THE PEREGRINE FUNDTHE PEREGRINE FUND

working

to conserve

birds of prey

in nature

fall/winter 2003

newsletter number 34

THE PEREGRINE FUNDN E W S L E T T E R N O . 3 4 • F A L L / W I N T E R 2 0 0 3

DIRECTORS

Lee M. BassPresident, Lee M. Bass, Inc.

Robert B. BerryTrustee, Wolf Creek Charitable Foundation, Rancher,Falcon Breeder, andConservationist

Harry L. BettisRancher

P. Dee Boersma, Ph.D.Professor, University ofWashington

Frank M. BondAttorney at Law and Rancher

Robert S. ComstockPresident and CEO,Robert Comstock Company

Derek J. CraigheadEcologist

Scott A. CrozierSenior Vice President,General Counsel, and Secretary PETsMART, INC

T. Halter CunninghamBusinessExecutive/Investor

Patricia A. DisneyVice Chairman, Shamrock Holdings, Inc.

James H. Enderson, Ph.D.Professor Emeritus of Biology,The Colorado College

Caroline A. ForgasonPartner, Groves-Alexander Group LLC

Z. Wayne Griffin, Jr.Developer, G&N Management, Inc.

Robert Wood Johnson IVChairman and CEO,The Johnson Company, Inc., andNew York Jets LLC

Jacobo LacsInternational Businessman and Conservationist

Patricia B. ManigaultConservationist andRancher

Velma V. MorrisonPresident, Harry W.Morrison Foundation

Ruth O. MutchInvestor

Carl NavarreBook Publisher andCEO, MyPublisher, Inc.

Morlan W. NelsonNaturalist, Hydrologist, and Cinematographer

Peter G. PfendlerRancher

Lucia L. Severinghaus, Ph.D.Research Fellow,Institute of Zoology,Academia Sinica,Taiwan

R. Beauregard TurnerFish and Wildlife Manager, Turner Enterprises

James D. WeaverPresident, GrasslansCharitable Foundation,and Rancher

P.A.B. Widener, Jr.Rancher and Investor

Board of Directors of The Peregrine Fund

OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS

Paxson H. OffieldChairman of the Boardand DirectorChairman of the Boardand CEO, Santa CatalinaIsland Company

Ian Newton, D.Phil., D.Sc., FRS.Vice Chairman of theBoard and DirectorSenior Ornithologist(Ret.), Natural Environ-ment Research Council,United Kingdom

William A. Burnham, Ph.D.President and Director

J. Peter JennyVice President

Jeffrey R. CilekVice President

Karen J. HixonTreasurer and DirectorConservationist

Ronald C. YankeSecretary and DirectorPresident, YankeMachine Shop, Inc.

Tom J. Cade, Ph.D.Founding Chairmanand DirectorProfessor Emeritus of Ornithology, Cornell University

Roy E. DisneyChairman of the Board,Emeritus, and DirectorChairman of the Board,Shamrock Holdings, Inc.

D. James NelsonChairman of the Board,Emeritus, and DirectorPresident, Nelson Construction Company

Henry M. Paulson, Jr.Chairman of the Board,Emeritus, and DirectorChairman and ChiefExecutive Officer, The Goldman SachsGroup, Inc.

Julie A. WrigleyChairman of the Board,Emeritus, and DirectorChairman and CEO,Wrigley Investments LLC

Aplomado Falcons Band data reveal high survival rate . . . . . . . . . . . 1

California Condor Wild fledgling heralds a new epoch. . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Harpy Eagles Release techniques refined to maximize survival . . . . . . . . . 4

Asian Vulture Crisis Cause discovered for massive die-off . . . . . . . . . . . 6

African Crowned Eagle The trials of Africa’s largest forest eagle . . . . . 8

Return of the Peregrine Long-anticipated book released . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

On the cover:Condor 123,the male par-ent of the firstwild-hatchedchick since1982, soarsnear the nestsite.Photo by Christie Van Cleve

Business Office (208)362-3716 • Fax (208)362-2376 • Interpretive Center (208)362-8687 tpf@peregrinefund.org • http://www.peregrinefund.org

© 2003 • Edited by Bill Burnham and Pat Burnham • Photo Editor Jack Cafferty • Design © 2003 by Amy Siedenstrang

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Reader’s Digest Article Recognizes The Peregrine Fund as Best Animal Charity

The Peregrine Fund is listed inthe November 2003 issue ofReader’s Digest as one of a

dozen “Best Charities” to trust withyour donations. All are “highlyregarded by organizations that investi-gate and rate charities, and all keeptheir fund-raising costs low (and yourdonations can be tax-deductible),”writes reporter John Mitchell.

