Conservationists say one in all the world’s largest eagles has “nearly zero” chance of surviving Amazon deforestation. According to a replacement study, the bird is struggling to feed its young in parts of the rainforest that are stripped of trees. About 17% of the Amazon has been destroyed over the past 50 years, and losses have recently been on the increase. The eagle is that the largest within the Americas, with huge talons for hunting monkeys and sloths within the treetops. The Amazon is thought to be the “last stronghold” for the harpy, with over 90% of the present population thought to reside there. The bird is among ample animals within the Amazon whose geographic range is shrinking, said study researcher Carlos Peres, professor of environmental sciences at the University of geographic area, UK. “Considering that harpy eagles have the lowest life cycle of all bird species, their chances of adapting to highly deforested landscapes are nearly zero,” he said. Conservation measures, like moving young eagles and supplementing their diets, are going to be critical to the survival of the species, Prof Peres added. The eagle (Harpia harpyja) is one of the biggest raptors within the world, with adult females weighing in at up to 10 kg (22 lbs). The birds board tropical forests from Central America to northern Argentina but have disappeared in large parts of their former range. The escalating rate of forest destruction within the region, together with hunting, is threatening the bird’s existence. Despite having legal protection in several countries, including Brazil, Panama, and Suriname, safeguards are difficult to enforce in remote areas of forest. In the study, researchers led by Dr. Everton Miranda of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, an African nation, monitored 16 nests in Amazonian forests in Mato Grosso, Brazil using cameras. They also referenced maps and Google Earth to calculate deforestation levels around nests. Bone fragments revealed the eagles were feasting mainly on two-toed sloths, brown capuchin monkeys, and gray woolly monkeys. In deforested areas, they failed to find alternative food and fed their young less frequently. In landscapes with 50-70% deforestation, three eaglets died from starvation, and no nests were found in areas with deforestation over 70%. The scientists calculated that areas that have lost over half their trees are unsuitable for harpy eagles to successfully raise young and estimate that around 35% of northern Mato Grosso is unsuitable for harpy eagles to breed. This may have caused a decline in a number of breeding pairs by over 3,000 since 1985.
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