This and other such conditions affect sea eagles (Harpia harpyja) numbers across Central and South America, according to a scientific paper recently published in the Journal of Raptor Research. Despite being the largest spider in South America and the national bird of Panama, scientists know little about the extent to which humans are persecuting the species.
In the study, the researchers found a total of 132 recorded cases where a sea eagle was killed or captured between 1950 and 2020, including 21 cases from Colombia and Panama that were never published in scientific journals.
“This story can be used to repair what has been done to this beautiful species over the past seven decades,” said Helena Aguiar-Silva, of the University of São Paulo and Projeto Harpia, Brazil, one of the experts who compiled the persecution data. set.
The harpy eagle range stretches from Guatemala and Belize in Central America, down to South America to Bolivia and Paraguay. The birds are sometimes identified as far north as Mexico or as far south as Argentina.
Aguiar-Silva said that these two countries may have had stable sea eagle populations, but they have become extinct locally with the expansion of hunting and farming, as they did in El Salvador. .
Although the range of the species spans more than half a continent, that does not mean that it is abundant. Studies show that it is never common locally. The bird is slow to sexual maturity, rearing just one chick per pair every two or three years, and the number of harpy eagles is declining.
Aguiar-Silva said the decline and extinction locally, coupled with evidence of frequent persecution, should be the basis for restoring the species’ global conservation status. Although the conservation status of the harpy eagle on the IUCN Red List is “near threat” at an international level, individual countries are placed in more critical categories: it is classified as vulnerable in countries that including Brazil, Peru and Venezuela, and in imminent danger in Nicaragua.
Why people kill Harpy eagles
Female eagle wingspan can reach 224 centimeters (7.3 feet) and can weigh up to 9 kilograms or 20 pounds in the country, giving them an impressive view. Dietary studies, including Aguiar-Silva, have shown that harpy eagles usually eat wild animals that live in trees. Sloths are their most important food source, but monkeys also make popular food.
The role of Harpy eagles in killing leaf-eating animals and omnivores such as capuchin monkeys is important in maintaining the rainforest ecosystem. According to research to date, harpy eagles only occasionally eat stock, possibly in part because they carry their food to trees for consumption. Even females, which may be double the weight of a male, rarely prey on animals heavier than 5 kg (11 lb).
Harpy’s eagle eagle in his nest. Everton Miranda
However, the rarity of eagles carrying farm animals has not stopped people from hunting them. Everton Miranda, a Brazilian scientist affiliated with KwaZulu-Natal University, South Africa, has studied why people hunt harpy eagles in Brazil. His research, examining more than 180 harpy eagle killings over two years in the state of Mato Grosso, will soon be published in the journal Animal conservation.
He told Mongabay that people usually shoot the eagles “out of curiosity.”
“People see this giant spider – often they don’t know what it is – and shoot it to get a closer look,” he said. “One drawback that makes harpy eagles unfortunately prone to being killed … is that they stay lying on one tree for several hours or even a whole day.”
This behavior will give the hunter time to travel home for their gun and return to shoot the animal.
According to his interviews, most of the people who killed the eagles out of curiosity regretted it.
This amazing finding – that curiosity and a desire to see the birds shut up up to 80% of harp killings in some places – is the result of a previous study in Brazil. According to Miranda ‘s study, prevention or retaliation for livestock predation represented only 20% of sea eagle killings at its study site.
Hunters with deadly eagle dead. Everton Miranda
In fact, the reasons behind such a killing are likely to vary across the range of the harpy eagle.
Santiago Zuluaga, senior author of the paper in the Journal of Raptor Bird Research, he told Mongabay that some people are hunting sea eagles for food, while others are being caught alive for illegal sale. The sale of bird feathers and talons on the black market was recently killed in Colombia.
“There is also a story about an eagle that was hunted to get one of the talons that is now used to baptise children, which is expected to give them fortune and strength for the rest of their lives,” he said. Zuluaga, with the Colaboratorio de Biodiversidad, Ecología y Conservación (ColBEC), Argentina, and the Fundación Proyecto Águila Crestada-Colombia, Colombia. “But, it’s a story and we’re not convinced.”