This recognition is a result of ourpromise to members: we only directlyrequest your contribution once a yearby mail; we keep your address confi-dential; we keep you informed of ourprogress; 100% of all donations godirectly to projects; we work hard tosee your dollars are spent carefully andeffectively; and we do our best tomake a meaningful difference.

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The question always surrounding theprocess of species restoration is whethera released population can survive on its

own. Part of the reason for the historic loss of theAplomado Falcon in the United States was the chang-ing character of the vast, open grassland savannasbrought about by farming, grazing, and other forms ofdevelopment. Even so, Aplomado Falcons were stillseen in southern Texas in the early 1950s. Their finaldisappearance was almost certainly brought about byDDT use in agriculture, a factor beginning in 1947 thataffected eggshell thickness and reproduction in manyother populations of raptors. DDT was banned in 1972but lingered in the environment of the Texas coastalplain for many years afterward. By the mid-1990s whenthe release project had been underway for several years,a decrease of DDT to safe levels was evidenced by near-normal eggshells and hatching rates among thereleased falcons.

Besides reproduction, individual falcon survival isthe other critical factor affecting the future trend ofAplomado Falcons in southern Texas. Since the begin-ning of the project, Peregrine Fund biologists havebanded each released falcon with a colored band show-ing letters and numbers unique to each individual.These engraved aluminum bands, called VIDs for“visual identification,” can be read with a telescope atdistances of up to several hundred meters. An impor-tant purpose of the bands is in estimating the propor-tion of breeding adults that survive from one year tothe next, and that information will be used with otherdata to predict the long term success of the population.This approach is based on an important facet of falconnatural history: namely, that once a falcon obtains abreeding territory and a mate, it ordinarily remainsthere year after year.

By identifying the falcons present during annualsurveys conducted in the early spring, and by recordingcases where adults have been replaced by others, anannual survival rate can be calculated. The latter is actu-ally a minimum estimate, because some falcons haveswitched territories and others may have joined theranks of adults without territories. Thus far, the resultshave been encouraging. In surveys conducted by ErinGott, Marta Curti, Jessi Brown, Paul Juergens, and AngelMontoya, at least 85% of the adult falcons present onbreeding territories in 2002 were still alive in 2003. Inall, the researchers were able to read the bands of about70 Aplomado Falcons in 2003.

The Great Horned Owl is the main predator ofAplomado Falcons in southern Texas, and other raptorspecies, possibly the Crested Caracara, may reducenest success by preying upon eggs and small young.To bolster reproductive success in 2002, we experi-mented with artificial nest structures designed to

exclude these and otherpredators. Even though thenumber of structuresoffered in 2003 was small,and some were unused, sev-eral produced good results,including the production ofyoung at two territorieswhere falcons had neverbefore been successful. Weare increasing the numberof artificial nest structuresin winter 2003-04 with thehope of establishing pairsin new areas and increasingproductivity overall.

Our Aplomado Falconprogram has spawned sev-eral academic projects dur-ing the last year or so.Alberto Macias Duarte, ayoung biologist from Her-mosillo, Mexico, recentlyobtained a Master’s degreefrom the University of Chihuahua and entered a doc-toral program at the University of Arizona. AnotherPeregrine Fund employee, Jessi Brown, who hasworked on the Aplomado Falcon project in southernTexas for several years, has enrolled as a graduate stu-dent at the University of Nevada at Reno. Her Master’sthesis will focus on reproductive success of AplomadoFalcons, with emphasis on the influence of other rap-tor species and habitat.

Grainger Hunt

Aplomado Falcon Research

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Above: WildAplomado Falcon chicks at the nest.

Left: The metalbars on anewly-designednest structuredeter predatorsbut allow Aplo-mado Falconsto pass through.

The fledglingalready provedto be too agileand wily to becaught, initself anencouragingindication ofits goodhealth.

