All Of Your Eggs In An Endangered Basket

It took me a while to become a Bird Nerd.  Like many future bird-aficionados, my love of birds began with the raptors - the birds of prey.  They are some of the biggest flying birds, and as apex predators they capture our imagination in much the same way as big cats and bears do.  For me, the Holy Grail of raptors, the one that I would have loved more than anything to see, was the Philippine monkey-eating eagle. 


Of course, as a fledgling zookeeper, I knew my chances of seeing one were pretty slim, barring a trip to the Philippines.  There were none outside of the country.  And that is why some recent news from Singapore caught my eye immediately:

Jurong Bird Park to house 2 rare Philippine eagles

The two Philippine eagles - a 15-year old male named Geothermica and a 17-year old female named Sambisig (above) - are set to be airlifted to Singapore on June 4, 2019 (PHOTO: PHILIPPINE EAGLE FOUNDATION)

Now, okay, I know - it's not like Singapore is that much closer than the Philippines (come to think of it, it might be further).  Still, the fact that two birds are now present outside of their native country, which raises the prospect that more could be coming.  Maybe to Europe... or Australia... or the United States. 


The decision to send a pair of the birds to another facility isn't just an awesome stroke of luck for Jurong Bird Park.  It's a good move for the conservation of the species.  Right now, all of the Philippine eagles apart from this pair are in the Philippines, either in the wild or in captive breeding centers.  The Philippines isn't that big of a country.  If something were to happen - a disease outbreak, a natural disaster, a humanitarian crisis - those eagles could be in big, big trouble.  By spreading out the birds, the government is spreading out the risk and lessening it.


A small, concentrated population is a vulnerable one.  When the Boxer Rebellion broke out in China, all of the Pere David's deer in that country were soon slaughtered for food when their refuge was stormed by hungry rebels.  Only those that had been sent abroad survived.  When the Chytrid fungus swept through Panama, it mowed down many amphibian populations like a scythe through wheat.  If some golden frogs had not been taken into human care, the species would have gone extinct.  And this has been the motivation for the Australian government - normally very protective over native animals leaving their borders - to send Tasmanian devils to American zoos to build a zoo-based population overseas, while the devils in the wild are plagued by disease. 


Just in case...


I hope that the Jurong birds thrive and breed, and that the experience causes the Filipinos to decide to send more birds abroad, creating satellite populations of these endangered eagles in zoos around the world.  The wild is the best place for animals, but it's not always the safest, and it doesn't do to leave all of your eggs in one basket.  Especially if it's a small basket in a dangerous place.