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Where eagles dare to soar again
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"Australia is only one of two countries in the world to outlaw falconry, while we hand out licences to farmers to shoot eagles" A solitary eagle soaring high above the red desert . it's an unquestionably beautiful image and a potent symbol of the ruggedness of the Australian outback. Eagles and birds of prey have always been a part of the Australian landscape, but since European settlement their numbers have declined seriously. That's partly due to competition from introduced farm animals and partly due to increased traffic around the country. Attracted to roadkill, eagles are often injured or killed themselves by passing vehicles. The Eagles Heritage Raptor Wildlife Centre in Margaret River was set up to care for these injured and sick birds of prey with the aim of returning them to health - and eventually the wild. Dave Seegar cares for birds at the centre and puts on daily shows for visitors. "We only return a bird to the wild when it has a 100% chance of survival, as anything less would be a death sentence," Dave said. Ironically Dave, who feeds the 150 birds in the park with rats, mice and chicks, is a vegan. "I've dreamt of working with birds of prey since I was 10 years old," Dave said. "It's funny I had to travel across the world to find my perfect job." The raptor centre takes in battered, maimed, neglected and abused birds of prey to be rehabilitated, with the aim of releasing the birds back to the wild. "We can't always release the birds back into the wild because many of them were taken as fledglings from nests and kept in cages around humans," Dave said. "Many of these birds think they are human, as the first things they often saw were humans. It's a natural mistake to make. "Some have been so badly treated by people that they can't fly properly or don't have the hunting instincts required to survive in the wild." Dave's desire to work in a raptor centre is fuelled in part by the loss of many species of birds of prey in the UK, where he grew up. "There are only two golden eagles left in England and the pair are so old there's no chance of them mating, so extinction of that sub-species is inevitable," he said. "In Scotland, there are 224 eagles left, but even that number of birds is not enough for a healthy breeding population and that sub-species is perilously close to collapsing. "In Australia, by comparison, we still have an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 wedge-tail eagles, although that number is a tiny fraction of the 2,500,000 or so that once soared over the continent. "Ever since European colonisation, eagle numbers have plummeted. "It's doubly ironic that Australia is only one of two countries in the world to outlaw falconry, while we hand out licences to farmers to shoot eagles," he said. "In the US, you face a fine of $550,000 and a jail term for killing a bald eagle. I don't know of anyone here in WA who has ever been convicted of killing an eagle, but it happens all the time." David said one WA farmer was found with a pile of dead eagles nearly 2m high behind a shed on his farm. "When the wildlife officers discovered the pile, they told him not to do it again unless he had a licence. There must have been about 150 birds in the pile." "Farmers say that eagles eat lambs, but all the research ever done shows that eagles rarely attack lambs," Dave said. "They don't like lambs. We've been offered stillborn lambs by local farmers to feed our birds with, but the birds really don't like lamb. "It's estimated that 80% of an eagle's diet is rabbit, with feral cats and foxes making up most of the rest. Eagles also eat kangaroos. "The Tasmanian wedge-tail eagle is the fourth most endangered species in the world, but Tasmanian farmers can still request a licence to shoot them," he said. "It seems that Australia is far more concerned with the lives of introduced farm animals than a dwindling population of indigenous birds." Many visitors to the centre are shocked to learn that wedge-tail eagles are endangered. Dave said there was a high concentration of birds along the major roads heading north or east, feeding on roadkill. Many of these birds ended up coming to Eagle's Heritage with broken wings. "They're the lucky ones, as most of the birds hit by cars or trucks die out in the bush," Dave said. The centre was founded by Phil Pain in 1988 on a 14ha bush property and has a big range of indigenous birds of prey - brahminy kites, peregrine falcons, black kites, little falcons, sparrowhawks and wedge-tail eagles. The daily shows at the centre demonstrate the birds' amazing aerial skills. Dave throws food up in the air and birds swoop in from all directions, snatching the food in their feet while on the wing and at speed. Their accuracy is astonishing, but accuracy is necessary if they are to survive in the wild. And that's the aim of the Eagles Heritage Raptor Centre - to return these magnificent birds to where they belong, the wild. |
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