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ACalifornia Condor chick jumped outinto space from its cliff nest site inGrand Canyon National Park on the

afternoon of Wednesday, 5 November, parachutingslowly and awkwardly downward to land on rocks500–600 feet below the nest cave. It was the first suc-cessful fledging of a chick in the wild by condorsreleased as a part of the condor recovery program initi-ated in 1980. Underlining the cooperative nature of theprogram, the male parent was pro-duced in 1995 at the Los Angeles Zooand the female was hatched in thesame year at the San Diego Wild Ani-mal Park. They were released in north-ern Arizona by The Peregrine Fund inMay 1997.

The chick was first confirmed inMay by The Peregrine Fund’s condorbiologist Sophie Osborn in a remotepart of the Grand Canyon that couldbe reached only by a rigorous 12-milehike. Even then, the actual nest cavewas virtually inaccessible because ofits location several hundred feet highin the side of a huge redstone cliff, soSophie and National Park Servicebiologist Chad Olson monitored thenesting attempt from a distant obser-vation point. During the interveningmonths, development of the chickseemed to be proceeding normally, sobased on its appearance and the regu-lar feeding visits of its parents, a deci-sion was made not to enter the nest.

Two days after its breathtaking (toboth the bird and Sophie) descentfrom the nest, the field crew attemptedto catch the fledgling to attach a radio transmitter, butit already proved to be too agile and wily to be caught,in itself an encouraging indication of its good health.Thus, to the delight of those who long for the good oldcondor days, the Grand Canyon fledgling has become,albeit temporarily, the only unmarked and uncapturedcondor to exist in the wild since the early 1980s.

This event not only represents the first successfulnesting of released condors as a part of the recoveryproject, but quite possibly the first successful nesting ofthe species east of the Pacific Coast region since theLate Pleistocene Epoch. Although there were severalsomewhat casual reports of condor sightings in Arizonain the late 19th and early 20th centuries, even if one ormore of them was valid it seems likely they were non-breeding wanderers from the California coastal popula-tion. Certainly no post-Pleistocene (younger than 9,500

years) samples of eggshells or condors, young or old,have turned up in the numerous Grand Canyon caveswhere abundant condor remains have been collected.

It is well known that California Condors occurredover a much more extensive range in North Americaand probably in greater numbers during the Pleis-tocene Epoch, a time when great herds of large mam-mals roaming the continent supported anaccompanying cast of large scavenging birds. In the

1940s, paleontologists, who are moreaccustomed to dealing with speciesextinction than species recovery,dubbed the condor a “Pleistocenerelic,” and this unfortunate character-ization has plagued the species sincethen. It suggests to some that thespecies is a goner, a victim of so-called “evolutionary senescence,” nomatter how much time and moneyare spent to save it.

This is wrongheaded thinking.The successful fledging of the GrandCanyon chick underscores the factthat the California Condor is no lessa creature of the present epoch thanwe humans are. There is no reasonwhy healthy populations of condorscannot eventually be established inseveral regions with continued effortsby The Peregrine Fund and the othercooperators in the recovery program.California Condors are not reallyvery different from the relatedAndean Condor in South America orthe ecologically similar Old WorldVultures in Africa, Europe, and Asia,and most populations of those

species are thriving throughout much of their tradi-tional ranges.

Nevertheless, it is true that the condor recoveryeffort has been long, difficult, and expensive, and thesurvival of the species in the wild is still not assured.Several earlier nesting attempts by released birds inArizona and California were unsuccessful, probablydue in most cases to the inexperience of the parents,as is also often the case with young captive condors.Lead poisoning, mostly (or entirely) from bullet frag-ments ingested from shot animals, remains a worri-some problem, and in the estimation of some, anongoing threat that precludes recovery of the species.This may prove to be the case in some areas, e.g., inte-rior California, but is less likely in other, more remoteregions, including the Grand Canyon. It is also per-haps significant that the recent successful fledging

Lloyd Kiff

A New Epoch for the California Condor

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itself occurred in one of the hardest-to-reach areas onthe North American continent.

No matter what, the successful fledging of theGrand Canyon chick is yet one more wonderful mile-stone on the long road toward condor recovery. It isespecially gratifying for those who promoted the con-cept of a captive breeding-reintroduction program at atime when the very notion was considered to be down-right heretical. Indeed, there was a time when somefolks caught up in the mystique of the bird claimedthat the California Condor could not be safely or suc-cessfully trapped, or that the birds would never breedin captivity, or that the young could not be releasedto the wild successfully, let alone produce youngsuccessfully.

