The
Harpy Eagle (
Harpia harpyja), sometimes known as the
American Harpy Eagle, is a
Neotropical species of
eagle. It is the largest and most powerful
raptor found in the
Americas, and among the largest
extant species of eagles in the world. It usually inhabits tropical lowland
rainforests in the upper (emergent)
canopy layer. Destruction of its natural habitat has seen it vanish from many parts of its former range, and it is almost extinct in Central America.
Taxonomy
This Harpy Eagle was first described by
Linnaeus in his
Systema Naturae in 1758 as
Vultur harpyja, after the mythological beast
harpy. The only member of the
genus Harpia, The Harpy Eagle is most closely related to the
Crested Eagle (
Morphnus guianensis) and the
New Guinea Harpy Eagle (
Harpyopsis novaeguineae), the three composing the subfamily Harpiinae within the large family
Accipitridae. Previously thought to be related, the
Philippine Eagle has been shown by analysis of DNA to belong elsewhere in the raptor family as it is related to the
Circaetinae.
Its name refers to the
harpies of Ancient
Greek mythology. These were wind spirits that took the dead to
Hades, and were said to have a body like an eagle and the face of a human.
Description
The upper side of the Harpy Eagle is covered with slate black
feathers, and the underside is mostly white, except for the feathered
tarsi, which are striped black. There is a black band across the chest up to the neck. The head is pale grey, and is crowned with a double crest. The
plumage of male and female is identical. The
tarsus is up to 13 cm (5.1 in) long.
Upper body of an adult in captivity
Female Harpy Eagles typically weigh 6 to 9 kg (13 to 20 lb).One exceptionally large captive female, "Jezebel", weighed 12.3 kg (27 lb). Being captive, this large female may not be representative of the weight possible in wild Harpy Eagles due to differences in the food availability.The male, in comparison , is much smaller and weighs only about 4 to 4.8 kg (8.8 to 11 lb).The wings are relatively short and stubby, the female wing length measuring 58.3–62.6 cm, and the male wing length 54.3–58 cm. Harpy Eagles are 89–105 cm (2.92–3.44 ft) long and have a wingspan of 176 to 201 cm (5 ft 9 in to 6 ft 7 in). It is sometimes cited as the largest eagle, however the
Philippine Eagle is slightly longer on average and the
Steller's Sea Eagleis slightly heavier on average , although the wingspan of the Harpy Eagle is relatively small (an adaptation that increases maneuverability in forested habitats and is shared by other raptors in similar habitats) and is surpassed by several large eagles who live in more open habitats, such as the
Haliaeetus and
Aquila eagles.The extinct
Haast's Eagle was significantly larger than all extant eagles, including the Harpy.
Distribution and habitat
Rare throughout its range, the Harpy Eagle is found from Mexico, through Central America and into South America to Argentina. In Central America the species is almost extinct, subsequent to the loss of much of the rainforest there. In rainforests they live from the canopy to the emergent. Within the rainforest they hunt in the canopy or sometimes on the ground, and perch on emergent trees looking for
prey.
Behavior
Feeding
The Harpy Eagle is an actively hunting
carnivore and is an
apex predator, meaning that adults are at the top of a food chain and have no natural predators. Its main prey are tree-dwelling
mammals such as
sloths,
monkeys,
coatis,
porcupines,
kinkajous,
anteatersand
opossums ; research conducted by Aguiar-Silva between 2003 and 2005 in a nesting site in
Parintins,
Amazonas, Brazil, collected remains from prey offered to the nestling and after sorting them, concluded that, in terms of individuals preyed upon, the harpy's prey basis was composed in 79% by sloths from two species:
Bradypus variegatus amounting to 39% of the individual prey base, and
Choloepus didactylus to 40%; various monkeys amounted to 11.6% of the same prey base. In a similar research venture in Panama, where a couple of captive-bred subadults was released, 52% of the male's captures and 54% of the female's were of two sloth species (
Bradypus variegatus and
Choloepus hoffmanni). In the
Pantanal, a pair of nesting eagles preyed on the porcupine
Coendou prehensilis and on the agouti
Dasyprocta azarae. The eagle may also attack bird species such as
macaws: At the Parintins research site, the
Red-and-green Macaw made up for 0.4% of the prey base, with other birds amounting to 4.6%.Additional prey items reported include
reptiles such as
iguanas and
snakes. On occasion, larger prey such as
capybaras and young
deer are taken and they are usually taken to a stump or low branch and partially eaten, since they are too heavy to be carried whole to the nest.The Harpy may take domestic
livestock but this is extremely rare. They control population of
mesopredators such as
capuchin monkeys which prey extensively on bird's eggs and which (if not naturally controlled) may cause local extinctions of sensitive species.
The Harpy's talons are extremely powerful and assist with suppressing prey. The Harpy Eagle can exert a pressure of 42
kgf/cm² (4.1
MPa or 530
lbf/in2 or 400 N/cm
2) with its talons.It can also lift more than three-quarters of its
body weight. That allows the bird to snatch a live sloth from tree branches, as well as other huge prey items: There are accounts of Harpies capturing and flying off with
howler monkeys and
sloths weighing up to 6.5 to 7.7 kg (14 to 17 lb).
