Harpy Eagle celebrates fifth birthday at zoo

If you ask any Belizean to name the star of the Belize Zoo, the voting would run heavily in favour or April the tapir, who at age twenty-four reigns supreme as queen of the world famous facility. But without slighting our national animal, April is not the zoo’s only celebrity. News Five’s Marion Ali reports.

Marion Ali, Reporting
Today school children from La Democracia and All Saints Primary schools sang to “Panama”, the Harpy Eagle on display at the Belize Zoo, on the occasion of his fifth birthday. The bird’s role as part of an educational programme at the Belize Zoo came about when he suffered an injury at birth in Panama which prevented zoo keepers there from releasing him into the wild.

Sharon Matola, Director, Belize Zoo
“Panama is a special bird. He was supposed to be part of our Harpy Eagle release programme, but unfortunately or fortunately, however you want to look at it, Panama when he hatched, hatched with a very damaged left eye so he could not be released. So he’s become an education bird and as you can see the children love him, he loves the kids, and it’s a nice arrangement because so many people have learned about Harpy Eagles from Panama, how important they are for the country of Belize. They actually do help balance ecology, keep the forests in balance. For instance you don’t want too many prey items, I mean look what happened when they got rid of coyotes and wolves in the States in national parks, they were overrun with deer.”

For these little ones, the visit to their feathered friend was more than just a fun event.

Marion Ali
“Weh you like bout di Harpy Eagle?”

Jamel Arnold
“Fly.”

Marion Ali
“Show mi how ih do it.”

Jamel Arnold
[Waves his hands up and down]

Marion Ali
“What else ih do?”

Jamel Arnold
“Gawk.”

Marion Ali
“Show mi, do it.”

[Jamel makes bird noise]

Jahiem Staines
“I like when di Harpy Eagle flaps his wings and make noises.”

Marion Ali
“What yoh call dah noise?

Jahiem Staines
“Saying thank you.”

Marion Ali
“Oh you know when ih seh thanks? Weh ih do? Do it fi me.”

[Jahiem makes noise]

Marion Ali
“What you learn today bout di Harpy Eagle?

Jahiem Staines
“That the Harpy Eagle is a special animal.”

Marion Ali
“So you should protect it, right?”

Jahiem Staines
“Yes.”

Marion Ali
“Shouldn’t shoot it, right?

Jahiem Staines
“No.”

Teacher at La Democracia Primary, Kamile McFadzean, uses opportunities such as trips to the zoo to teach the children about the importance of protecting these rare animals.

Kamile McFadzean, Teacher, La Democracia Primary School
“When I teach them about endangered species, I always tell them that we have a few of them and we supposed to take good care of them, you know, we supposed to protect them. We have people go about and try to kill them and so on and I teach them that you noh suppose to get rid of them because it’s not so many of them in our country, so we need to protect them.”

Zoo Director Sharon Matola says the annual birthday bash is held to educate the children on the importance of protecting this rare species.

Sharon Matola
“We work with in conjunction with the Government, with the Peregrine Fund, Programme for Belize. And what we do is take captive bred eagles, they’re trained to be independent hunters, and then they’re let go in the forests with radio telemetry. And this programme is also matched with an education programme and funny enough when the birds do appear now and again and people do see the excitement level is way up there, so it’s great because nature-based tourism is probably our economic mainstay in Belize and having this species in Belize certainly empowers that part of the Belizean livelihood.”

Matola says they’ve found reason to take their protection programme into rural communities.

Sharon Matola
“Many of these villages are in rural areas where they do go and hunt, but you can hunt things that aren’t rare. I’m not against hunting, I’m not against eating bush meat but I think it’s better to eat a Chachalaka than a Harpy Eagle. Eat the common things and keep the rare things for future generations.”

And future generations of Harpy Eagles is exactly what the Zoo intends to secure when in December of 2008 it will conduct a ceremony to introduce Panama to another much larger female Harpy Eagle named “Da Queen”.

But while Harpy Eagles are endangered, another protected species in Belize is his furry friend, the jaguar. I fell in love with this eight month old cub named “Junior Buddy”. Matola says because people over-hunt the jaguar’s prey, they too find themselves in perilous situations and facing an unstable future.

Marion Ali
“When you hear of a jaguar in your area or on your ranch, the first thing people do would go for the shotgun.”

Sharon Matola
“Well you say they’re dangerous, but you know what, there’s never ever been a report of a jaguar hunting or killing a person. And yes, we have a rehab programme for the very reason you’ve mentioned. They will take cattle, they will take sheep, but usually it’s because they’re damaged in some way or their habitat is being reduced, their prey base is being reduced. If there are a lot of hunters out there taking the gibnut, taking the warries, what are the jaguars going to eat? So they have to eat something like all of us and as a result they become problems. Now if we maintain our protected areas and we maintain a healthy prey base and follow hunting laws, we likely to have jaguars for the future.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Marion Ali.

Matola says only yesterday the zoo received a five hundred pound sculpture of a harpy eagle from a friend who visited from Canada and was impressed with the restoration programme. Meanwhile, because the initiative has been so successful here, they plan to relocate more birds from Panama to Belize.