The Jurong Bird Park in Singapore will take care of the two Philippine Eagles from Davao that were sent there via Philippine Airlines in line with the two countries’ breeding agreement.
Geothermica (male) and Sambisig (female), aged 15 and 17, respectively, are being loaned to Wildlife Reserves Singapore “to hopefully encourage breeding in Singapore, specifically at the Jurong Bird Park, one of the zoological facilities managed by WRS.”
Jurong Bird Park will be the home of the two Philippine eagles for the next 10 years, but they will remain the property of the Philippines as the government has issued Philippine passports under their names.
This is the first international Philippine Eagle Loan Agreement between the governments of the Philippines (through the Department of Environment and Natural Resources) and Singapore to increase the eagles’ population.
Philippine Airlines led the simple send-off ceremony for the two eagles.
PAL president Jaime Bautista said “through the PAL Foundation, we are flying the loaned eagles to Singapore because we firmly believe in the eagle preservation advocacy of the Philippine Eagle Foundation.”
Bautista also revealed that PAL is the sponsor of another eagle named Sinag.
In a statement, PAL officials said “The Philippine Eagle Foundation hopes that, through the eagle loan program, the WRS can help secure a gene pool of the Philippine eagles for species conservation and as an insurance against natural calamities that can wipe out the only captive Philippine eagle population at the Philippine Eagle Center in Malagos, Davao City. The PEF manages the PEC where both Geothermica and Sambisig were hatched and reared.”
Airline officials said the primary objective is to secure the population of the species elsewhere to protect the eagles from threats of outbreak of diseases or calamities.
One example of potential outbreaks was the avian influenza that hit parts of the country in Su1u, which killed at least 37,000 birds in Central Luzon, according to a website.
The preserved gene pool can also be critical in preservation efforts in case of health epidemics like the avian flu, the PAL statement added.
There are 32 eagles under the care of PEC. This is the first time the Philippines is lending Philippine eagles to another country. The Philippines and Singapore mark 50 years of diplomatic relations.
The two eagles’ maintenance have corporate sponsors. Geothermica is sponsored by Energy Development Corporation, while Sambisig received sponsorship from Dow Chemical Philippines.
Geothermica and Sambisig are at the prime age for breeding. They were previously paired with other eagles at the PEC but these attempts did not progress to natural pairing.
The WRS has been supporting conservation efforts across Southeast Asia through wildlife research and awareness campaigns with over 50 wildlife conservation projects.