Bird of Prey (2017) - full transcript

[machine clanking]

[thud]

[clicking]

[running machine]

[click and rattling machine]

[birds chirping]

♪

[narrator] The Philippine monkey-eating eagle,

a noble bird,

but nobility has helped little.

This is the world's

rarest eagle,

reduced today to a

mere fifty pairs.

♪

♪

♪

[eagle screams]

♪

[monkey howling]

[suspenseful music]

♪

[insects hissing]

[gunshot]

[suspenseful music]

[gunshot]

[engine failing]

[engine failing]

[Neil] No.

Yeah. This is oil but...

[huffing]

♪

[door closing]

[Neil] It's kind of strange

because all these

years have gone by.

You know, thirty-six years.

and from time to time, my mind

would drift to the Philippines,

to the Philippine eagle.

It was always in

the back of my mind.

Will I ever actually go

back to the Philippines

and do a new film and

study the eagle again?

How are you doing?

- Good. Neil, Neil Rettig.

How are you doing?

- Good to meet you.

[Laura] Number two

is the cargo frames,

the blind, the bag of tools.

-[Neil] Okay.

-[Laura] So, what we should

have in here is number three.

[Neil] All right.

Let's just start with it.

-[Neil] So this has got to

be the final inventory.

-[Laura] Yeah.

[Laura] I have three, three,

five, two, nine, five.

[Neil] Three, three, five,

two, nine, five. Yep.

All right. We're talking about

the one-eighty millimeter lens?

-Yeah.

-Yep.

And so I've got the

serial number for that.

-You do? Okay.

-Yeah.

[Laura] When we said that we

were going to the Philippines

for five or six months

to film the most highly

endangered eagle in the world,

everybody thought we were crazy.

I have to make sure I've got

some good working pens.

And I think that I don't

realize that everybody else

doesn't make the same

leaps that--and same

conclusions that we do.

That's gonna have

to go to customs.

I would never believe that I

could be sitting here right now

and still know that Philippine

eagles are still out there

because thirty-six years

ago, I was convinced

that the bird probably had

about twenty years left.

And now all these

years have gone by,

and there's still

Philippine eagles in the wild.

But I don't know how much

longer that's gonna last.

[whistle]

-[owl shrieking]

-We're gonna go catch a bird?

[owl shrieking]

[Neil] I'll be the first

to admit that I'm not

the best birder in the world.

I'm not very good at

identifying a lot of the small

warblers and things like that.

[Neil] Got him.

But I'm obsessed

with birds of prey.

It's okay.

[LaurOur situation is

a little bit different than

most people that have pets.

Hey, do you have

a big turkey neck?

So that's a little

bit of a concern.

And also just this place

takes a lot to maintain.

[Neil] I still don't like

to turn my back on them

Come on, you come down here.

Maybe if you could just

come here and hold this?

[Neil] That was a little scary.

No. come on. Come on.

Get out of here. Come on.

Come on. Get out of here.

Come on.

She keeps sticking to the fire

pole. Maybe you should...

[Neil] We've been planning

for a year and a half.

And sometimes I wonder,

I really wonder if we're biting

off more than we can chew.

[birds crying]

Hey, guys.

I don't know how much longer

I'm gonna be able to climb

a hundred and twenty-foot tree.

What are you guys doing?

I'm sixty-four years old

it's a little harder to

climb a tree than it was

when I was twenty-seven.

[whistles]

[Bob] When Neil came to me

and said he was going back,

I said I'd love to participate

but I think I'm gonna pass.

As we get older, we get a little

more objective about things.

[Bob] He still had a lot

of that fire and dedication

that he had as a young man.

He says, well, it's possible

we're gonna make this work.

[Neil] I'm hopeful that we

will make a difference

because I've seen how

images have the power

to change the way

people look at nature,

change the way they look

at the environment,

and change the way they care.

[narrator] This is a story with

some unlikely ingredients.

One, the jungles

of the Philippines.

Two, Chicago, USA,

not the world's safest place

either, a concrete jungle.

Three, three

determined Americans.

And their determination

took them across the

world to the Philippines

on a dramatic wildlife project

which lasted almost two years.

Bill, I'd like you to

meet Bob Kennedy.

-Bob.

-Hey, Bill, how are you doing?

Nice to meet you.

♪

[Bob] It was the opportunity of

a lifetime for all of us really.

[NeiWe had a team.

It was quite a good team and

we had this lust for adventure.

[FerdinanI don't know

any other group of man

who'd spend their lives

and all their energies

on a single mission

and that is to protect

the endangered animals.

[Bob] We arrived

in the Philippines.

We had fifteen-hundred

pounds of excess baggage,

[laughinforty bags

of camera gear, film,

the whole nine yards.

[NeiThe monkey-eating eagle

was really the grand prize.