Now only a few additional steps remain—the successful breeding of a pair of condorsthat were fledged in the wild, followed bymultiple pairs of condors breeding rou-tinely and successfully in the wild, lead-ing eventually to the establishment ofself-sustaining wild populations. Thisshould make possible the final mile-stone—the condor’s fledging fromthe Endangered Species List!

Background: A California Condor cleans its beak after feeding nestling.Inset, opposite: Distant photo of nestling California Condor in the Grand Canyon.

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In their new home at The Peregrine Fund’sNeotropical Raptor Center in Panama, ourthree pairs of Harpy Eagles exceeded our

wildest expectations by laying 18 fertile eggs in theirfirst year there (2001), all but one of which hatched.The warm, moist climate and direct exposure to sun-light must have agreed with the birds! But their successcreated a new challenge—a good one to have—ofdeveloping successful release techniques for the 17youngsters.

From the care of the Neotropical Raptor Center theyoung eagles were moved, at about five months of age,to the release site where they were housed in a “hackbox,” a specially designed aviary built on top of a towerin the forest. The young birds spent from three to fourweeks in the hack box, which gave them time tobecome accustomed to the area around them whilebeing protected from potential predators.

Releasing young and naive Harpy Eagles is a lengthyprocess, taking many months of daily tracking andfeeding by our “hack site attendants” in the dense rain-forest before the young birds learn to hunt on theirown. Release day is always a special day. Well beforedawn, we quietly place food in front of the hack boxand open the door. The birds don’t usually stir untilafter sunup when they discover their new freedom.Usually, their first activity is to eat the food we placedthe night before, and then, over the next few days theybegin making exploratory flights into the trees nearby.Most of the birds remain dependent on the food thatwe provide for at least another eight to twelve months.We provide them food in “feeding trees” near the hackbox to which they habitually return. To make sure theyare feeding and remain healthy we track them by fol-lowing their radio transmitters as they explore andlearn to hunt. This is their most vulnerable time whenthey can become prey to other predators or suffer alethal injury from their own attempts to catch prey. Inthe wild, only about 10 to 30% of eaglets usually sur-vive to become adults so some mortality at this vulner-able stage is expected. Occasionally a bird suddenlyand unexpectedly flies several miles from the releasesite and has to be tracked, captured, and returned tothe release area so that we can continue to feed it.

Because releasing birds takes so much time andhuman care, the hack sites are chosen to provide bothsuitable, remote habitat for eagles and access and hous-ing for hack site attendants. This combination is diffi-cult to find, so we established a more-or-lesspermanent hack site in Soberania National Park bor-dering the Panama Canal and a second one near LasCuevas Research Station, in the Chiquibul Forest ofBelize, where birds will be released annually for manyyears to come. Once they become independent of our

Rick Watson

“As we sat in the observation blind, the first

hints of sunlight began to illuminate the

tangle of trees and vines that sur-

rounded us. Above us, howler monkeys, with their

strong, guttural calls, announced the start of a new

day. For us, employees and volunteers on The Pere-

grine Fund’s Harpy Eagle Restoration Project, this

was not any ordinary day. This was the day that

two young, captive-bred harpies were to be released

for the first time.

” —Marta Curti

Harpy Eagle Restoration Reaches New Heights

Above: Ayoung HarpyEagle soonafter releaseinto the wild.

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care, our plan is to trap the birds and release themagain in localities far removed from people and access,where they will be expected to survive on their own andonly be tracked periodically from the ground, air, orsatellite, until they reach maturity and breed. This two-stage method of release is still experimental, but wehope that it will allow us to regularly release the youngproduced at the Neotropical Raptor Center and thenrelocate them to other sites throughout Central Americato begin restoring the species to its former range.

In 1998, when we first tested releasing Harpy Eaglesto the wild, two of the five young eagles were shot bypeople. Thanks to our environmental education pro-gram, none of our latest eagles have been shot, thoughtwo have succumbed to natural predators. One bird wastaken by an ocelot while another was taken by a jaguarthat discovered the hack site soonafter two birds were released. Nervousthat the remaining eagle’s new powerof flight might not be enough to helphim escape if the jaguar visited again,our hack site attendants stayed up allnight to chase the jaguar away when-ever he showed up! Our hack siteattendants still talk about the nightthey chased the black jaguar, and hehasn’t come back!

