The Extinction of the Haribon By Earl Keen Beswayan and April Rose Guzman Doctor of Veterinary Medicine II Being the worlds noblest flyer as what the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh called our Philippine Eagle, locally named as Haribon (Haring Ibon), it is only righteous for this king of birds to be protected and multiplied. With their ferocious and magnificent looks, we think that the Philippine Eagle doesnt need our attention to its condition. But we would soon learn that this Eagle needed not only our attention but our help; for the Philippine Eagle is definitely the most endangered and endemic bird of prey. And this paper would inform us that the Philippine Eagle, even in a nearly extinct status, considered the Philippines as its solely suitable habitat. Some birds have the ability to learn behaviors that would help them survive and a very few also are consistent with what they had since they were hatched from egg, like the Philippine Eagle (Damian, 1999). These latter behaviors of birds are called the instinctive behavior that is why it is important for the bird to stay on its original place and that explains the Philippine Eagle to be endemic on the Philippine islands only, for transferring to or migrating on other countries would cause harm on the bird according to Damian (1999). According to Perez (2003), the Philippines is an archipelago which means it is a group of masses of lands divided and surrounded by water resulting to the impossibility of the migration of the Philippine Eagle to other countries. migratory birds are usually small birds, the Philippine Eagles are not, they were built for short distance flights only because of their size unlike its closest relative which is the Harpy Eagle, the Philippine Eagle have a shorter wings (Perez, 2003, pp. 78-80). According to Hugo (2012) migration of birds is not only by flying to another country, one way is the intervention of human on this system of life by birds he said that, on 2004, a zookeeper in London who is very fond of eagles ordered a Philippine Eagle to be kept on one of the cages on his zoo, the eagle actually lived during the summer season of the said country but when the fall came, the temperature of London was already dropping, they observed the Philippine Eagle that it get sick often so their remedy was to put a heater on its cage unfortunately, when the winter arrived which they were not ready for it, they found the eagle frozen in its cage dead, and their veterinarian diagnosed that the cause of death was because of infection that had been aggravated by the weather condition (Hugo, 2012). Philippine Eagles are very sensitive so that every slight change on their environment would greatly affect them, in Australia on the year 1999, where there once a healthy young Philippine Eagle that was imported to be a main attraction on one of its state-owned zoos; they managed to bring the eagle safe and sound into its new home, however, the very fine eagle turned out to be a very weak once it got caged in the zoo and suddenly died during an exhibition, and the zoo veterinarian reported that the cause of the death was the fast rising of the temperature of the place while the young eagle was not yet accustomed to it and the stress it got from being transported. Thus the Philippine Eagle cant survive on other countries aside from its own place (Bourke, 2000). According to the Catibag (1993), the Philippine Eagles are one of the worlds rarest raptors or birds of prey. They inhabit dipterocarp forests and feed mainly on snakes, birds, bats, flying lemurs, palm civets, flying squirrels, rats and monkeys- food items that are not available at any country on the Polar Region, she added that aside from the food, is the competition with other predators which make the Philippine Eagles hanging on the food chain than if it is in the Philippines, the Philippine Eagles are the alpha or the chief and top predators in the food web excluded humans (Catibag, 1993). The Philippine Eagle is the only tropical birds of prey that is near to extinction, there are no subspecies for this magnificent raptor and if transferred to a country with a harsh weather like the Polar region, this great bird would definitely go to extinction level right now unless it possesses a high adaptation ability to enable it to tolerate the cold weather there (Morgan, 2013, pp. 6-7). Stone (1993) stated that there are no birds of prey that could live and tolerate the below Zero Degree temperature of the Polar region during winter season, there are 40 different types of birds that visit the Polar during the summer but eventually leave the place when winter arrives except for the penguins of course. Unfortunately, tropical birds will never survive on that place, and no birds coming from the Tropic Countries attempted to migrate there which had been documented. (1993). Adaptation, a weapon of every animals on their changing environment, Monzon (2007) said, on birds, they must have a high adaptation capacity in order for them to survive on every different place they go. But birds are classified to two, the migratory birds or the birds that transfer from one place to another to search a suitable place for food and mating, have a high adaptation capacity; and the endemic which are the one that do not move from their original place have a very low adaptation ability, a popular example for this is the Philippine Eagle which is found only in the Philippines; they are endemic for a reason that their low adaptation capability makes them vulnerable, and weak compared to the other birds. Additionally, they strictly follow a certain biological clock when to mate or not, and transfer to another place will cause a main problem to the bird and probably would be a reason for the decline of their number (p. 86). According to Perez(2000), there are lots of actions suggested and done to aid the near extinction of the Philippine Eagle, the main problem is that it is one of the endemic birds that are very fragile to transport to other countries that have more reliable facilities for its reproduction because it only stick with what they had grown up, and they do not like changes nor intervention of humans, she added that, even in the Philippines, attempts to reproduce the famous bird of prey were made in parts of Luzon but failed, but to some municipalities that have almost the same temperature and character made a positive outcome but these municipalities are too crowded to have a place for the reproduction house and that is another problem to solve (Perez, 2003). According to Guillermo (2008), the Philippine eagles are one of the largest birds in the world but definitely the top rarest bird. The magnificent raptors are documented on just four Philippine Islands which are Mindanao, Luzon, Leyte, and Samar, he said that, In the Philippines itself where it is the natural home for the bird, they become extinct not because only on the destruction of their home nor the illegal hunting but another reason is that the climate is changing and that causes the health problem for our national bird which sometimes result to its death; we can control the destruction of their homes and also the illegal hunting by implementing our laws but we cannot fight a natural calamity which is the global warming, what we can only do is to try our best to make the bird more tolerable on changes. Climate change is a threat to biodiversity, meaning everything in the environment including human, plants and animals are affected. It is a reality that the rise of the average global temperature will be faster than for the last 10 years. And we the tropical countries would be greatly affected by it and the impact would be worst for our national bird which is the Haribon known to be vulnerable on any change on its environment Toledo (2000). The Philippine Eagle, as the Philippines National Bird, deserves all the attention it gets. Aside from being magnificent and great hunter, it is also critically endanger at the moment. Government and private organizations were hand in hand to fight the extinction of this raptor. Unfortunately, failures were their enemies for the Philippine Eagle are very sensitive birds unlike its ferocious looks. However, all are determined to do their best for this hunter bird because it never wanted to leave its country. The bird is endemic and could only survive at a healthy status when it is in the country. Therefore, the government should create realistic laws that would not only penalize illegal loggers and hunters but to put them up in jail for long years also so that people would avoid doing this crime. Aside from that, the government should formulate an integrated policy and legislative framework for the conservation, sustainable use of the environment aiming to lessen the pollution which causes climate change that has a great impact to the Philippine Eagles health status because these change are hard to fight then we could lessen the effects by abiding if such law was created. For the Philippine Eagle cant survive in the cold temperatures of the non-tropic countries, and the hot temperatures of the temperate tropic countries, then the Philippines is the only one holding its neck from being throttled to extinction; thus giving us, as a citizen of this country the position to care for these precious gems of the sky. yan yung ginawa q..tama ba??? hahahaha
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 00:12:59 +0000
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