Nobody knew anything about it.

[Bob] We were filming and

getting first-time-ever stuff.

It was just first first.

Everything was first.

[narrator] This has not

been filmed before.

And so intimate aspects of

the spectacular bird's behavior

are being recorded

for the first time.

[Bob] We were experienced,

but we were naive,

[laughing]

as young people are.

And we still just forged ahead

as if we were immune

to any danger

or anything happening to us.

We wanted to do whatever we

could to publicize the eagles.

[traffic noise]

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

[Howie] There are some

really powerful forces now

that the people who are trying

to protect the environment

in this country are up against.

[HowiThey're gaining ground,

but it's a race against time.

And time's not on their side.

♪

[rooster crowing]

[birds chirping]

[teacher] Very good.

Very good!

♪

Nine, ten, eleven duffle bags.

♪

[children laughing]

♪

♪

[Neil] In 1977, there

was but four hundred

thousand people in Davao.

Now it's 1.5 million.

And that population growth

has translated to, you know,

more pressure on the forests,

more hectic conditions here.

And it's a different place,

it's a different Philippines

than I remember

all those years ago.

If it wasn't to the

Philippine Eagle Foundation,

the eagle would probably

already be almost extinct.

♪

♪

[Neil] This road in horrendous.

-[thump]

-Uh!

It is so steep here,

it's incredible.

[Neil] And there's little

houses way up there.

the only place in the

world that it occurs,

is the Philippine Islands,

over seven thousand of them.

Built from coral

and volcanoes,

they cover a hundred

and fourteen thousand

four hundred square miles

between Southeast Asia

and Australia,

and with rich volcanic soils

watered by heavy tropical rains.

Their natural cover is forest.

Literally, it is

steaming jungle.

[birds singing]

[Pedro] The forests

of the Philippines

has been evolving since

before the Philippines.

[LorThe Philippines

sits in a belt of weather,

an environment that

allows things to grow

in a phenomenal manner.

♪

♪

one of the seventeen

mega diversity countries

in the world.

The biggest,

of course, was Brazil,

followed by China and Indonesia.

But these countries

are twenty-eight times

larger than the Philippines.

[Perry] So, in a per

unit area basis,

the Philippines pack

more biodiversity than

any country in the world.

♪

[Lory] I once asked a scientist,

"If we are so special,

why don't we have tigers?

Why don't we have rhino?

Why don't we have orangutan?"

And he said, "Don't feel bad

that you don't have tigers,

that you don't have rhino,

because you have

the largest saltwater

crocodiles in the world,

you have the largest snake,

the reticulated python,

and you have

the Philippine eagle."

[jungle noises]

[insects buzzing

and birds singing]

[Neil] I think my memory

has slipped a little bit as

to how difficult it is here.

[bird cooing]

[Neil] The forest

is damp and wet,

claustrophobic and enclosed.

This is a hellacious climb.

We're basically on our hands

and knees all the way up.

We're trying to get up

on top of a ridge here

to look down and see

what kind of a panoramic

view we can have,

and maybe even

see the nest tree.

[Neil] I think we've kind

of lost Skip back there

on the trail but it is not fun.

[birds cooing]

I think it's generous to call

that a hike. That's climbing.

[Neil] You know what

the good news is? We're

eighth of our way there.

[everybody laughing]

[narrator] There is no way

eagles can nest here.

Where are they?

It takes them six and

a half weeks to find out.

[Bob] It's like finding

a needle in a haystack.

We were going out

basically every day,

but we could never

find the nest.

[narrator] No nests have

been found since 1963.

And everyone said it

was an impossible task.

[Bob] Crossing

rivers and streams,

getting leeches on our bodies.

I actually ended up

having leeches on

my eyes at one point.

[thunders roaring]

[Bob] A big missing link there

is that we didn't know they

laid one egg every two years.

So, it was particularly

hard to find a nest

because you might be

watching a pair of eagles

during the off year.

[narrator] They separate to

check either side of a ravine

where they had a rare

glimpse of an eagle.

[Perry] It's such a big bird,

it's difficult to miss.

Yet this big bird was only

identified or discovered

as new to science in 1896.

So, you could just imagine

that for four hundred years

the Spaniards were here and

nobody knew that it was there.

[narrator] At last they find

what I've been searching for.

Yo, Bob! Over here, Bob!

[Bob] And I yelled over

to Harry that I think

there's a nest there.

[whispering]

There's a nest. There it is.

[Bob] And we were

able to view the nest

and see the eagle

incubating a single white egg.

[suspenseful music]

[bird cooing]

♪

[PerrI think by seeing human

shapes, they just disappeared.

So the challenge of finding

them is really very high.

♪

[bird cooing]

[Perry] If you find it in

your first try, you are

a very lucky person.

