The Philippine Eagle

Please help save this mighty species from eminent extinction!

The Philippine Eagle

...bound for extinction!

Excerpts from: Giants of the Eagle Kind, by Les Line

Strength, grace, size, keen vision

and extraordinary powers of flight

add up to an awesome presence.

"Of the seven, the Philippine eagle, with its incredible erect crest and massive legs and feet, has the least promising future. Fewer than 200 Philippine eagles survive on the large islands of Luzon, Leyte, Samar and Mindanao, and some observers believe there may be only 50 or 60 of the broad-winged forest raptors left in the wild. These birds, which often build their nests atop huge epiphytic ferns high in the rain forest canopy, require a territory as large as 100 square kilometers (38 sq. mi.). But forest destruction is so rapid in the Philippines that little habitat remains for the eagles. By some estimates, only 1 million hectares (3,900 sq. mi.) of old-growth forest remain on the 7,100 islands in the Philippines.

The Philippine eagle was discovered in 1896 by an English naturalist, John Whitehead, who recorded that the bird was well known to natives "as a destroyer of monkeys, which are the only animals sufficiently abundant in these forests to support such a large bird." He was wrong on both counts, but the species nevertheless remained known as the monkey-eating eagle until the 1970s, when studies showed that flying lemurs were its principal prey. These 60-centimeter-long (2 ft.), nocturnal mammals (not to be confused with the lemur primates of Madigascar) glide from tree to tree to eat leaves and fruit. Monkeys appear now and then in the bird's diet, but so do deer and venomous cobras. The eagle was given a new popular (but not scientific) name to instill pride among Filipinos. Today the Philippine eagle is the national bird.

Pride, however, won't be nearly enough to save the relict populations from extinction. According to one grim prediction, the Philippines by 2007 could be virtually denuded of both old- and second-growth forest, and presumably divested of eagles because of legal and illegal logging, slash-and-burn farming, charcoal making and firewood gathering. The species' survival may well depend on captive breeding."

PHILIPPINE EAGLE
Distribution: Large islands in Philippines
Habitat: Primary forest
Favorite prey: Flying lemurs
Length: 102 cm. (3.3 ft.)
Wingspan: 200 cm. (6.5 ft.)
Weight: 8,000 g. (17.5 lbs.)
Status: Endangered; fewer than 200 birds remain

Measurements and weights are the maximum for female eagles, which are often much larger than males.
Sources: Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume (BirdLife International, Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain) and Eagles, Hawks and Falcons of the World by Leslie Brown and Dean Amadon (McGraw Hill, New York)