Harpy Eagle Project

HARPY EAGLE PROJECT

with Ron Magill, Zoo Communications & Media Relations Director

Zoo Miami spearheaded an effort to design and build a state-of-the-art Harpy Eagle Center at Summit Zoo and Gardens just outside of Panama City.  The center hosts tens of thousands of visitors each year and serves as the base for harpy eagle conservation and education programs throughout the republic.  Subsequently, Zoo Miami played a vital role in lobbying the Panamanian Congress to pass a law officially declaring the harpy eagle the National Bird of Panama and thereby providing it with additional federal protection.  In 2013, Zoo Miami brought the first harpy eagle to ever hatch in captivity at its facility to Summit Zoo and Gardens in Panama to be exhibited at the center and to serve as a wildlife ambassador for the Harpy Eagle Project and to help educate the thousands of visitors about the many wonders of this incredible bird and the beautiful tropical forest world in which it lives.  Zoo Miami staff has participated in various field studies of the harpy eagle in Panama while providing ongoing funding and support for those studies as well as a wide variety of educational programs within the indigenous communities.