A young harpy pair, hatched at The Peregrine Fund's World Center for Bird's of Prey in Boise, Idaho, was released earlier this year. A fourth chick, hatched at the San Diego Zoo this January, will be released later this summer, creating two new pairs of harpy eagles in Panama. We knew when the chick hatched at the San Diego Zoo that it was a candidate for release in Panama, but it's still hard to believe it all happened so quickly. Biologists living in the rainforests near the release site monitor the birds daily. Harpy eagle chicks are dependent on their parents for more than two years so biologists fill the released birds' parent role until they mature.
Radio transmitters allow scientists to track the birds as they travel through dense forests.
Until the birds learn to hunt on their own, biologists place food high in the forest canopy, where the eagles live. Harpy eagles measure nearly three feet from their signature crests to their tails, have a seven foot wing span, and talons the size of grizzly bear paws. Human activities such as deforestation and poaching have virtually eliminated the eagle from large regions of Central America. Its slow reproductive rate and large home range made one of the first species to be virtually eliminate due to human activity.