philippine’s need to protect their precious rain forests in order to protect the eagle. The people need to be educated about the preserving the eagle and they also need to be aware that to do this they need to preserve the rainforests. The Philippine
Eagles’ need at least twenty five miles of hunting range. With ninety percent of the forests in the Philippines destroyed, the people need to be educated that any further damage to the trees would harm the Eagle. Another way the help the eagle is give funding to the various organizations that actually go out to the people and educate them. These organizations also represent the eagles to the government asking them to pass on law that will benefit the eagle. Another reason that the eagle population has been declining is that they have illegally hunted and shot at. There is a stronger need to enforce the laws to protect the eagles.
The protection of the eagle not only protects the eagles themselves but also the people. By protecting the eagles they are protecting the forest which in turn the people get benefited from. How you might ask would people get benefited from saving the eagles? Well by keeping the trees on the ground it helps prevent rapid erosion caused by rainstorms and other reasons. This improves the people’s livelihood when they farm. Another reason why saving the forests for the eagles is beneficial is because if there are no tress on a hillside than mudslides can occur killing and destroying people and property. These mudslides are one of the most common disasters in the Philippines.
The way in which we can do all these things is by passing brochures out to in popular meeting places. Or you could call the Philippine Eagle association and find if you could help them in any way and you could even teach some squatter kids out on the road to see what the importance the Philippine Eagle would have on their lives and why they need to save it. This is just a few of possible ways in which raise the awareness of the endangered species.
Other questions that need to be answered are what impact would the disappearance of the eagle have on the environment? With the top predator gone in the Philippines, would the food chain be disrupted and damaged in such a way that the people get hurt from it? Or if the eagle disappears, is it just a minor setback in the food chain and its impact has almost no effect on the people? These are the questions that must be answered in order to see how much of a loss the Philippine Eagle really is in the Philippines.
In 1995, the Philippine government decided to replace the national symbol with the Philippine eagle rather than the American Bald Eagle. The reason as to why this eagle is so important to save is that it is the pride of the nation. The bird is called the “the King of the Jungle” here. If this bird becomes extinct at the hands of its own country men than how can the Philippine’s pride themselves for symbolizing themselves with this precious bird? If this bird is to die than the Philippine’s have no reason to say that they love their country if they had just killed their own symbol of pride.
Biology
Common Names and Synonyms
Pithecophaga jefferyi is the scientific name for what is called the Philippine eagle. Another common name for this is eagle is the Filipino Monkey Eating Eagle, because many people thought that the eagle fed exclusively on monkeys and many locals know them as “Haribon” which means “King Eagle” since it is at the top of the food chain in the Philippines.
Classification
Kingdom: Animalia (animal)
Phylum: Chordata (chordate)
Class: Aves (birds)
Order: Falconiformes (birds of prey)
Family: Accipitride (includes hawks, vultures, and kites)
Genus: Pithecophaga (Philippine)
Species: Jefferyi (Eagle)
Morphology and Physical Description
The Philippine eagle is one the largest eagles in the world. The length of this eagle is 91 cm and has a wingspan of approximately two meters. The bird also weighs are 15 pounds for females and an average of 11 pounds for male eagles.
The Philippine eagle’s head is full of brown feathers that resemble a lion’s mane. The belly of the eagle is usually covered with white feathers, while the back is dark brown with white edged feathers.
BILL GAPE: 73.66mm
BILL CULMAN: 72.33mm
BILL HEIGHT: 50.66
TARSUS: 145mm
TALON: 55.66MM
WING CHORD: 608.66MM
Getting Food
The Philippine eagle was thought to feed exclusively on monkeys hence the name the Filipino monkey eating eagle. This fact has been proven to be false through recent research, as the eagle feeds on an abundance of animals. Most of the bird’s diet includes flying lemurs, snakes, wild cats, hornbills and other monkeys. But the birds’ diet varies because they are from different faunas. For example, the eagle in Mindanao likes to feed on flying Lemurs which is absent in the island of Luzon. The eagle hunts its prey by waiting for a target on of the tree where the eagle would swoop down and snatch a prey with its talons.
Reproduction
Like most eagles, the Philippine eagle is monogamous, meaning it will only mate with one partner throughout its entire lifetime. They usually breed in any tall tree with open crowns with the nest being around 2 to 3 meters across and 30 meters above the ground. The parents both guard one chick. Both the parents hold full responsibility for caring for the chick and will take turns incubating the egg before the chick is born. There is a sixty day gestation period. They also take turns in feeding the baby.
Environmental Factors
The Philippine eagle needs a very large hunting range to be able to survive, with a minimum of twenty to fifty miles of rainforest to be able to adequately survive. This eagle is only known to live in the tropical rainforests where the temperatures are consistently hot and humid. Some local Filippino’s see the eagle as a pest because they kill livestock and pets occasionally. These eagles are mostly known to nest in dipterocarp trees which are trees with large open crowns, ideal for nests. There is no known predator of the Philippine eagle, as the eagle is at the top of the food chain in the Philippines.
Origin and Distribution
The Philippine eagle is fully native to the Philippines as there are no others species similar to it around the globe. But in the Philippines, the eagle is distributed around Eastern Luzon, Samar, Leyte, and Mindanao with the largest populations in Mindanao.
