Eagle Alley

The Eagle Alley enclosures hold Africa’s ‘Big 5’ eagle species.  The Martial eagle, the biggest eagle in Africa, and then the Verreaux’s, African Crowned, Tawny and Bateleur eagles follow on.  Eagles have a long history in fable and legend and are probably most famous for their size and power. All eagles have large broad wings and they locate their prey by sight and kill with their feet. The true eagles all have a feathered tarsus and if you see a bird of prey with ‘hairy legs’ then you know it is one of the Aquila eagle species.

The foot of an eagle is specially adapted according to its preferred prey. The fish and sea eagles for example, have rough spicules on the soles of their toes in order to grip slippery fish.  Snakes eagles have short toes and stout feet and scaled legs to protect them from striking snakes. Martial eagles have long toes and wide spreading feet to catch game birds and the crowned eagle, in order to hunt monkeys and duiker, has immensely powerful feet with thick toes and a well-developed hind talon. The Verreaux’s eagle also has a long hind talon, but it is much lighter because its will hunt dassies from their mountainous home.

Although eagles tend to hunt bigger prey than other raptors they seldom kill, and cannot lift, something bigger than themselves. The struggle to overcome such an animal may be biologically speaking, not worth the risk. These huge powerful birds become something completely different when they gently feed their newborn chicks.  All eagles, other than the snake eagles, tend to have very large nests and most eagles lay two eggs of which only one normally survives – fish eagles, however, often lay and raise more. Incubation is over 40 days  and the chicks will fledge from the nest within two months.

These are their stories.............

Bodacea (Terathopius ecaudatus), the Sanctuary’s beautiful painted lady, is an adult Bateleur eagle that has hit a powerline, breaking her one wing irreparably. The distribution range of Bateleur eagles stretch down into the north and north-east edges of South Africa. They are now found rarely outside of protected areas, hunt mostly mammals and also scavenge. This renders them, along with vultures, vulnerable to poisoning as they may feed on carcasses laced with toxins. They are fast, low flyers; gliding with a rolling, side to side motion. Their long, bow-shaped wings turn up at the ends and flank a noticeably short tail. Their legs and feet actually extend past the end of their tail in flight - a clue when trying to identify them! Bodacea cannot obviously fly, but lives in “Eagle Alley” with her partner Leo and another young, 'talky' female called Portia. They can often be seen catching a ray of sun or the valley breezes on their extended wings! Bateleurs are one of the few raptors that ‘allopreen’ (groom each other) and consequently quite like a scratch behind their head!

Capone is a young male Verreaux's Eagle (Afrikaans -  Witkruisarend, Zulu -  uKhozi Olumnyama). This beautiful black boy came from the Swartberg area in KZN. He has been deemed a stock killer by the local wildlife authorities and is therefore not to be released back out into the wild. His 'wild and wooly' days rampaging local livestock were as he deparately tried to survive his first months after fledgeing from the nest. He was eventually caught (attached to a farmer's goose) and brought to Raptor Rescue. He was found to be starving and thus had resorted to crazy attempts at goose hunting as apposed to a more natural diet of rock hyrax and small mammals. His casting (a regurgitated pellet of undigestible matter from his meal the day before) that first night in captivity showed just how much trouble he was actually in! The pellet revealed that he had been so desparate for food that he had in fact resorted to eating insects and only their exoskeletons were left behind! There's a very fine line perhaps between an 'aggressive killer' and a young bird desperate to survive. Verreaux’s eagles are cliff-dwelling eagles that live in territorial pairs and build huge nests to which they add sticks every year. The biggest nest ever recorded extended 4.1m high! They prey predominantly on dassies which share their mountainous home. These hefty little mammals can be ½ to 2/3 the size of the eagle itself.

C rowned Eagles  (Afrikaans – Kroonarend, Zulu – isiHuhwa) live in dense indigenous bush and can take off almost vertically from the forest floor. During breeding season they perform undulating aerial courtship displays that are always accompanied by a beautiful serenade.   It is believed that the outer Durban area has one of the densest populations of Crowned eagles in the world. So saying, there has been large scale development in this area resulting in an increased clash between eagle and man. Many young crowned eagles get into trouble as they are making their way in the world, because they mistakenly attempt to hunt a small dog or cat when they find insufficient wildlife to eat. Normally they spend most of their time perched in forest canopy looking for their primary prey of monkey, dassie and small antelope. Now suburban homes are nestled under this forest canopy along with unsuspecting pets. Both the birds housed at the Sanctuary have got into trouble as juveniles trying to eat pets and thus were required to be removed from 'the system' to ensure that they were not shot. These beautiful forest eagles are now considered a threatened species. 

The Tawny Eagles (Afrikaans -Roofarend, Scientific name - Aquila rapax) hail from Moholoholo Rehabilitation Centre in the Limpopo Province, near Kruger National Park.

These 'vulnerable' eagles are very versatile raptors, eating anything from dead elephants to termites. They scavenge and pirate when they can, and hunt when they cannot. As a result of their scavenging habits Tawny eagles have  declined in  numbers because they often fall foul to poison set out for stock killing carnivores, like jackal and feral dogs.  

Strata was such a case and, as a very young and inexperienced bird,  arrived at the Rehabilitation Centre showing severe symtoms of poisoning. Birds are far more efficient scavengers than their mammalian counterparts in that they see the carcasses sooner and are able to fly to the potential meal quicker than an animal can run. There is huge variation in the plumage colour of Tawny eagles and they can be anything from blonde to tawny brown.  

Our Martial eagle (Afrikaans -  Breekoparend, Zulu -  UKosi isiHuhwa) hails from the Thabazimbi area in the North-west province. He was found walking on the ground with a gunshot wound in his wing. The bullet had broken through the vinculum tendon which links all the feathers together and allows the bird to simultaneously coordinate feather movement in flight. He is thus unable to fly with any accuracy so couldn't hunt properly if released.

This vulnerable species is the largest eagle in Africa and predates on small mammals (hare and small antelope), large birds (guinea fowl) and even monitor lizards. They hunt mainly on the wing, soaring above the bushveld, and can spot potential prey from up to 6km away. They are sadly often persecuted by farmers who perceive them as a threat to livestock.  

 

           King of the Skies

For he will lift you up on wings like an eagle.........

Isaiah 40.31