Human Persecution of the Harpy Eagle: A Widespread Threat?

Abstract

The Harpy Eagle (Harpia harpyja) may be perceived as a potential threat to the livestock and humans, and as a consequence can suffer poaching and human persecution around its distribution. The Harpy Eagle has been completely extirpated from countries like El Salvador, while suffering human persecution all over its distribution. In Colombia, only three records of persecution were published, although there have been several cases of persecution in recent years reported on media, which suggest that the persecution records of the species in the country could be not well represented on scientific literature. While in Panama, the last reported persecution case was in 2006 although we also know by media the species persecution is still present. In this manuscript, we reported new records of human persecution of Harpy Eagle in Colombia and Panama, in the last two decades. In addition to the previously reported cases in the media, we include some additional records collected by ourselves as well as other researches. Additionally, we compiled published records of Harpy Eagle persecution across its distribution. We found a total of 132 cases of Harpy Eagle persecution between 1950 and 2020. Unpublished records across Colombia and Panama comprised 21 cases, in the last two decades (13 in Colombia and eight in Panama). In the other hand, the published cases of persecution across the species distribution comprised 111 records and were distributed over the last seven decades across 11 countries where the Harpy Eagle is distributed in Central and South America. A high percentage (89%; 117 of 132) of persecution cases were lethal. From the non-lethal cases (11%; 15 of 132) only six individuals returned to the wild after rehabilitation. Awareness campaigns and environmental education strategies on the ecological importance of the species and its potential for bird watching programs could be implemented. Information about persecution cases and the causes that could motivate it along these countries can be useful to motivate deeper studies about human-Harpy Eagle interactions as well as to inform evidence-based conservation planning and implementation (i.e. environmental education, law enforcement, mitigation actions).