You would have to have

prayed to high heavens

to get that chance.

[Neil] Perfecto has known

this area all of his life,

ever since he was a little kid.

[Neil] So, we follow every

step he takes in the forest.

[bird cooing]

[whispering] On the right

side there's a piece

of green vegetation.

[Skip] Behind that,

a dark shape is moving.

It might just be a leaf,

but I can't tell.

[Neil] I'm absolutely amazed

that Perfecto found this nest.

where you can barely see through

this hole in the vegetation.

♪

[Neil] Laura, come here. Over.

[Neil] Okay, we're finally

at the nest, higher

than we were before.

It's still a very,

very limited view.

[sighs]

-This is complicated.

-It is complicated.

[NeiI'm really hoping that

this location works out.

I mean, it's possible to say

it's not even fertile,

which would be a nightmare.

♪

♪

♪

♪

[NeiWe've been here

going on ten days now.

[Neil over radio]

Laura, please check the

nest to see what's going on.

[NeiThe incubation

period is about fifty-six

to fifty-eight days.

[Laura] She flew back on to

that really far hill side. Over.

[Neil] During that time

it's very, very important

not to disturb that nest

and keep the female off the egg.

[wood creaking]

[Neil] Given the rarity of this

bird, we cannot take chances.

[birds chirping]

[birds cooing]

♪

[whispering]

That's the position.

♪

♪

♪

♪

What?

♪

[NeiTo Laura command. Over.

To Laura command. Over.

Yeah, Neil, what is it? We copy.

[NeiWe got some great news.

We've got a baby

Philippine eagle.

♪

[bird crying]

♪

[Neil] We got a little baby now.

It makes me just--

I have this confidence

now, you know,

I needed this injection

of, you know, positive.

♪

[Neil] I can only imagine

how these adults must feel.

They're such powerful predators,

but now they have to become

good parents, tender parents,

provide for the chick,

keep it warm, protected.

♪

[NeiIt seems like no matter

how many times I've done this

during my life filming

birds of prey,

you always go through

these different stages

of waiting and anxiety.

But now, the baby

is so fragile and so...

you know, tiny and

he's got to survive.

♪

[womaOne of the major

goals of the Eagle Foundation

is to breed eagles in captivity.

On January 15th 1992,

the first Philippine eagle

to be bred in captivity

through artificial

insemination was born.

The Philippine eagle

population is near extinction

with only fifty-one

known individuals.

Therefore, this

scientific breakthrough

of this chick's hatching

is vital in the recovery

of the species.

-Yeah!

-[laughing]

[woman] It is the culmination

of fourteen years' work.

[eaglet chirping]

The chick is now two days old.

Her name is Pag-asa,

which means hope.

♪

♪

[Jayson] One of the challenges

with working with the Philippine

eagle is that it's long lived.

An adult Philippine eagle can

live up to forty-five years.

[Dennis] Because they grew

up accustomed to humans,

as soon as they become

mature, they think of

humans as their mates.

And Eddie plays that

role, a surrogate.

♪

[whistles]

♪

[eagle crying]

[sighs]

[reporter] Well, you may

not have noticed, but

then again you may have,

the rainy season has officially

begun in the Philippines.

The torrential rains and

fierce winds have all

but shut down Manila.

Around twenty major storms pass

over the Philippines each year.

[thunder roaring]

[Laura over the radio]

Did you hear all that thunder?

[Neil] Yeah, I'm hoping the

bird maybe would come back.

[Neil] Oh, my goodness.

[Neil] Today the baby eagle was

left alone on the nest because

we frightened the female off.

It had started to rain.

It started to rain hard.

[thunder roaring]

[NeiYou're looking

at your watch,

she's been off for an hour.

It's a cold rain

and he looks like a drowned rat,

completely soaked.

And he's starting to shiver.

[eaglet crying]

[Laura] Those downy

feathers that that chick has

is a really good insulation,

but as soon as

the feathers get wet,

the insulating

properties go to nil

and baby birds have

really zero body fat.

[Neil] I think cold rains could

kill a young eagle in an

hour and a half, two hours.

[thunders roaring]

♪

[thunders roaring]

[Neil] That was

like a wake-up call.

Ideally to really, really

do the job we want,

I would like to be

a hundred feet away,

even a little closer

maybe, eighty feet away,

but it's kind of agonizing

wondering if we're gonna

be able to pull this off

without frightening

the birds and without

causing harm to the baby.

[Laura] We certainly don't

expect any birds of prey

to readily accept everything

that we're doing,

but Neil's experience with

other Philippine eagles

says that they're really quite

a bit more tolerant than this.

♪

[Bob] That tree was about

two-hundred feet tall

and the nest was about

a hundred and forty five

feet above the ground.

♪

Trying to get around a limb

at hundred and ten

feet off the ground

that's as big around as a horse,

that is a scary process.

