A national symblol on the brink of extinction
A national symblol on the brink of extinction
By T. Sima Gunawan
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia and the United States have at least
two things in common: both have adopted eagles as national
symbols, and both of these symbolic eagles are endangered.
The bald eagle adorns the coat of arms of the United States
and is its national bird. Indonesia has the mythical burung
garuda on its shield, and honors the Javan hawk eagle as the
national bird.
"Burung garuda doesn't really exist, but it is similar to the
Javan hawk eagle," said Ani Mardiastuti, a wildlife ecologist
from the Department of Forest Resource Conservation at the Bogor
Institute of Agriculture.
Burung garuda is the mythical bird carrier of the god Visnhu
and is the Ramayana hero which saved princess Sita from Rahwana,
the evil giant.
The Java hawk eagle (Spizaetus bartelsi), one of the 60
species of eagles in the world, is on the brink of extinction.
The exact number of the birds is not known, but it is estimated
that there are only 200 left in Indonesia. They live in areas
below 3,000 meters right across Java.
The Java hawk eagle population has been sharply reduced by
poaching, pesticides, and shrinking habitats, according to
Soemarsono, the director general of Forest Protection and Nature
Preservation at the Ministry of Forestry.
His conservation directorate, in cooperation with the
Conservation Breeding Specialist Group of the International Union
for the Conservation of Nature, held a workshop on the Java hawk
eagle earlier this month to promote efforts to preserve the rare
species.
Ulysses S. Seal, chairman of the Conservation Breeding
Specialist Group, said that the American bald eagle was in
critical danger 20 years ago, but continuous conservation efforts
have paid off since then.
"Twenty years ago, we only had about 450 birds. Today the
number is around 4,000," he told The Jakarta Post.
Illegal hunters and pesticide pollution were also the main
threat to the bald eagles, Seal said. Many bald eagles were
poisoned after eating fish from rivers contaminated by chemicals
like DDT.
"After we banned the use of DDT years ago, the reproduction of
the bird increased," he said.
Saving the eagles' habitat and protecting the birds from human
beings who want them as pets is essential and can only be
accomplished if the government and the public cooperate.
"In this case, the commitment of people is essential," Seal
stressed.
He warned that the Java hawk eagle, like other endangered
species, could become extinct if its habitat is not managed
properly.
Indonesia is home to more than 1,500 different kinds of birds,
or 17 percent of the world's bird species.
As an endangered species, the Java hawk eagle is protected by
the law with a maximum fine of up to Rp 100 million (US$43,500)
and a subsidiary jail term of up to five years.
President Soeharto declared the Java hawk eagle, which was
first classified in 1924, the national bird in 1993. He named the
Komodo dragon the national land species, and the arowana the
national fish.
Since 1994, Soemarsono's directorate and Bird Life
International have conducted a series of conservation studies on
Java hawk eagles.
They found that the primary threats are the poaching of young
eagles from nests for the pet trade, and the continued
degradation of forest habitats, particularly on the margins of
upland forest areas. The Central Java population is considered
the most vulnerable to forest degradation because the province
has yet to develop a network of protected areas. It has been
suggested that reserves be established on Mt. Slamet and Mt.
Prahu in Central Java.
A Java hawk eagle breeding program is also being set up at the
Safari Park in Cisarua, West Java.
The park has six Java hawk eagles of between two and six years
old. The captive birds were either given to the park by pet
owners or handed over by wildlife authorities who seized them
from recalcitrant owners.
The eagles are fed one-week-old chickens, with supplements of
kangaroo or buffalo meat.
Weighing between 1.3 and 1.5 kg, one eagle eats between four
and six chicks a day and 50 grams of meat a week, said Sharmy
Prastiti, a park officer.
Five of the eagles live in a 3-meter-high cage with 4-square-
meters of floor space. The other eagle, which is tame, shares a
cage with other tamed birds of prey. The park is building a 24-
square-meter cage to support the breeding program.
"One of the problems we have is that we don't know the sex of
the birds," Sharmy disclosed at the workshop.
The park director, Jansen Manansang, said he will invite an
international eagle expert to help with the breeding program.
Indonesia does not have an expert on eagles.
He told the Post that the workshop was expected to foster the
breeding program.
"This is just the beginning," Jansen said.
Asked when the program is scheduled to start, he said it
depended on funding.