Philippine eagles transfer to new breeding facility
THE Philippine Eagle Foundation, Inc (PEFI) initiated the transfer of the first batch of breeding Philippine eagles on Tuesday, February 13, to a newly constructed facility within the the Eden Tourism Reservation Area in Barangay Eden, Toril District, Davao City.
The transfer to the National Bird Breeding Sanctuary (NBSS) aims to help isolate the captive-breeding stock away from potential sources of diseases and environmental pollutants, and explore other breeding and rearing techniques to bolster future reintroduction and restocking of the eagle species.
"This is the fruition of years of convincing government to do something with our eagles. We first submitted a risk management master plan in 2009. This came to completion in 2019 when we made a breeding loan agreement of the eagles to Singapore. With the advent of the Asian bird flu in Mindanao, we had to accelerate to move our breeding birds elsewhere as the local government can not control the developments in Malagos with the flourishing of game fowls and poultry farms that puts the eagle population at great risk," said PEFI Executive Director Dennis I. Salvador.
A total of eight Philippine eagles are transferred to the new facility in a contained and forested area in
upper Barangay Eden. The foundation targets to transfer 16 eagles before the breeding season in July.
"We have initially transferred naturally paired MVP Matatag, an eagle rescued from Mt Apo, and Ariel, another rescued eagle from Wao, Lanao del Sur, along with Philippine eagles Bangsa Bae and Balikatan (both undergoing pairing)," said PEFI Director for Operations Dr Jayson Ibanez during an ocular with the media to the said facility.
Mal-imprinted birds for cooperative artificial insemination (CAI) pairs Eiko and Dakila, and Lipadas and Pinpin will also be part of the first batch of eagle transfer. CAI is employed on mal-imprinted eagles, which occurs when the eagle imprints itself on a subject other than its own kind, such as, its human caretaker.
The NBBS, situated
more than 2,000 meters above sea level, is deemed more conducive for the breeding eagles."
"The cool and quite environment is suited for the birds, with not much disturbance from human activities. We can probably see the difference after two breeding seasons that this place is so much better than the one in Malagos," shared Consultant to the Conservation
Breeding Program Domingo "Domeng" Tadena, who has been working with the eagles since the late 70s.
Currently, a there is one breeding chamber (measuring 40 feet x 30 feet x 30 feet) inside the facility as well as 6 temporary holding cages for the imprinted eagles. Another breeding chamber is still