♪

[Neil] One of the biggest

risks in climbing these

tropical trees is insects.

You run into insects that are

nasty, there's no place to go.

You can't run.

Where are you gonna go?

You can't just drop

out of the tree.

That would be worse

than the bugs.

-[insects buzzing]

-I don't need that rope, over.

[LaurAnd your

extra climbing gears?

Oh, yeah, the extra

climbing gear, yes.

And the saw. Over. Okay?

[LaurGot it.

[insects buzzing]

What the hell am I doing here?

[insects buzzing]

You gotta just kind of ignore

them which is almost impossible.

[insects buzzing]

The bees are getting

really, really severe.

♪

[Neil] The process for building

platforms or blinds in the trees

is kind of complicated.

[narrator] It's built slowly

with a couple of pieces each day

over a four to five day period.

This lets the eagles become

familiar with the new odd-shaped

structure in the neighborhood.

At the nest size, they build

from three to five hides.

The first one is about

two-hundred yards away.

The final hide is about

twenty-five yards away

and slightly above the nest

so as to be able to see into it.

[BoSo, what we did is we

found a smaller neighboring tree

and we sent a rope across to

the main limb of the nest tree

and then we basically

just used carabiners

and pulled our way across.

[Bob] Neil was actually

the first person to go across.

I followed him.

This was like a unique

lifetime experience.

Here I had this young eaglet

of a pair that produces

only one young eaglet

every two years in my hands,

one of the rarest living

things on the planet.

We got the first photographs

of the eaglet in the nest

up close and personal.

And then I proceeded to do

that climb every ten days.

[narrator] Every ten days,

he climbs the nest tree

to weigh, measure and

photograph the eaglet.

[Bob] Well, when

you're doing that,

you've got one of the

largest, most powerful

eagles in the world

and here you are

dangling from a rope

[laughing] at a hundred

and twenty, hundred and

forty feet off the ground.

And eagles and

many birds of prey

do not like people

to enter their nests

or get near their nests.

And so they will attack.

And the guys would

photograph that.

[Bob over the radio]

Neil, do you see the

female anywhere? Over.

She's in the green

big tree. Over.

[Bob] Okay. Yeah, we can just

make her out up on that limb.

[NeiIf she leaves the tree,

I'll let you know. Over and out.

[Bob] I had straddled this very

large branch where the nest was.

And I heard from the

guys up on the hill,

"Here she comes." [laughs]

And I just looked out of

the corner of my eye and,

you know, over my shoulder

and she was heading at me

And she put a gash

in the helmet and punctured

my arm, tore my arm open.

[NeiLooks like she

got angry that time.

-Yeah.

-[Bob] You guys get that? Over.

Looks like Bob might

have a few scars.

and it looked like Kennedy

might have got hit in

the head and shoulder.

[man] Yeah, you saw it right.

There's about a four-inch

gash down the shoulder,

and so blood coming out

and I can see a long deep

gouge in the helmet.

-A little blood.

And his neck. Over.

I'm very proud

to have been attacked

by a Philippine eagle

in the nest.

She was doing the

right thing. I was intruding.

[laughs]

[Neil] The original plan

was to start building

a closer tree platform

when the young eagle was

seven to ten days old.

We've been at this site

going on a month.

And the young eagle now is

going on twenty-one days old.

[Neil] That's a very

high--tall tree.

♪

All right, here we go.

♪

♪

[Laura over the radio]

Can you give us the time

since Neil started climbing?

Just for reference? Over.

[man] Yeah, it's been

just over thirty minutes

but we're at fifty-five

minutes since the eagle

was last on the nest. Over.

[Neil] We'd only work an

hour and a half each day.

In one day you may be

lucky only to put up

two pieces of wood.

Next day you got to climb

again to put up two or

three more pieces of wood.

Day after that maybe

you're lucky you can

put some planks up.

[NeiA six-foot two by four

would be awesome. Over.

[man] Okay, we'll

cut it and send it.

♪

I'm actually swallowing

insects up here like crazy,

you wouldn't believe it.

[Skip] Well, we're gonna

finish up this close platform

and as soon as we do,

start shooting from it.

[Skip] The closest we've

been able to film from

so far is seventy meters.

It's a good view, but

you can't get those

intimate close-ups.

You can't get the things

that are gonna help people

emotionally connect

to these birds.

[Skip] We wish we had this

close platform a month ago.

But circumstances

are what they are.

[Skip] This platform is

gonna change everything.

So, this is the finished blind

and work is gonna

begin tomorrow here.

Bugs are horrible.

[bird cooing]

[birds chirping]

[birds chirping]

[bird crying]

[insects buzzing]

[BoYou can't imagine the

feeling of power of grandeur

of an animal like this until

you really get up close.

