CLUB MEETING - CHESTER RAPTORAID.

Birds of Prey in the UK and the Endangered Phillipine Eagle.

Speaker

Jimmi Hill from Chester RaptorAid.

Raptor Aid CIO is a registered charity within England (1177127) whose aim is to help educate, support and carry out bird of prey conservation in the UK and abroad. Our two main charitable objectives are:

To advance the education of the public in matters pertaining to birds of prey (raptors), their habitats, species conservation and monitoring, ornithology and avian biology.

To promote for the benefit of the public the conservation and protection of birds of prey (raptors) and their habitats.

Birds of prey around the world have interested man for decades; whether it was through religion, society, literature and cultures, they have had some influence on humanity. In modern days with the rise in human populations, use of natural resources and commercialisation of the world, birds of prey like many other species have felt the pressure on their survival. We hope to help more people understand birds of prey, including how they live and how we as the human race can live cooperatively with these incredible birds. 

The Philippine Eagle is one of the world’s largest, most powerful birds of prey.

It was formerly known as the Monkey-eating Eagle, as reports from natives told that the raptor preyed exclusively on monkeys. This was later found to be incorrect as more recent studies have revealed the species to prey on a variety of animals ranging from rodents and bats to pigs and monitor lizards. They are monogamous and mate for life, unless one of the pair dies, and they have a long breeding cycle that lasts for two years; with the male and female sharing parental care for a total of 20 months.

Endemic to the Philippines, the eagle’s small, rapidly declining population has been feared close to extinction for the past 40 years. In light of this, it recently acquired the status of the National Bird of the Philippines, which has helped greatly to increase awareness of the bird and its plight. They are under threat from declining and fragmented habitat, through commercial timber extraction, expanding agriculture, mining operations, uncontrolled hunting, pesticide accumulation, and also severe weather events, such as Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.