Jaguars are not the only hazard inthe forest. In Belize, xate (pro-nounced “shah-tay”) collectors fromGuatemala frequent the ChiquibulForest, “poaching” the leaves of thepalms of the genus Chaemadorea forexport and sale to florists who usethe leaves in floral arrangements. Thecollectors are sometimes armed andthreatening, and in the wrong cir-cumstances, perhaps just as danger-ous as jaguars. Being a hack siteattendant is hard, arduous work, but the rewards aregreat as they watch the young eagles gain independenceand begin to hunt for themselves.

Releasing Harpy Eagles is a challenge, but a goodone. This year, our breeding pairs at the NeotropicalRaptor Center have produced seven eaglets; a numberthat may be closer to average than the exuberant 17 oftheir first year in Panama! As our success at captivebreeding has improved, so has the need and opportu-nity to restore Harpy Eagles wherever they onceoccurred. The Central American Commission on Con-servation and Development (CCAD) has asked us tohelp restore Harpy Eagles throughout the MesoamericanBiological Corridor, from Panama to southern Mexico—it is a challenge that we can now seriously consider.

As our successat captivebreeding hasimproved, sohas the needand opportu-nity to restoreHarpy Eagleswherever theyonce occurred.

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Annual production of Harpy Eagle chicks

in Panama and Belize

Above: Eaglechamber at theNeotropicalRaptor Center.

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When, in 2000, biologists suggestedthat a new, possibly viral, infec-tious disease might be responsible

for hundreds of thousands of vulture deaths in SouthAsia, we were requested to investigate the reason. Ifdisease was the cause, then it could spread to Europeand even Africa, with disastrous consequences, andfinding a solution to the problem would requireinternational cooperation and expertise on multiplefronts. We elected to work in Pakistan and Nepalwhere laws permitted the collection and export ofvulture samples, and willing local partners were to befound in the Ornithological Society of Pakistan andBird Conservation Nepal. We asked our long-timefriend J. Lindsay Oaks, a specialist in avian diseases,to select and lead a team of experts to analyze thesamples we collected. And we began field studies atthe largest remaining vulture colonies in each coun-try to measure rates and patterns of mortality, infor-mation needed to understand the cause.

The road since then has been long, hard, hot, anddusty—much like the Punjab landscape in which wehave worked! We quickly found that vultures weredying in high numbers with characteristic, easily seensigns of kidney failure, otherwise known as “gout” inbirds. A white, paste-like deposit of uric acid coatedthe internal body organs of dead vultures. Over 85%of the birds died of this single cause, but the hardquestion was, “what caused the renal failure?”

Initial samples analyzed by Lindsay showed noconsistent signs of pathogenic viral or bacterial disease,though he did find a new bacterium as well as a new

parasite! Nor were there any signs of pesticides, poi-sons, heavy metals, or nutritional deficiencies that maycause renal failure and death in vultures. Frustrated byfinding nothing, Lindsay suggested that “. . . the sam-ples must be fresher, they may be too autolysed to finddelicate viruses,” (autolysed meaning rotten, for wantof a better word!). Our veterinarian Martin Gilbert,biologist Munir Virani, and Pakistani partners wentback to the field, worked harder and longer, often atnight to escape the blistering daytime highs of 120°Fin the Punjab summer. Their task? Collect vultures asthey dropped dead from their tree roosts or nests.

Despite the troubles that erupted in Pakistan fol-lowing 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan, they workedon. Fresh samples were sent to the United States fortesting . . . but still there was no sign of either knownor new infectious diseases, or anything else known tocause renal failure in birds. Nothing. Every test wasnegative. By late 2002 we concluded that an infectiousdisease was most probably not at work. The patterns ofmortality and diagnostic tests suggested acute poison-ing, but this was clearly something new and previouslyunknown. The task of “finding a needle in a haystack”then seemed easier than the task that lay ahead.

We began by looking at chemicals and drugs usedon the vultures’ primary source of food—deaddomestic livestock. Our Pakistani partners conductedsurveys among veterinarians and veterinary suppliersto list every pesticide and drug used on livestock.One drug, diclofenac, stood out to our veterinariansas being unexpected and potentially nephrotoxic—that is, able to cause kidney failure in mammals and

Rick Watson

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Time is not on thevultures’side. Weestimatethey haveless thanfive years toextinctionunlesssomethingis doneright now to controldiclofenacin the vul-tures’ foodsource.