[Neil] I remember clearly

the first time I ever

saw a Philippine eagle

and I was completely blown away

by how different it was

from so many other birds

of prey that I know.

It's got this beautiful

crest that stands up

and it's got these

beautiful blue eyes

and it's got bone

crushing powerful feet.

♪

[eagle screaming]

♪

[Neil] You can imagine what

it's like to be a monkey.

When they're in a troop,

they're trying to protect

their young ones

when this top-notch

predator comes in.

♪

[Bob] I have seen two

individuals hunting together

and occasionally you'll

see one eagle kind of

distracting monkeys

when another eagle would come

up from behind and grab them,

kind of like the velociraptors

of Jurassic Park.

[screaming]

[suspenseful music]

[suspenseful music]

[suspenseful music intensifies]

[monkeys screaming]

[suspenseful music]

[suspenseful music intensifies]

♪

[bird screaming]

[Bob] Unlike many birds of prey

that don't necessarily

eat large bones,

They get it in their mouth

and then they go like this to

force it down into their crop.

Well, the eagles

don't realize if you offer

that thing to a chick,

the chicks are not capable

of dealing with it.

[Neil] There's been

numerous times when

I've watched the eaglet

taking a bone that long

and trying to choke it down.

You know it's a

scary thing to watch

because I always relate

back to that awful day.

[narrator] It's at this early

stage of the nesting cycle that

the chick is most vulnerable.

The filming is going well,

but the men know

it's a critical time.

[Bob] I thought everything

was pretty much on course.

We had succeeded

in finding the nest,

we had a healthy chick

and everything was going great.

And then tragedy struck.

[Neil] It was January 19, 1978,

I was the only one there,

I was alone in the blind.

I couldn't believe

what I had just seen,

what just happened.

[Bob] I just can't imagine

going out setting up

to film that morning.

Seeing that the

eaglet is in trouble

and not being able to

do anything about it.

[narrator] And then

the crisis comes.

The chick chokes

on a bone and dies.

And the whole project just fell

apart right then and there.

This was the same

chick I watched hatch,

I made sketches of,

recorded all the detail.

I had kind of a real bond

with it, that baby eagle.

And...

then we had to go out

and find another nest,

and that took two

months of searching.

[narrator] But at last,

with the help of their

Filipino colleagues

they find what they've

been searching for.

Once again, almost hidden.

[Bob] You know, you kind

of live to play another day.

And you know what

happens in nature.

Nature is not necessarily

the nicest place out there.

[whistles]

[AnnEvery egg is a

precious thing to us

because we only get

a few fertile eggs.

[heart beating]

[SkiThe chick just

let out a huge yawn.

The chick spends about

eighty percent of the time

just laying down on the nest.

When this baby eagle

leaves this nest,

it's never gonna lay down again

unless it's incubating

an egg someday.

It'll always be perched

upright somewhere.

And he seems to really

enjoy laying down and

stretching out. So it's like...

I guess, growing up sucks.

♪

♪

[Neil] For a bird like this

to go from this stage

to a self-sufficient hunter

is pretty mind blowing.

♪

-Perfect, perfect.

-Yeah.

-Okay, ready?

-One, two, three.

♪

[Laura over the radio]

He's on his way up.

There is a tender

side to these eagles.

[Skip] There's this

connected sense of family

between the mother

and father eagle and

their chick, their baby.

Yes!

♪

[Neil] These birds

are working constantly,

both the male and female,

right from the beginning

of the nesting cycle

all the way through till these

young birds are independent.

They're eating snakes and bats,

lemurs and monkeys and owls.

They are working

their butts off.

♪

[SkiLater on in the

afternoon the chicks

started feeding itself

from a bit of a carcass that one

of the adults had left behind.

And it brought it right out into

the open, so I could see

the whole head of a civet.

Most the time,

the adults kind of eat the

head before they come in.

♪

[NeiEvery time I come up to

this close blind, he's changed.

He knows he's an eagle.

He knows he's a

Philippine eagle.

He's born and raised

in the canopy.

He sees the prey that

they're bringing him

and he's learning all of these

vital things for survival.

[Skip] I've spent so many

days over the last four,

four and a half months

sitting here watching this

baby eagle all day long

that I've kind of grown to think

of him like he's my buddy,

I left all my friends behind at

home but I still got this eagle.

We're like hanging out

in the trees together all day.

[Neil] This Sinaka pair

of Philippine eagles

miraculously are pulling

off raising a family.

It almost seems as if

when we're here watching

these eagles from our blinds

that everything is okay

and they're in this forest.

But we've got to

remember that this is a

tiny fragment of forest

and everything is not okay.

[Neil] The three eagles that

live here are three of three

hundred birds in the world.

And they are raising this

chick as if nothing's changed

for thousands of years.

