A critically endangered Philippine eagle chick is bizarrely fed by a hand puppet at a conservation centre to help reduce human contact.
The seven-week-old eaglet, named Chick 29, is being cared for at the Philippine Eagle Center in Davao, Philippines and is being ‘puppet reared’ to help prepare it for the wild.
The footage was taken January 17 and showed the chick with white feathers being fed by a pair large tweezers. It then went through the mouth to feed the strange-looking puppet.
To help decrease human contact, the hand puppet fed a critically endangered Philippine eagle chick at a conservation facility.
Chick 29 is a seven-week old eaglet that is currently being taken care of at the Philippine Eagle Center, Davao in the Philippines. Chick is being “puppet reared” to prepare Chick for life in the wild.
The video shows the eaglet taking tiny pieces of food from the conservationist, disguised as a puppet. However, charity representatives have stated that this is done to stop the chick “getting used” to humans.
On their Facebook page, the foundation posted: “Chick 29, one week old, enjoying a meal prepared with an eagle-hand puppet. Chick 29 wasn’t allowed to become used to the human presence. We employed puppet rearing.
A successful natural pairing can only be achieved if there is limited human contact. Chick 29 will not be leaving the PEC as a bunso (baby).
This eagle chick, which was born December 4, is five years after Sakura the previous eaglet was hatched at The Philippine Eagle Center.
They posted this exciting news to Facebook. Ariela Matatag (new eagle parent) and MVP Matatag (new eagle mother) are congratulated.
This eagle chick, which was born December 4, is five years after Sakura, the previous eaglet was born at the Philippine Eagle Center.
‘Chick no. It hatched 29 eggs on December 4, at 1:16 pm. This was 25 hours 13 minutes after it cracked the egg and poked its head.
Although it seems like an eternity, this chick is actually the fastest pip–to-hatch record of our breeding program. This chick just couldn’t wait to say hello to the world!’
This 48 second video has been shared on Facebook. It’s received more than 11,000 views, hundreds of comments and over 11,000 likes.
One viewer said, “Wow!” It is truly incredible.
One more: “The Eagle puppet is really cool. I have never seen anything similar before.”
The Philippine eagle prey on a variety of animals ranging from rodents, bats, pigs and monitor lizards
A second writer wrote that the scene was “just breathtaking”.
There are only 400 remaining pairs of the critically endangered Philippine Eagle in nature.
This bird of prey is the largest and most powerful in the world. They are monogamous, and they mate for the rest of their lives – except when one dies.
These animals prey upon a wide variety of animals, including rodents as well as bats, mice, pigs, and monitor lizards.
They have shaggy crowns, and both brown and white feathers. They generally measure up to around 3.35 ft in length and weigh between four and eight kilograms.
Recently, the Philippine eagle was made the National Bird of the Philippines.