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Eureka! We found the cause of the

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possibly also in birds. It was unexpected becausediclofenac, one of the class of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), was not known to beused in veterinary practice, at least not in the UnitedStates or Europe. “It seems like a long-shot,” saidLindsay, “but worth testing for anyway.”

Then on 23 April 2003 Lindsay wrote our team ane–mail, “...the results for the diclofenac are pretty excit-ing...,” he said. Initial tests had come back anddiclofenac was present in all the birds that died ofgout but none of the others. Later that week, more testresults came in and they remained perfectly consistent.Eureka!! At last, after nearly three years of painstakinginvestigation, we had found the probable cause!

Since then we have done exhaustive testing andexperimentation. We have confirmed that diclofenac ispresent in all the vultures that die of gout, and is there-fore responsible for the high rates of mortality thathave caused vultures to disappear from Pakistan andprobably elsewhere in South Asia in just ten years. Wehave found that even very low doses of diclofenaccause the same renal failure, so vultures are unusuallysensitive to the drug. We have shown that vulturesfeeding on a buffalo or goat that has been treated withnormal veterinary doses of diclofenac prior to deathcan easily consume sufficient contaminated meat to bekilled by the remains of the drug left in the meat. Theevidence is conclusive. Livestock treated withdiclofenac that become vulture food when they die, asis often the case in Asia for religious reasons, can pro-vide lethal doses of the drug to vultures.

What now? Time is not on the vultures’ side. We esti-

mate they have less than five years to extinction unlesssomething is done right now to control diclofenac inthe vultures’ food source. That leaves us a very shortwindow of opportunity—maybe only months ratherthan years—to mitigate the effects of diclofenac andbegin restoring vultures to viable populations.

We are working as fast as we can to bring this evi-dence before the governments of India, Pakistan,Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan. With U.S. Depart-ment of State endorsement we have called a highlevel summit meeting in Kathmandu, Nepal, to out-line our results and seek commitments from govern-ments to control diclofenac in veterinary use andhelp support species restoration efforts. We are alsoworking in the field to answer additional questionsthat arise from our discovery: Are there places wherediclofenac is not used and vultures remain safe? Whatarea must be diclofenac free to sustain a viable popu-lation of vultures? Why is diclofenac so popular inSouth Asia? What are the market forces propelling itssale (2.5 million doses in 2002 in India alone!) andwhat substitutes might take its place?

We are also working to develop cooperation fromother organizations working in the region who mightwork together to a common and successful solution. Inour experience, species recovery can only occur whengovernments commit to solve the causal problem, andorganizations and individuals set aside their differencesto work together for species recovery. It is amazing whatcan be achieved when no one cares who gets the credit,but rather, that results are achieved. Having found thecause of vulture mortality, our new goal is clear!

Left: Two Pere-grine Fund sci-entists, MartinGilbert andMunir Virani,take on thegrim task ofsearching outdead and dyingvultures to beexamined.Above: LindsayOaks fromWashingtonState Univer-sity, leader ofour diagnosticinvestigationteam, inspectsa dead vultureat the start ofour investiga-tion.Opposite page:Long-billedVulture.

Asian Vulture population crash!

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High over the forestcanopy a CrownedEagle calls out, like a

lion roaring. This forest lies at the foothillsof snow-clad Mt Kilimanjaro and thiseagle and his mate own it. They have ahuge nest over a crocodile and hippo-filled clear spring. Herds of elephant,zebra, and impala move in from the dryacacia thorn that surrounds this oasis.

This Eden lies at the southwesternedge of Tsavo National Park in Kenya, anarea about the size of Israel. The CrownedEagle is Africa’s largest forest eagle thatshares much of its biology with theworld’s other great forest eagles such asthe Philippine and Harpy Eagles. Itweighs between 5.5 and 11 pounds andhas feet as large as a man’s hand withneedle sharp hind talons. On average, itcaptures the largest prey of any eagle.Both in Kenya and in West Africa it hasthe propensity to take the very largest ofmale monkeys feeding on the troopperiphery. These 15 to 35-pound sentinelsare formidable and immensely strong.Other favored prey items are usuallywithin their own weight but on occasionthey are capable of taking antelope up tothe size of a full grown female bushbuckweighing around 90 pounds (40 kg). Itcompetes directly with the larger mam-malian carnivores.