They can't comprehend that

this baby, when he leaves,

he has no place to go.

[reporter] There are

great tracts of forest

in these islands

and forestry is one of

the biggest industries.

[PaAxes and two-man saws,

with this kind of

equipment it was slow.

The best feller in those days,

the most he could do

was one tree and a half a day.

With a chainsaw...

[laughs] ...one guy

can do a lot more.

Scene two, take two.

♪

[narrator] The home of the eagle

is threatened by the demand for

hardwoods in distant countries.

Rich countries like Japan,

Europe and the United States

want that timber.

To satisfy this apparently

insatiable demand,

logging goes on day and night.

[PaIn the late 1970s, the

logging industry was booming.

Every road, every

highway in the Philippines

had logging trucks back and

forth twenty-four hours a day.

I'm happy to see that

the reactions throughout

the country is favorable.

I have received hundreds and

hundreds of telegrams from

all corners of the Philippines

congratulating you,

and incidentally me,

for the proclamation

of martial law.

[Lory] The height of logging

was during the martial law era

where they were cutting

down close to four-hundred

thousand hectares a year.

[chainsaw]

[Marites] President Marcos

used the forest as a tool

to enrich his friends

and himself, as a tool

to remain in power.

[Fulgencio] All you had to

do was to be relatively

close to politicians,

give them money

during campaigns,

and they'll give you

these concessions.

[Bob] The entire country

had been divided up

into logging concessions.

They were cutting the timber

out as quickly as possible.

[Marites] No one was watching,

there was no regulation,

so they just cut with impunity.

[Pat] And the government

being so corrupt, you could

do anything you want to.

Just wait for the inspector

to come and then bribe him.

[tree falling]

[FulgenciThere was really no

incentive to protect anything.

[narrator] The eagle's home

was removed wholesale in this

onslaught of modern technology.

Two acres of forest are felled

every one and a half minutes.

[MariteI saw how

enormous the loss was,

how greedy Marcos was.

It wasn't just the money

he stole from us,

it was the forest which he

stole from the Filipino people.

[Howie] The first penetration

of our forest areas were by

big commercial logging firms.

And they created access

for a lot of smaller forces.

[Pat] Most of the concessions

were in remote areas.

And in order to get there you

had to build roads to get in.

[Fulgencio] When you build

a road to the forest,

for whatever reason,

it becomes bad for the forest

because people track in.

And when people track in,

you can't stop them from

trying to make a living.

[Pat] Population pressure

became intense

and people who didn't

have land or didn't have

farms in the lowlands,

didn't have jobs

in the lowlands,

they'd move up and do

slash-and-burn farming.

And the forests

quickly disappeared.

[bird screaming]

[suspenseful music]

[Bob] I mean, there were hardly

even remnants of trees left.

It might have been some

stumps and things like that.

But for as far as you could

see, some places were gone.

♪

[Pedro] We've gone

through millions of

years of the diversity

that we now have

in the Philippines

and in one hundred years

we've decimated it.

[Pedro] It looked like

it'll last forever.

The forests were so thick.

[Pat] The forests went

all the way to the ocean.

All the way to the ocean.

[Lory] We destroyed all

that in seventy years.

♪

[Cielito] We used to have

twenty million hectares of

virgin forests in this country

around about the 1930s or so.

And of the 1990s,

this was down

to an estimated just

one million hectares.

♪

[Lory] It starts off

with being massive.

Basically all of our Islands,

over seven thousand,

suffered deforestation.

[NeiThere's hardly

any forest left.

The forests are just confined

to these little tiny ridges,

these little tiny sanctuaries

that are still remaining

while everything else is cleared

and the land is just

rolling grassland.

♪

[Lory] I think if you're

looking out of the plane window,

it's always beautiful, you know.

You have the cloud

formations, the light,

the greenness of the land.

If you look at it closer,

you see it's a landscape

that's bleeding.

♪

[Howie] There are a number

of things that have

changed profoundly

over the last three decades

here in the Philippines.

First of all is population.

♪

The Philippines with

one hundred million people

is actually the fourteenth

most populous country

in the world.

And so, small as our country is,

and you can imagine what that

means as far as population

density is concerned.

[Howie] Any way you look at

it, hundred million people

is a lot of people.

But we don't have the luxury

of space in the Philippines.

And that creates all kinds

of pressure on the land,

on the environment,

on ecosystems.

And when populations are forced

to go to the unlikeliest

places for habitation

like wilderness,

they're gonna be in

direct competition

with other living things.

[rooster crowing]

[womaI don't like the feeling

when there's birds coming in

because there's another one

removed from the wild.

[Jayson] Matatag arrived as a

bird that is in poor condition.

Almost all of its flight

feathers were gone.

The bird was

severely dehydrated.