Breeding
A pair of Harpy Eagles lays two white eggs in a large stick nest high in a tree, and raise one chick every 2–3 years. After the first chick hatches, the second egg is ignored and fails to hatch. The chick fledges in 6 months, but the parents continue to feed it for another 6 to 10 months. It can be aggressive toward humans who disturb its nesting sites or appear to be a threat to its young. The harpy often builds its nest in the crown of the
kapok tree, one of the tallest trees in South America. In many South American cultures it is considered bad luck to cut down the kapok tree, which may help safeguard the habitat of this stately eagle. The bird also uses other huge trees to build its nest on, such as the
Brazil nut tree. A nesting site found in the Brazilian
Pantanal was built on a
Cambará tree (
Vochysia divergens).
Status and conservation
The Harpy Eagle is threatened primarily by
habitat loss provoked by the expansion of logging, cattle ranching, agriculture and prospecting; secondarily by being hunted as an actual threat to livestock and/or a supposed one to human life, due to its great size.Such threats apply throughout its range, in large parts of which the bird has become a transient sight only: in
Brazil, it was all but totally wiped out from the
Atlantic rainforest and is only found in numbers in the most remote parts of the
Amazon Basin; a Brazilian journalistic account of the mid-1990s already complained that at the time it was only found in numbers, in Brazilian territory, on the northern side of the Equator.Scientific 1990s records, however, suggest that the Harpy Atlantic Forest population may be migratory. Subsequent research in Brazil has established that, as of 2009, the Harpy Eagle, outside the Brazilian Amazon, is critically endangered in
Espírito Santo,
São Paulo and
Paraná, endangered in
Rio de Janeiro, and probably extirpated in
Rio Grande do Sul and
Minas Gerais - the actual size of their total population in Brazil is unknown.
Globally, The Harpy Eagle is considered
Near Threatened by
IUCN and threatened with extinction by
CITES (appendix I).
The Peregrine Fund until recently considered it a "conservation-dependent species", meaning it depends on a dedicated effort for captive breeding and release to the wild as well as habitat protection in order to prevent it from reaching
endangered status but now has accepted the Near Threatened status. The Harpy Eagle is considered critically endangered in Mexico and Central America, where it has been extirpated in most of its former range: in Mexico, it used to be found as far North as
Veracruz, but today probably occurs only in
Chiapas in the
Selva Zoque. It is considered as Near Threatened or Vulnerable in most of the South American portion of its range: at the Southern extreme of its range, in
Argentina, it's found only in the
Parana Valley forests at the province of
Misiones.It has disappeared from
El Salvador, and almost so from Costa Rica.
National initiatives
Adult at São Paulo Zoo, Brazil
Various initiatives for restoration of the species are currently afoot in various countries: Since 2002, Peregrine Fund initiated a conservation and research program for the Harpy Eagle in the
Darién Province, Panama. A similar—and grander, given the dimensions of the countries involved—research project is currently occurring in Brazil, at the
National Institute of Amazonian Research, through which 45 known nesting locations (presently updated to 62, only three outside the Amazonian Basin and all three presently inactive) are being monitored by researchers and volunteers from local communities. A Harpy Eagle chick has been fitted with a
radio transmitter that allows it to be tracked for more than three years via a satellite signal sent to INPE (
Brazilian National Institute for Space Research).Also, a photographic recording of a nest site in the
Carajás National Forest is presently being made by the photographer for the Brazilian edition of
National Geographic Magazine João Marcos Rosa.
In
Belize, there exists The Belize Harpy Eagle Restoration Project. It began in 2003 with the collaboration of Sharon Matola, Founder & Director of The
Belize Zoo and
The Peregrine Fund. The goal of this project was the reestablishment of the Harpy Eagle within Belize. The population of the eagle declined as a result of forest fragmentation, shooting, and nest destruction, resulting in near
extirpation of the species. Captive bred Harpy Eagles were released in the
Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area in Belize, chosen for its quality forest habitat and linkages with
Guatemala and
Mexico. Habitat linkage with Guatemala and Mexico were important for conservation of quality habitat and the Harpy Eagle on a regional level. As of November 2009, fourteen Harpy Eagles have been released and are monitored by the Peregrine Fund, through satellite
telemetry.
In January 2009, a chick from the all but extirpated population in the Brazilian state of
Paraná was hatched in captivity at the preserve kept at the vicinity of the
Itaipu dam by the Brazilian/Paraguayan state-owned company
Itaipu Binacional. In September 2009, an adult female, after being kept captive for twelve years in a private reservation, was fitted with a radiotransmitter before being restored to the wild in the vicinity of the
Pau Brasil National Park (formerly
Monte Pascoal NP), in the State of
Bahia.
In December 2009, a 15th Harpy Eagle was released into the
Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Areain Belize. The release was set to tie in with the
United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009, in
Copenhagen. The 15th eagle, nicknamed "Hope," by the Peregrine officials in
Panama, was the "poster child" for forest conservation in Belize, a
developing country, and the importance of these activities in relation to
Global Warming and
Climate Change. The event received coverage from Belize's major media entities, and was supported and attended by the U.S. Ambassador to Belize,
Vinai Thummalapally, and British High Commissioner to Belize, Pat Ashworth.
In
Colombia, as of 2007, a couple of Harpies composed of an adult male and a subadult female confiscated from wildlife trafficking were restored to the wild and monitored in
Paramillo National Park in
Córdoba, another couple being kept in captivity at a research center for breeding and eventual release. A monitoring effort with the help of volunteers from local Native American communities is also afoot in
Ecuador, including the joint sponsorship of various Spanish universities—this effort being similar to another one going on since 1996 in
Peru, centered around a Native Community in the
Tambopata Province,
Madre de Dios Region.Another monitoring project, begun in 1992, was operating as of 2005 in the state of
Bolívar,
Venezuela.
Popular culture
