MORALE BOOSTER The sighting of female juvenile Philippine eagle “Carlito,” shown in this photo taken in the forests of MacArthur, Leyte, on Sept. 29, is a morale booster for biologists of the Philippine Eagle Foundation, the group overseeing a program to reintroduce the national bird to the country’s forests. —Photo courtesy of PEF
MACARTHUR, LEYTE—After the death of juvenile male eagle “Uswag” on July 30 due to drowning, conservationists are in high spirits again after they finally found his pair, “Carlito,” following a weeklong search in the forests of Leyte province.
Carlito, the lone female juvenile Philippine eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi) left in Leyte, was part of the program by the environment department to reintroduce the raptors in the province after their population was believed to have been wiped out in 2013 by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan).
When found on Sept. 29, Carlito, named after Carl Balita Review Center which adopted it, was perched on the trunk of a dead tree in the riparian forest of Valerie River in Barangay San Vicente here. He stayed there for more than an hour—from 8:30 a.m. to 9:34 a.m—grooming her feathers and basking in the sun.
READ: ‘Uswag’ and his last flight
The scene sent the needed shot in the arm for the morale of biologists of the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF), the group overseeing the eagle reintroduction program.
Carlito was last seen by PEF personnel on June 28, on the day she and Uswag were released in Kagbana village in Burauen town. San Vicente is about 15
kilometers from Kagbana.
She was tracked only through the GPS fixes sent by a transmitter fitted on her body. Her last transmittal was on Sept. 22.
With support from the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, the PEF sent a team to Leyte on Sept. 24 composed of biologists Rowell Ron Taraya and Japheth Richa, and field technicians Rene Baquiano and Christian Tan to locate and assess Carlito’s status in the Anonang-Lobi Mountain Range.
“Her grooming and bout of behaviors strongly suggest that she is feeding well and healthy,” Dr. Jayson Ibañez, PEF director for operations, told the Inquirer.
Ibañez noted that, Carlito, when found, had defecated, “which indicated that she just hunted and had a meal.”
Carlito’s observed behaviors, he said, included grooming her feathers or preening, raising her body feathers and shaking its body or rousing, raising her crown feathers or cresting, and gliding.
Carlito was rescued from Trento, Agusan del Sur, in 2022, with two airgun pellets lodged in her wings. She was chosen, along with Uswag, for the historic raptor translocation from Mindanao to Leyte. —JOSELLE R. BADILLA