[womaWhen an injured

bird comes to the center,

some of them are almost

at the point of dying.

[bird screaming]

[woman] If you get to nurse

them back to health

and have another chance of

being released back to the wild,

you get the feeling that

you've accomplished something.

[woman] Birds that come into

the center are mostly juveniles.

Maybe because they're

inquisitive by nature,

they don't know the

dangers yet of humans.

[Ron] We started hiking around

7:30 that Sunday morning.

We arrived here

around 10:40 a.m.

I remember the head

is here facing there.

The tail here, the back is here

with the monitoring device.

Look like a bird just

crashed in this side.

Like a crash landing.

Just crashed here,

directly here.

[Jayson] When Ron told me

about the death of the bird,

he quickly mentioned there's

a crack in the keel bone

and he himself thinks

that it's caused by a bullet.

[Ron] We're looking for

an air gun pellet or bullet.

Right now it could have been

covered with some mud

and making it hard to find.

[Lory] The experience of the

Philippine Eagle Foundation

is that, whenever they

encounter a Philippine eagle

that are brought to them,

it's been shot.

It's been shot.

[Lory] We always say that,

you know, if you want

to see a model

for Philippine eagle and

people living together,

you should go to Mount Apo.

[Jayson] And then you

get this news that one

of your precious birds

actually nesting in the

oldest nesting site in

the Philippines is dead.

If this individual

which has been watched over

for several years can die,

and this pair is within

a protected area,

what more for eagles

in unprotected areas?

[Giovanne] We hear

news every year

that there are eagles caught,

there are eagles killed, died.

So, if this continues twenty,

thirty years or fifty years,

we lose everything.

[Lory] If present trends

continue, you'll only see

Philippine eagles in captivity.

You'll never see the

Philippine eagle soar again.

[woman] I don't want

to explain to my child

that I'm working with the

eagles only in captivity.

I want to give him a chance to

see eagles in the wild as well

because I did have a chance

before to see eagles in the wild

and I want him to have

the same chance.

[Jayson] You still have

other eagles that you can

spare from this experience.

So, how do we do that?

We need to move forward.

♪

[Pedro] Awareness is

pasat this stage.

We have to move on to attitude.

Yeah? If you want

an A for awareness,

I'm looking an A for attitude.

I want a change in attitude.

That's something that sticks.

And that's something

you feel in your guts.

♪

[Neil] What I do

when I'm up here

is I just stare

at this viewfinder.

And that's all I do.

To put all your energy

into it, all of your senses

have to be riveted.

I'll go back to a higher

frame rate in case

we get another angle.

♪

The eagles are kind of

getting panicky again.

[Bob] As important as

this is, and as dedicated

as Neil has been,

I have a level of pessimism

that until some major

sociological changes take place,

that we're all just

delaying the eventual.

[Neil] Some people

question the sanity of

actually trying anything

when they just kind of throw

the towel in and they hold

their hands up and they say,

"What can we do?

What can you do?"

The population is going

to continue, the forest

will all be cut down

and the eagle would be extinct.

♪

No, let's not just give up.

Let's not say it's impossible.

Let's not give up hope

for the Philippine eagle

and other endangered

species around the world,

including elephants, rhinos.

♪

[BoThere was no obstacle

that was too tall to get over.

We found a way to get around it.

There was no "no".

We didn't say,

"No, we can't do that."

You know,

"We'll never find a nest,"

you know, "The eagle had died.

We'll never find another nest."

These are words that

Neil would never say.

But he followed through with

it regardless of the odds.

[NeiFor me, these creatures

are masterpieces of nature.

Some people say

masterpieces of God.

Some people

correlate it to religion.

I personally cannot

stand the thought

of these masterpieces

becoming extinct.

And so, there's a handful

of people that want to

do something about it

and I'm one of them.

♪

[Dennis] There are no hopeless

cases, only people losing hope.

And I don't want to be

that person losing hope.

And I can see that my colleagues

share the same thing.

[Jayson] It's this faith that

we have that this bird has a

chance to survive in the wild.

We know that other people

might not share our values.

But there's also a big

possibility that such values

can be shared by other people.

[Bob] You have to have

a dogged determination

that where other people find

excuses not to do things,

you find a way to

make it happen.

[whistles]

Look at that.

[Jayson] Philippine eagle

conservation work is

not just about biology,

it's not about ecology,

it's not just about research.

It's basically working

with the diversity of human

tendencies, of human behavior.

This is partly economic,

it's partly political,

it's partly scientific

rolled into one.

Things are connected.

♪

[Neil] I'm hopeful that

we will make a difference

because I think we made a

difference thirty-six years ago.

♪

The work we did has

bought the eagle time,

time by influencing people,

even President Marcos.

[Bob] The eagle was described

as Pithecophaga jefferyi.