According to Mateo Giraldo-Amaya at EAFIT University, Colombia, who led the Journal of Raptor Research paper, the cases they found are “just the tip of an iceberg.”
“I believe that many more eagles are being killed today in Colombia and the Neotropics, but this information is not usually revealed due to the nature of the events and the people who carry them out. , “he said.
In particular, researchers found no records of persecution of birds of prey in seven of the 18 countries where harpy eagles lived, including Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru. But this may not seem like the good news. Researchers say the lack of hunting records may be due to the lack of specialized sea eagle research or conservation programs in these countries, meaning there is no one to record killings.
Conservation of birds of prey
Zuluaga said that even in countries with harpy conservation programs, such as Panama and Brazil, people still shoot the eagles.
In Panama, Karla Aparicio, another co-author of the paper, has been working to understand and preserve harpy eagles since 1994. In 2015, she founded Fundación Naturaleza y Ciencia 507 to focus on the study and conservation of birds of prey.
Following the leadership of Aguiar-Silva at Projeto Harpia in Brazil, the 507 team, named after the international dialing code for Panama, established the first camera traps to monitor sea eagle nests in the country. . As well as studying the wild species, they set up a center for rescued birds of prey. Birds that can’t be brought back into the wilderness will be ambassadors for their environmental education program, # HarpyS-cool.
Aparicio said she is committed to educating people about birds of prey. She knows better than most how, with the right opportunities, even harp hunters can change their ways: her 20-year-old assistant, Euriato Bainora, used to hunt eagles. -maragh but she is now working to preserve them.
Shortly after Aparicio founded the 507 base in Panama, a Giraldo-Amaya chance event set out to replicate her work in Colombia.
As an undergraduate in 2016, Giraldo-Amaya had run in with an accompanying harpy eagle. At first, he was thrilled when his classmates showed a sea eagle nest that they had discovered with Native American guide Antonio Cunampia while on a university field trip.
“A week later, we received the news that someone had killed the eagle and that his left leg had been amputated,” he said. “It was very sad, and we were all very worried about what happened to the chick without her mother.”
To look at the chick, the researchers needed a drone. And it turned out that Giraldo-Amaya had one undergraduate.
“The greatest understanding of life,” as Giraldo-Amaya put it. “Sadly, the chick died … but this experience marked me.”
As a result of his loss on the death of the chick, he asked him to find an internship with Aparicio in Panama, which prompted him to co-locate the Proyecto Grandes Rapaces Colombia expedition to research and conservation work similar to the Colombian border – the first project in the country to focus on harpy eagles.
Harpy Eagle Tourism
In Brazil, scientist and conservationist Miranda has established a collaboration with the wildlife tourism company SouthWild, based around making sea eagles live as a valuable resource for locals.
The ecotourism project is offering locals $ 100 for every sea eagle nest found. The project will also employ local people to build platforms so that tourists can see the birds at eye level, and to pay attention to the needs of visitors.
A harpy eagle chick with a tourist tower in the background in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Everton Miranda
Miranda said its harpy protection model also preserves the surrounding forest, providing habitat for many other species. Thirty landowners have signed an agreement that includes the protection of at least 320 hectares (790 acres) of woodland around a harpy nest.
“We pay $ 20 per tourist per day,” Miranda told Mongabay, noting that this has put an end to eagle persecution in these areas.
Miranda said the protection of the forest is crucial, as deforestation remains another major threat to harpy eagles. He said habitat loss caused by beef and soy farming is more difficult to deal with than direct persecution. Producing meat without deforestation (soy is mainly used to feed farm animals) requires action at all levels, according to Miranda, from local law enforcement to international legislation.
But his years working with the iconic sea eagle make sure it gives the birds a chance to fight.
“There are a few times when you feel deep inside you’re doing the right thing,” he said. “When I first recorded a harp laying an egg on a camera trap – then I felt a warm heart with that little light that poets call hope.”
Posted by permission of Mongabay.