Ameya's+Harpy+Eagles+in+Belize

The event I attended was a monthly meeting for the Wake Audubon Society, which is part of the Museum of Natural Sciences. The topic of this meeting was Harpy Eagles in Belize. Jamie Rotenberg came and talked to us about his findings when he studied Harpy Eagles in Belize. Jamie is an ornithologist at UNC-W, or someone who is an expert and studies birds. Jamie went to Belize for many years to study why harpy eagles decided to live in Belize, because their main source of food are sloths. However, there are no sloths in Belize!

In the year 2000, harpy eagles were considered to be extinct in Belize, which is known as local extinction. Harpy eagles are more commonly found in South America and Panama, but are extremely rare in Belize. Harpy eagles are large birds, similar in size to bald eagles. They have a wingspan of about 80 inches and are 38 inches tall. Female harpy eagles are generally larger than males, and they raise new chicks every 3 years.

Belize is 40% covered with natural reserves, and Jamie worked at the Bladen Natural Reserve. One important part of his study was education outreach to the local people of Belize. They taught many poor, uneducated locals about biology and conservation. Many of these people changed from hunters to conservationists. These locals helped track the harpy eagles and observe their feeding habitats. Another interesting fact I learned about was how the use of drones can actually aid conservation. Many people believe that drones hurt the environment, but they can actually be used to create orthomosaics. The drones take multiple pictures and piece them together to create a map of the reserve.

Finally, we learned that using remote sensing will help the biologists find the rest of the harpy eagles in Belize. Currently, they are unsure as to how harpy eagles find each other, and are able to mate, considering how small the population is. This meeting connected multiple topics we discussed in APES, including the different types of extinction, conservation biology, and remote sensing. We discussed real world applications of these topics, which I elaborated on above, and how we can apply them to current issues.