Philippine eagle succumbs to airgun injuries

Philippine Eagle. FILE PHOTO

KIDAPAWAN CITY, North Cotabato – A Philippine eagle recently found injured in a remote village in North Cotabato has died, a provincial environmental official said Monday.

Andrew Patricio, North Cotabato environment and natural resources officer, said the five-kilo eagle died hours after it was turned over by his office to the Philippine Eagle Foundation in Davao City last Thursday.

The eagle, found by farmer Joven Amacin in Sitio Lubas, Barangay Amabel, Magpet, North Cotabato, had wounds inflicted by bird hunters using air guns. Patricio said Philippine Eagle Foundation personnel found three air gun pellets in the eagle’s body.

The Philippine eagle is a highly endangered specifies and only a few hundred are believed alive in the wild.

Patricio said the wounded eagle might have been kept for several days by its finder, thus aggravating the wounds and leading to the bird’s death.

Senior Inspector Reilan Mamon, Magpet police chief, said the bird was handed over to the police office by the farmer who could not say who shot it.

Following the incident, local officials in Magpet, led by Vice Mayor Efren Piñol and Patricio, appealed to bird hunters to spare the endangered  birds.

“Save, don’t shoot, the eagles if you see them in your communities, or simply just allow them to fly in our thick forests,” Piñol told residents of villages at the foot of Mount Apo, the country’s highest peak.

“We are very sad the eagle died,” Patricio said.