Kayla+and+the+Harpy+Eagles

=The Harpy Eagles=

I attended the Harpy Eagle presentation by Dr.Jamie Rotenberg at the museum of natural science. There he explained his experience in Belize working with Harpy Eagles. The Harpy Eagle is considered the largest eagle with a height of 38 inches, and a wingspan of 72-88 inches. In 2000 the Harpy Eagle was considered extinct in Belize, which brought up the question of why the eagle's were in Belize today. Dr. Rotenberg and a team of about 20 people (BFREE) ,went to Belize to search for the rare eagles, which took them 2 weeks to spot. They found 2 pairs and ended up observing them for 13.5 hours. The team would have to hike up mountains and use telescopes to spot the rare birds. BFREE used digiscoping, and othomosaics to get clearer pictures of the birds while they roamed in trees or in the sky without disturbing them. The trip was also a community effort due to the team training people to help them search the eagles instead of hiring scientists.

The presentation related to environmental science because It showed the food chain and how ironic it is that a large organism can rely solely on a smaller organism. The Harpy Eagle eats opossum, and the opossum eats snails, which shows the reliance on the large population of snails in the rainforest ecosystem. Also, in the lecture Dr. Rotenberg showed a video regarding his experience in Belize which showed the community efforts to preserve and protect the Harpy Eagle's. A particular quote from one of the natives explained why the Harpy Eagles were threatened in the first place. He says, "[working with the team]Turned me from a hunter, to a protector." Hunting and habitat loss was the cause of the resulting eagle endangerment. This showed that the trip not only helped to preserve the Eagle's but, it also helped to turn people's lives around.