The Harpy: “Rumble in the Jungle”

The Harpy Eagle

The word “harpy” might remind you of the mythological Greek creature half-human and half-bird, presented as a wind spirit ferrying the dead to Hades.   It wasn’t until Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 edition of Systema Naturae compared and named this majestic yet apex predator,  Vultur Harpya.

 Rain Forest Habitat

The harpy eagle reigns as “El Presidente” of the rainforest food chain and has no natural enemies (except humans).  Its prey includes tree-dwelling mammals and reptiles, such as sloths, monkeys, opossums, macaws, parrots, iguanas, and snakes, although sloths are their easiest mark and absolute favorite.  All other prey can move swiftly, the poor sloth, however, moves “slower than a snail” and even hangs upside down on a tree limb for long periods, practically screaming “Eat Me”.

A female harpy weighs up to 20 pounds and nearly 2x the weight of a male, but both sexes can easily lift prey twice its weight.  Harpy’s claws are the biggest and most dangerous of any bird of prey, and its talons are as large as a grizzly bear’s; it stands anywhere from a child’s height to a small man’s.  The harpy’s legs can measure the width of a forearm and its short wings and torso help it navigate through a dense forest canopy.  As an apex hunter, the harpy’s keen sense of smell and sight as well as its hooked beak for tearing flesh, seal its dominance.

The Nest: Fit For a King

The Harpy eagle mates for life. Both males and females work together with nest construction and raising of their chick, in the tallest, most regal tree in the forest, creating a type of watch tower over its domain.

An abundance of sticks is needed to build an average 6 ft wide by 1 ft deep nest to accommodate the large male and female harpy, their young chick, and food.  Oddly enough, the female produces only one chick every 2-4 years. If two eggs are laid, the first to hatch lives, and the other dies.  Both parents share in the chick’s upbringing until the age of six months when it’s old enough to leave the nest, albeit, the parents continue to feed it for up to ten months.

Extinction 

Immense swaths of land with large, healthy, and prey-laden trees are needed to conserve the harpy eagles’ viable existence. Its numbers are dwindling due to the increase in deforestation and hunting of the raptors by ranchers and farmers. Naughty harpies have been known to snatch domestic animals including lambs, chickens, or piglets for sustenance, causing their death by bullet or trap. In the case of a game hunter, the harpy will happily stay on its branch when he approaches exhibiting no “fight or flight” to his impending slaughter. The harpy eagle thinks he has no enemies.

Conservation 

The magnificent Harpy is in danger of extinction if the needless killing or displacement of its natural habitat doesn’t stop.  Several large conservation efforts are at work to help alleviate the useless slaughter of another “umbrella species“.  Unfortunately, the whole world needs to take more interest in this effort. The extinction of this essential and powerful raptor will upset the ecosystem of the rainforest even more than it already has.

How You Can Help/References

1. https://peregrinefund.org/explore-raptors-species/eagles/harpy-eagle
2. https://www.oneearth.org/bird-alive-what-the-devil-is-a-harpy-eagle
3. https://abcbirds.org/bird/harpy-eagle
4. https://gifts.audubon.org/adoption-center/bald-eagle?ms=digital-eng-paid
5. https://www.ourbreathingplanet.com
6. https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/harpy-eagle-the-challenge-of-protecting-the-amazons-largest-bird-of-prey
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpy_eagle
8. Google images: Harpy eagles
9. YouTube video: The Harpy Eagle: A Mighty Predator of the Tropics
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rumble_in_the_Jungle