La Reserva de Cota Biopark seeks to preserve the harpy eagle in Colombia

Cota. A white dome hides a jungle recreated for a pair of harpy eagles rescued from illegal trafficking in Colombia. Monogamous by nature, their caretakers are betting on a romance that results in a baby to preserve this endangered species.

The metal fence that separated them for two years was opened three weeks ago. They were knocking their black beaks together and feeding each other without attacking each other; in other words, they like each other, explain their guardians at the Bioparque La Reserva in Cota, a municipality about 30 kilometers from Bogotá.

The female sports a prominent gray crest. She still has pellets in her body that are impossible to remove without risk of death, due to shots she received when she was living free in the department of Amazonas (south).

Smaller in size, the male remains on his own wooden platform. His left wing is immobile, as it was destroyed and the veterinarians were unable to cure it. Both were rescued in 2018.

Until now, coexistence is very favorablesays Luisa Escobar, research coordinator at this center, which houses different animals rescued from illegal wildlife trafficking.

Now the couple, monitored by security cameras, is being put to the test: it will be a success if a baby is born, or several, as has been documented in other shelters in America.

The largest eagle in the Western Hemisphere is in a state of vulnerability, with a declining population of between 100,000 and 250,000 individuals worldwide, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

And trophy

The abode evokes a humid tropical jungle thanks to a hygrometer that controls the temperature, various trees and an artificial well.

The process has not been easy or quick for a species that reaches a meter in height and usually lives with only one partner during its life.

A bad decision we made could lead to an attackEscobar says like a matchmaker. The female, territorial by nature, could kill the male upon seeing him in the same space, he says.

This is the only captive union of harpy eagles in Colombia, one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. The species is besieged by hunting and deforesters who destroy their nests in the inter-Andean valleys.

The couple’s behaviors are so calm (…) it generates a lot of hope that they will have a babyconfides Escobar, 26 years old.

Cautiously, the biologist enters the dome, takes a long stick and sticks a sacrificed rabbit prey at the tip, still with bones and fur. She approaches the female, who snatches her away with her paw.

Its claws of between 10 and 12 centimeters and feathers that range from black to white through countless grays are hunter trophies.

They shoot them because they want them as a trophy, because they want to sell them, because they want to eat them too.explains Mateo Giraldo, from the Great Raptors Colombia Project, an initiative for the conservation of these birds.

Up to one meter tall and more than two meters wide, harpy eagles (Harpia harpyja) travel the skies from Mexico to Argentina.

In Colombia, it has been the Air Force’s insignia since 2016, when it replaced the American bald eagle. The military institution is allied with the biopark for its conservation.

Conflict

There is a serious problem in Colombia, and in other Latin American countries, which is the conflict between humans and fauna.Iván Lozano, co-founder of the La Reserva Biopark, acknowledges to AFP.

Authorities seized 94 harpy eagle parts at Bogotá’s El Dorado airport in 2021. A network that sold them abroad was dismantled last March.

The harpies nest deep in the Colombian jungles, where the State and armed groups have maintained their own conflict for six decades.

It is one of our great limitations (…) they sometimes restrict our accesswhich makes his investigation difficult, says Giraldo, surrounded by pens, posters and drawings of this species hanging in his room.

Not far from other threatened birds such as toucans and macaws, the pair of harpies is a conservation bet in a controlled environment.

In Panama, for example, several chicks of this bird were born in captivity in 2002, while Brazil celebrated the birth of a harpy chick in a biological refuge in 2020.