Juvenile Brahminy Kite dies from severe injury

By Richel V. Umel
Correspondent .

LINAMON, Lanao del Norte — An injured four-month-old Brahminy Kite (Haliastur Indus) rescued by the Local Government Unit  of Linamon this province  and the Community Environment and Natural Resources of the DENR died at around 8:00 pm Tuesday while it was given an emergency treatment in a veterinary clinic in Iligan City.

Alleson Daroy, owner of the a private wildlife rescue center in Iligan City who received the Brahminy Kite from Cenro-DENR said “it has a severe injury between the neck and chest that went through the trachea and esophagus and its backbone was broken.”

Upon arrival at the veterinary clinic on Monday afternoon, the bird weighed at 400 lbs and the veterinarian administered anti-biotics and under went an initial treatment, Daroy said.

But four hours later, the bird died and was buried near the wildlife rescue center duly authorized by DENR-10.

Palao Abantas Sr., officer-in-charge of Cenro said “we turned over the injured Brahminy Kite to Daroy’s wildlife rescue center since we don’t have budget for a facility in our office.

As for Linamon town mayor Randy Macapil, he vowed to reinforce the DENR policy through a local Sangguniang Bayan resolution to prohibit the shooting of any endangered species in the woodland areas of Linamon to prevent a repeat of the Brahminy Kite incident.

“The Barhminy Kite could have been hit by either a sling shot or an improvized airgun using pvc pipe with marble as its bullet. The Brahminy Kite was turned over by the village chief of Robocon Monday morning,” Macapil said.

Macapil said Robocon is where the famous Tinago waterfalls is located. It is a tourist destination surrounded by forest vegetation where different endangered species of flora and fauna thrive which include monkeys and tarsiers.