Rescued eaglet shot dead

DAVAO CITY— Unidentified persons have shot dead a juvenile female eagle that had been released back to the wild after it was rescued last year, an official of the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) confirmed Thursday.

Dennis Salvador, PEF executive director, said the carcass of “Hagpa” was retrieved in Gingoog City, Misamis Oriental, on Thursday after the foundation received a tip from a concerned citizen about a dead eagle that was found on Monday.

Salvador said the PEF immediately sent a retrieval team to Gingoog City but when the team arrived, they found the eagle’s body in an advanced state of decomposition.

Hagpa was identified through a leg band and transmitter the PEF had attached to the bird before it was released back to the wild in 2010, Salvador said.

“They were able to recover a leg band positively identifying the remains as that of Hagpa,” he said.

The satellite transmitter was still attached to the bird but it had also been hit by a bullet, Salvador said.

“We are working with authorities to investigate the circumstances behind the eagle’s death,” he said.

Hagpa was rescued in Impasugong, Bukidnon, after it was captured by a farmer in May 2010.

At the time of rescue, the eagle was believed to be about six to eight months old and had minor injuries.

Experts at the PEF Center in Malagos village, Calinan district, in this city said the bird also had to be treated for stress.

Twenty days after it was captured, the eagle was fitted with an identifying band and a tracking device and released back to the wild, Salvador said.

A few days after release, the PEF said Hagpa was accepted by her parents.

“It was the first case of a young eaglet accepted back by its parents after being gone for exactly 27 days. The bond between the parents and the returning eaglet was confirmed during a fieldwork in July 2010, where the eaglet was seen in active play, healthy and being fed by the parent-eagles,” the PEF said in a statement.

“Since then the eaglet had been venturing further away from its parents’ territory as it began to live on its own,” the PEF statement added. Joselle dR Badilla, Inquirer Mindanao

Originally posted at 06:01 pm | Thursday, October 06, 2011