We have no difficulty in identifyingany forest-dwelling raptor as speciesimperilled, for the simple fact that forestsin Kenya are the most threatened of habi-tats. Kenya’s enormous population explo-sion, the ever-increasing need for fertilefarmland and wood, plus governmentannexing gazetted forests has had a severeimpact on water catchment forests. Todayour forest cover is a paltry 2%, and thatroughly equates to some 450 pairs ofCrowned Eagles.

Today the majority of Kenya’sCrowned Eagles inhabit fragmented smallpatches of forest that have no possiblefuture. The eagle will certainly be con-fined to those forests within protectednational parks and reserves. It is a speciesdeserving conservation management.

The eagles soaring above Tsavo wereborn in a captive breeding facility. Their

father is called Rosy, and like JohnnyCash’s “Man Named Sue,” has a vile tem-per. Rosy was rescued with a badly bro-ken wing in 1978 when he was just undera year old. In 1985, he was joined by afemale, named Girl, who was accused ofkilling livestock. We rescued Girl and hermale chick, Totes, but failed to catch hermate, who was shot dead a few days later.

In 1993 The Peregrine Fund financeda modest chamber to house the eaglesand on 7 June 1994, the first egg was laid,to hatch on 2 August. It was the first eagleto be captively bred anywhere in Africa.Because their young are removed at fourto six months they lay every year, anunusual occurrence as in the wild they layonly once every two years. All chicks areparent reared. Although we cut short theirparental care by 1.5 years we make certainthey associate with an adult consort afterthey are removed. The idea is not to pro-duce as many chicks as possible, but toproduce well-adjusted eagles with knowl-edge of eagle decorum and hunting skills.There followed 11 eggs and seven surviv-ing young, one of which was killed byAfrica’s ferocious version of the wolverine,the ratel.

The question as to where one couldsuccessfully release Crowned Eagles needsto take into account many factors. Inoptimal habitats, the Crowned Eagle pop-ulation is at capacity, or over capacity.

Like sinking islands, these shrinkingforests concentrate the eagles to a pointthat cannot sustain them. To introducenaive captive-bred eagles into such an agi-tated society of eagles was unlikely to suc-ceed. In the last 25 years, we had notedsub-optimal habitats that did not for-merly hold Crowned Eagles. Release insuch marginal habitats devoid of compe-tition seemed the best solution.

In March 1996, courtesy of the KenyaWildlife Service (KWS), we made an aer-ial reconnaissance of Tsavo to determinethe best sites for release. Our affiliates inthe Ornithology Department, NationalMuseums of Kenya, and KWS approvedour request to release. In April 1998, thefirst of many volunteers, Anthony D’Elle-sandro and Safi Darden, released Totesinto the famous Mzima Springs. He faredpoorly, being ousted by petulant Ver-reaux’s Eagle Owls at night. Ten dayslater we moved him to the vicinity of aluxury safari lodge where the springs feda luxuriant growth of figs, giant magno-lia, and yellow fever trees. Here wehanded over the hacking task to Peterand Connie Frank, the owners. Totes,after establishing his territory and hunt-ing for himself, was tragically killed inthe pouring rain by a leopard as he sateating a vervet monkey on the ground.We released Baby a few months later, andon 10 October 1998 he led me over vol-

Simon Thomsett

African Crowned Eagle Conservation

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Many a day was spent wandering aboutarmed only with an awkward radioantennae, observing Emily mobbinglions and leopards for the sheer fun of it.

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Return of the Peregrine Tellsthe Story Behind Restoration

canic debris miles to his hyrax kill. Welost him for months yet he appearedintermittently at the hack site for nearlyone year. He was located 9 mi upstreamat Kitani and there I once found himafter a more than interesting walk thatencountered every conceivable frighten-ing animal en route.

Emily and Steven were released on14 July 1999. They formed a pair, andboth built their own nests. Emily, a gen-tle giant of a female excelled herself theday after release by latching onto theback of a full grown female impalastanding in a herd. Many a day wasspent wandering about armed only withan awkward radio antennae, observingEmily mobbing lions and leopards forthe sheer fun of it. Once she took a fullgrown female baboon and we arrived atthe uproar to rescue her from the rest ofthe troop. Another time while dozing ona fallen tree she suddenly looked anx-iously below, dropped her one raisedfoot, and flattened her feathers. Six and ahalf feet beneath her a female leopardcrawled away in an unsuccessful effort toremain hidden.