Importance to People
The Philippine eagle’s importance to the Philippines is mostly for symbolic reasons. The Filipino people see it as an important part of their culture and are trying to do the best they can in order to save the eagle. If the eagle dies out than this puts on a bad face for the Filipinos’. Their extinction would show that the Philippine people are incapable of caring for their own country. The PEF (Philippine Eagle Foundation) has started a breeding program a decade ago and has successfully bred almost twenty eagles in captivity. They are also conducting experiments that involve releasing captive eagles into the wild.
Survivability and Endangered Status
The Philippine Eagle needs plenty of rainforest to live but with 90% of the rainforests destroyed in the Philippines, the eagles existence hangs on a thread. Its conservation status is considered critically endangered as there is an estimate of 200 to 1000 eagles left in the wild. The eagle really only competes with the Filipino people for the rainforests.
Potential Solutions
Overview
The Philippine Eagle is a great bird that symbolizes the Philippines. The problem is that this great bird is on the verge of extinction by the people that it symbolizes. Many Filippino’s don’t know how to farm any other way than to “slash and burn” and because of this the eagles loses much of its habitat. The loss of the forests lessens the chance of the eagles finding a good mate and reduces the habitat of many other animals including monkeys, which a large part of the Filippino’s Eagles’ diet. The eagle is also in great danger of the natives hunting the eagle as a sport or they think of the eagle as a pest. Since the eagle is already rare poachers hunt for private collectors and prize it. The eagle is a beautiful creature of the Philippines that deserve to be saved. There has to be laws enforced for the benefit of the eagle and resources should also be put into the survival of the eagle so that this beautiful bird would be saved.
Possibility 1
Write a letter to a congressman in the Philippines pleading for him to influence the government to better protect the Philippine Eagle.
ADV
1. By having a higher authority in place to protect the eagle it would be easier to protect the eagle throughout the whole country.
2. The government usually has a large amount of funds at its expense that other ordinary people would not have.
DAV
1. This is the Philippines, not many people respect the higher authority here.
2. The Filippino government is one of the most corrupt governments in the world. Money that would be used to protect the eagle would have a high chance of being misused by corrupt government officials.
3. People are more important than animals. Money that would aid the eagle could be used to better improve the living conditions of the Filippino people.
4. What can a single congressmen do to influence the whole Filippino government to help protect the eagle?
Possibility 2
Write a karaoke about the Philippine Eagle that would encourage the people to help preserve the eagle.
ADV
1. Karaoke are a large part of a Filippinos’ life in the Philippines. Karaoke is everywhere to social events, or just plain people having fun.
2. A catchy song about the eagle could have everybody in the whole country singing it.
3. Even if it is just a song, maybe at least a few people might take into consideration the words of the song.
DAV
1. It is just a song so not many people would take it seriously.
2. People in very remote areas of the Philippines don’t have access to the entertainment system of a karaoke.
Possibility 3
Show pictures and Philippine Eagle facts to little kids and tell them that they are endangered.
ADV
1. If the younger generation is educated to help protect the environment than they would more to help protect it than the previous generation.
2. Kids are usually more curious to learn about things that grownup wouldn’t. And due to their innocence, they would be more pushed to help protect a animal than think about making money.
3. Many of the poorer Filippino kids love anything taught by foreigners and lots of times think of their teachings as a sort of entertainment.
DAV
1. Many squatter kids think about more important things such as providing for their family than caring about animal.
2. Many squatter kids don’t have any form of education. Without education, what could they do to help care for the eagle in the future?
3. Kids usually lose interest in a subject after a while. They would also probably lost interest in the Philippine Eagle as time fades away.
Bibliography
1 "Philippine Eagle." Wikipedia. 2004 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_eagle>. (no information given)
2 Philippine Eagle." Arkive Images of Life on Earth. 2008. 4 May 2008 <http://www.arkive.org/species/GES/birds/Pithecophaga_jefferyi/more_info.html?section=factsAndStatus.com>. (no information given)
3 "Philippine Eagle." Filipina Soul. 28 June 2006. 4 May 2008 <http://www.filipinasoul.com/the-philippine-eagle/>. (no information given)
4 "Philippine Eagle - BirdLife Species Factsheet." BirdLife International. 2007. 20 Apr. 2008 <4http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=3528&m=0>. (no information given)
5 Collier, Julie. "The Philippine Eagle." Delaware Valley Raptor Center. 95. 21 Apr. 2008 <http://www.dvrconline.org/phileagle.html>. (no information given)
6 Collier, Julie. "The Philippine Eagle." Delaware Valley Raptor Center. 95. 21 Apr. 2008 <http://www.dvrconline.org/phileagle.html>. (no information given)
Tabaranza Jr., Blas R. "The Largest Eagle in the World." Haribon. 17 Jan. 2005. 22 Apr. 2008 <http://www.haribon.org.ph/?q=node/view/117>. (no information given)
7 "The Philippine Eagle the National Bird." The Philippines. 21 Apr. 2008 <http://www.philippines.hvu.nl/animals7.htm>. (no information given)