In June, the Philippines is sending two of the world’s rarest birds of prey to Singapore as a part of an effort to guard the species from extinction.
The two Philippine eagles will probably be airlifted to Singapore on June 4 under a wildlife loan agreement that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources signed with Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) on Monday (May 20).
The pair – a 15-year-old male named Geothermica and a 17-year-old female named Sambisig – will probably be housed on the 20-hectare Jurong Bird Park.
They were each born into captivity on the Philippine Eagle Center in Davao City.
“This serves as an insurance policy for our eagles. If something bad happens to their population here, we have a gene pool outside the country that we can rely on to continue breeding them in captivity,” Dennis Salvador, executive director of the Philippine Eagle Foundation, told reporters.
With a wingspan of two m and a body length of 1 m, the Philippine eagle is taken into account the biggest species of eagle. It is listed as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Being a top predator that consumed monkeys, lemurs, squirrels and bats, it was present in quite large numbers throughout the Philippines.
But many years of deforestation and concrete sprawl have almost decimated its territories, and its population has plummeted. Currently, there are only about 800 individuals left within the wild. Thirty-two individuals are in breeding centers.
Philippine eagles mate for all times and lay just one egg every two years.
This is the primary time that the Philippines is lending this national treasure to a different country. This ruling comes on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Philippines and Singapore.
“These two eagles are a living and breathing manifestation of our close bilateral relations. The Philippine eagle is known to stick with one partner for life. We are sure… The Philippines and Singapore will stick to each other for life,” said Singapore Ambassador to the Philippines Gerard Ho.
There are high hopes that the 2 eagles will mate and produce offspring.
Salvador said: “Birds now mate naturally. They seem to be doing well as a couple.”
Source : Times of the Strait | New newspaper