Pithecus meaning monkey

and phaga meaning

eater or destroyer.

[Bob] So, from the

beginning of time,

this bird was known

even to the local people

as a bird that eats monkeys.

Well, you go in and

talk to people about

the monkey-eating eagle

and how important it is

and they take up sides

with the monkeys.

[Bob] So, it was very important

that we get rid of that name.

When we went in to see Marcos,

we said this is a bird that

does eat monkeys but rarely

and we think that it's

getting a bad rep

by being called the

monkey-eating eagle.

"Well, if it's only found in

the Philippines, why don't we

call it the Philippine eagle?"

[laughing] Bingo, you know.

[Bob] So, he passed a special

presidential proclamation

changing the name

from monkey-eating eagle

to Philippine eagle.

Probably, the only name

of a bird in the history

of ornithology

that's been changed

by a president.

Uh!

[LaurOkay, adult just landed

at the nest, everybody. Over.

I just saw that. If I

can be quick, we might

have a chance. Over.

[LaurOkay. I think it

might be good for you

to not climb yet. Over.

[Neil] I got to get

this camera built,

and actually hope that I do

it in time to get him leaving

for a possible flying shot.

There's really a good chance

that we'll get something

from this platform.

You got to think clearly

so you don't, you know,

drop anything.

It's actually kind of exciting.

[Laura] The second one

is coming behind it. Over.

[Neil] I don't like to put

human emotion into animals,

but I can tell you what,

it seemed to me like they

were just enjoying that day

in pair bonding,

celebrating the fact that

they've got a young eagle

that's healthy and robust.

And the first time I've ever

seen anything like that.

[raining]

[thunders roaring]

[rain intensifies]

♪

♪

[bird chirping]

[birds crying]

♪

♪

♪

[Neil] Yeah, that's great

to get these details.

See, these feathers are pretty

much fully grown now.

You know, the secondaries

are still growing and

the primaries in the tail.

[Neil] Little piece of down

on the end of his beak there.

He's slowly but

surely losing all that--

I try to pay a lot of attention

to the feathers and the

preening and that kind of stuff.

Since that's kind of crucial

right now is like getting

his feathers ready for flight.

[NeiSo, you notice

that when the wind kicks

up just the right way,

he really gets into it.

[Skip] You can tell they

take great pleasure

[Neil] That has got to be one of

the most amazing beak cleaning

shots of any raptor ever done.

-[Skip laughs]

-[Neil] Seriously.

That is so nice. Oh.

♪

♪

[Bob] It'll be a legacy

that will live on forever.

♪

[Bob] I think that the vision

to go back to compare

what we did in the past

to what we could do today

and to go beyond that

is very important.

♪

[Lory] The eagle

must be accessible.

People must be able

to have an opportunity

to see why this bird

is our national symbol.

When you see that bird,

there are few wildlife

experiences that compare.

♪

[eaglet crying]

[eaglet crying]

[Jayson] We believe that

he belongs to the wild.

And I had this faith

that something good

will come out of this.

Every individual counts.

Every opportunity where we

can release fit birds back

into the wild, we take it.

♪

-[teacher] The Philippine eagle!

-[children] Philippine eagle!

[teacher] Conservation is just

not for the Philippine eagle

or for the animals

or for the wildlife,

but also for the ones

who live here.

They're the one who can decide

what will happen for their land.

We could not stop. I mean

we should never stop.

[children] One, two, three!

One, two, three!

[screaming]

♪

♪

[PedrIt is something

awesome. It is something

really of wonder.

♪

We have to realize that just

having a few of them in the zoo,

we understand that that

loses all its meaning.

It has to have

its empire to fly over.

It has to have a view

of the Philippines

that holds us in awe.

♪

♪

[Lory] If we lose the Philippine

eagle in the Philippines,

the whole world loses.

It might be found here but

it's a property of the world.

♪

[PedrWe want it to be

free across the Philippines.

And that's a struggle

because it takes more

than belief, it takes doing,

and this is the time for doing.

We know all the right things to

say, we have all the policies,

but we have to live by it.

That's the challenge.

♪

♪

[PedrYou just watch a

child see an eagle unfold

its wings for the first time

and you re-live

your own childhood.

Yes, you can

dismiss it as silly.

Rationally it has no value,

economically it has no value.

But what it has to the

human spirit is immeasurable.

[birds chirping]

♪

[Neil] Hey, girl.

Good girl.

[Laura] The plight of the

eagle is about so much

more than just the eagle.

I think the eagle is a very

visible and powerful symbol

of everything that is at risk.

♪

♪

[Pedro] I think all of us

have to realize that saving

the Philippine eagle

and saving Philippine forests

really goes way beyond

what meets the eye.

It's really saving our very

own source of livelihood,

our very own future

as a country.

♪

♪

♪

♪