Emily, the dearest of all the eagles,was destined to destroy our hearts bybeing violently killed by a crocodilewhile she fed on a young bushbuck atthe water’s edge on 27 December 1999,five months after release. Such mishapswere not so much setbacks, but tragediesthat the entire staff of the nearby lodgeand all the volunteers as well as the parkrangers and wardens shared.

In May 2003 we had a surpriseencounter with a recently fledged femaleCrowned Eagle at Kitani, the last knownlocation of Baby who had been known tooccupy the area in 1998. We had inter-mittent reports of Baby up until 2000,and have good reason to speculate thatthis young female was his.

Also encouraging, in September 2003we observed Steven and Ema co-opera-tively hunting vervet monkeys in a co-ordinated and preconceived manner, aswell as mating. Such unions are knownto occur in the wild.

To reach such success after so muchtragedy is the lot of conservation work.The trails of these magnificent eagleshave involved so many people and thisalone has created awareness that hashelped highlight the plight of forestspecies.

UNITED STATES

Linda BehrmanRoger BenefieldRoy BrittonBill BurnhamKurt K. BurnhamPat BurnhamJack CaffertyCraig CarpenterEmma ChristensenJeff CilekDonna DanielsErin GottSherri HaleyBill HeinrichGrainger HuntJ. Peter JennyPaul JuergensLloyd KiffAngel MontoyaAmel MusticBrian MutchTrish NixonSophie OsbornChris ParishCarol PettersenDalibor PongsTravis RosenberryCal SandfortAmy SiedenstrangBrook SimsRandy StevensRussell ThorstromRandy TownsendRick WatsonDavid Whitacre

ArchivistS. Kent Carnie

INTERNATIONAL

MadagascarAristide AndrianarimisaAdrien BatouBerthin BeNoel Augustin BonhommeEloi (Lala) FanamehaLoukman KalavahaEugéne LadoanyJules MampiandraMôiseCharles (Vola) Rabearivelo Jeanneney RabearivonyBerthine RafarasoaNorbert (Velo) RajaonariveloJeannette RajesyGérard RakotondravaoYves RakotonirinaGaston RaoelisonChristophe RazafimahatratraGilbert RazafimanjatoLova Jacquot RazanakotoLily-Arison Rene de RolandGilbert Tohaky

PanamaEloy AripioFrancisco BarriosDadildo CarpioMarta CurtiBilomar DoviazaPróspero Gaitán Margarita GordonNoel GuerraYanina GuevaraKathia HerreraMagaly LinaresJosé de Los Santos LópezGabriel MenguizamaRodolfo MosqueraAngel MuelaRogelio PeñaBolívar RodríguezSaskia SantamaríaNadia SuredaJosé de Jesús VargasJenerino Cárdenas

AsiaMartin GilbertMuhammad Asim

Pan AfricaRon HartleySimon ThomsettMunir Virani

The Peregrine Fund Staff

Perhaps the greatest conservation feat in history, restoringthe once-endangered Peregrine Falcon to North America,is a saga that deserves to be told by the falconers, biolo-

gists, and conservationists who lived it. Return of the Peregrineis their story, one that will behanded down for generations tocome. Nearly four years of care-ful writing, editing, and designhave culminated in a hard-bound, full-color book thattruly honors those who accom-plished the recovery, from thescholars who sounded the ini-tial alarm to the field atten-dants who released andmonitored thousands of cap-tive-bred Peregrine fledglings.

Nearly 500 images com-plement the text, including paint-

ings and drawings, stunning photos of Peregrines and theirhabitats, and candid shots of the many people involved.Robert Bateman’s Peregrine Falcon and White-throated Swiftsgraces the dust jacket.

A debut event was held at the new Archives of AmericanFalconry gallery in late October; days later, shipments arrivedin the hands of nearly 400 readers who reserved the bookthrough our pre-sale. Orders continue to arrive daily from abroad range of individuals and retail outlets, and we expectmore than half our stock to be sold by the end of 2003.

If you haven’t ordered yours yet, or if you would like tosend a gift, now is the time. We are happy to include yourpersonal message and deliver it directly to the recipient. Sim-ply fill out the form and mail or fax it to us. You may alsopurchase Return of the Peregrine online at our award-winningwebsite, www.peregrinefund.org.

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Photo of immature Gyrfalcon taken by Cal Sandfort at Saunders Island, North Greenland, as part of our Greenland Falcon Project.

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