MANILA — Calls for greater protection of threatened wildlife in the Philippines have intensified following the fatal shooting of a critically endangered Philippine eagle, the national bird, earlier this month. Wildlife experts said stronger enforcement of the country’s wildlife law is needed to further prevent the persecution of the iconic apex predator. Current estimates indicate only 392 breeding pairs of Philippine eagles (Pithecophaga jefferyi) remain in the wild. The Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF), a rescue and rehabilitation center, reported the death of the eagle “Mangayon,” named after the village where it was found, on July 8. The case is the first recorded death by gunshot wound by the foundation in the past five years. More recent eagle deaths were mainly due to disease. PEF senior animal keeper Dominic Tadena assessing the unresponsive PE Mangayon. Image courtesy of the Philippine Eagle Foundation. The raptor was reportedly found injured by a member of an Indigenous group in the mountains of Davao de Oro province in the southern Philippines. On the same night of its rescue, Mangayon was pronounced dead due to severe blood loss and possibly infection. Jayson Ibañez, the PEF research and conservation director, noted that Mangayon was at least 3 to 4 years old, and was dehydrated but otherwise healthy. The bones of his left wing, however, were shattered, presumably by a marble, commonly used as a projectile in improvised guns in the country. “A marble will not penetrate the body, but it will shatter the immediate surface,” Ibañez told…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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