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Harpy Eagle An alarm screech goes out
through the rainforest. Monkeys of all types throw
themselves off high branches and out of trees to
freeze in terror. Overhead a giant eagle with a
seven foot wing span easily twists and turns
through the treetops, hunting for any animal caught
out in the open. With a single dive it tears the
unlucky creature from its branch with five inch
long claws on powerful legs. The harpy eagle is one of
the world's largest and most powerful of the fifty
species of eagles. It lives in the tropical lowland
rainforests of Central and South America, from
southern Mexico southward to eastern Bolivia,
southern Brazil and the northernmost parts of
Argentina. It likes large areas of uninterrupted
forest but will also hunt in the open areas next to
patches of forest. The harpy
eagle's name comes from the harpies
of Greek mythology which were ferocious winged
creatures with sharp claws, a woman's face and a
vulture's body. The average
weight of a harpy eagle is 18.4 lbs (8.2 kg).
Female harpy eagles are larger than the males. A
female can weigh from 14 to 18 lbs (7-9 kg), while
the males weigh 10 to 16 lbs (5-8 kg). Their body
length is between 36 and 40 inches (1 meter).
Their
feathers are slate-black above and white to light
gray underneath. A black band runs across the chest
up to the neck. The tail has long, dark gray
feathers with horizontal bars. Their legs are
covered with light gray feathers ending in yellow
feet as big as a human hand, and 5 inch long
talons. The
heads of both male and female are covered
with a double crest of large, pale gray
feathers. They raise this crest when
alerted or showing hostility. A facial
disk like that of an owl is thought to
focus sound. Their eyes are dark brown and
close-set, allowing them to judge
distances. They have a powerful, hooked
gray bill Their
dark gray, large, rounded, broad wings
have a span of 7 feet. These wings are
relatively short compared to other eagles.
They are designed for speed and
maneuverability necessary for flying
through a forest. The harpy
eagle is monogamous, meaning it mates for life.
They nest high in the canopy of emergent trees
about 100 to 200 feet (40 meters) above the ground.
The nests are built loosely of sticks and fresh
leaves in the crutch of the first branches of ceiba
or kapok trees. Usually two eggs are laid, but
after the first egg hatches, the other one is
ignored and fails to hatch. The incubation period
lasts for 52 to 56 days. The
estimated life span in the wild, although difficult
to asses, is thought to be between 25 and 35
years. Harpy
eagles are carnivores and duirnal, or daytime
hunters. They hunt about 19 species of medium sized
and large mammals that live in trees, like monkeys,
sloths, opossums, large reptiles like iguanas,
large rodents and other birds. They hunt by sitting
quietly and listening for prey for long periods of
time in the canopy of the forest, then pouncing on
their prey in short bursts of speed. They can reach
speeds of up to 50 mph (80 kph). The faster and
more agile males hunt smaller animals than the
larger females. Like other birds of prey, they can
only fly with prey weighing less than one half
their body weight. The harpy
eagle is an endangered species. The major threat is
loss of habitat from clear cutting, destruction of
nesting sites and shooting. Harpy eagles need large
tracts of forest to hunt in. Most forests have only
one nest every 10 or 15 miles. Each nesting pair
has a single chick every two to three years. With
such a low density of harpy eagles and their low
rate of reproduction, even the smallest pressure on
their hunting abilities eliminates them from an
area.
bibliography: 1999.
"Harpia harpyja" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed
April 17, 2005 at
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/ "BirdLife International 2004. Harpia harpyja. In: IUCN 2004. 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species." <www.redlist.org>. Downloaded on 18 April 2005. "The Peregrine
Fund" "Haprpy Eagle:
WhoZoo" "Harpy Eagle
Printout-EncahntedLearning.com" "Harpy Eagle" "The Hawk
Conservancy Trust - Harpy" photo credits: harpy_eagle.jpg Harpy-Eagle-Fotonatura.jpg harpymain.jpg by
Nell Rettig |
