READY FOR FLIGHT. A forest ranger holds the female Philippine hawk eagle after a final physical examination before she was set free Thursday, September 8, in Mount Banahaw. Photo courtesy of Jay Lim
LUCENA CITY — A juvenile Philippine Hawk Eagle (Nisaetus philippensis) was released Thursday back to the forest on Mount Banahaw, after it was trapped Monday, Sept. 5, inside a chicken cage in Majayjay town in Laguna province.
Jay Lim, project officer of “Tanggol Kalikasan” (TK), said the female eagle, with a wing span of one meter and height of 12 inches, was set free around 9:30 a.m. in the village of Ayuti in neighboring Lucban, Quezon on the foot of Banahaw.
Environmentalists, a municipal councilor, officials of Southern Luzon State University (SLSU) in the locality, and students witnessed the release.
“When she was freed, two hawks suddenly appeared on the horizon as if welcoming her back,” Lim said in a phone interview Thursday.
Lim said the eagle was the first to be set free this year in Banahaw.
“Hopefully, she will be the last. We should let them soar high unmolested in their natural habitat,” he said.
Mike Borines, a Bachelor of Science in Forestry student at SLSU, found the eagle trapped inside a chicken cage, preying on the fowl, on his uncle’s farm in Barangay Rizal in Majayjay.
Borines immediately brought the eagle to Dr. Beltran Francisco, his professor at the SLSU, for inspection and health assessment.
The SLSU College of Agriculture-Forestry and Environmental Science Department took the bird into custody.
The bird was declared in good health and fit for release.
Mounts Banahaw and San Cristobal straddle the towns of Lucban, Tayabas, Sariaya, Candelaria and Dolores in Quezon; and parts of the towns of Rizal, Nagcarlan, Liliw and Majayjay, and San Pablo City in Laguna province.
It is home to scores of animal species found only in the Philippines, including a species of cloud rat discovered only in 2004 and the rare rafflesia, considered the world’s biggest flower.
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