The recovered giant eagle flies away with "positioning"

BrRC rehabilitators examine the rehabilitated giant eagles before release

After three months of rehabilitation, on the morning of March 20, the Beijing Raptor Rescue Center (BRRC) released two giant eagles (kuáng) into nature in Yanqing District. The Beijing Youth Daily reporter learned that the giant eagle is at the top of the food chain, which is a national second-level protected animal and plays an important role in maintaining the ecological balance. The two giant eagles released this time were found by the public and contacted for rescue, one of which had preyed on multiple domestic pigeons before the rescue.

In the morning, two giant eagles were transported to farmland east of the Guanting Reservoir. According to ZHOU Lei, a REHABILITATION ENGINEER AT BRRC, the giant eagle will begin to move north in the near future, and Yanqing is located in the northwest of Beijing, so they chose to release it here. Only to see Zhou Lei holding the legs of a giant eagle, out of the box instantly the giant eagle spread its wings rapidly, Zhou Lei was dragged in place to spin. Subsequently, two rehabilitationists cooperated in the final examination of the giant eagle, and saw that its body feathers were plump and sharp-eyed, and after confirming that there was no injury, it was ready to fly.

Zhou Lei let go of his hand and released the first big bird, but he did not fly far, but went straight to the nest on a tree a hundred meters away, and the magpies in the tree chirped around the big bird, but the big bird had no intention of fighting, and after resting for about 3 minutes, it flew into the distance. The second eagle flew and stayed in the field for a moment, then flew up to a poplar tree, also "narrow road" with three or five magpies, but the eagle sat firmly in the treetops and ignored it. Researchers have installed GPS on each of the two giant eagles to track their migration time and route and provide information support for future rescue and rehabilitation.

According to the "Beijing Bird Chronicle", the giant eagle is a larger eagle family of raptors, and its predators include ring-necked pheasants, quails, marmots, squirrels, frogs, lizards, small snakes and so on. The giant eagle can eliminate a large number of rodents in the highland area that harm the pasture, plays an important role in maintaining the ecological balance, and is a very beneficial bird of prey. As the "strong" at the top of the food chain, why did these two giant eagles "fall" to the point of being rescued?

According to Mr. Qin Dongliang, who found one of the giant eagles, on December 20 last year, he found a giant bird in Lianshihu Park, which should be hungry and weak to be unable to fly, so he sought help for it.

As for the other big bird that was rescued, it was because of the "good food" - 21 domestic pigeons were eaten in 5 days. In mid-December last year, Zhu Haiyu, a pigeon breeder in Xingshou Town, Changping District, found that the number of pigeons had decreased for several consecutive days, and there were messy feathers, blood and bones around the loft. At first he suspected that it was a wild cat or a weasel, but then the surveillance video pointed out the "real culprit": several pigeons were walking outside the shed, a large white-headed bird fell from the sky, the pigeons fled in all directions, but a copper-winged crow had been thrown under the big bird... Zhu Haiyu said that this big bird is not only good at "air raids", but also sticks its head and claws into the pigeon cage to catch pigeons, and even basks in the sun on the top floor after eating.

Zhu Haiyu raised more than 200 pigeons, and from December 16 to 20 last year, this giant eagle ate 21 pigeons, and its loss reached 50,000 or 60,000 yuan, which also caused some damage to the breeding of pigeons. During the day on December 21 last year, the giant eagle came to hunt as usual, and when it extended its head and claws into the pigeon cage, it was controlled by the Zhu Hai Plover and then handed over to the Beijing Raptor Rescue Center. Zhu Haiyi introduced that the wingspan of the giant eagle is nearly 1.5 meters, and the size is comparable to that of a large rooster and a goose, and the claws are sharp.

Ma Chenyue, a senior project official at the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), said that in the season when raptor food is scarce and foraging is difficult, it may prey on farmers' free-range poultry, causing economic losses to residents. In the Measures for Compensation for Losses Caused by Terrestrial Wild Animals under Key Protection in Beijing promulgated and implemented in 2009, the casualties of captive poultry and livestock caused by raptors are also included in the scope of compensation. Residents on the outskirts of Beijing who encounter losses caused by poultry hunting by raptors may submit an application for compensation to the township (town) people's government or subdistrict office where they are located in accordance with the relevant provisions of the compensation measures.

Zhu Haiyu told the Beiqing Daily reporter that he did not apply for compensation, "The only thing I am worried about now is that the giant eagle has a very strong positioning ability, and may be found after release." Photo by Cui Yifei, reporter of this newspaper