Wild Encounters

When people ask me what I do, my first answer would be: “I’m a veterinarian”.
After hearing this answer, they might begin to try and squeeze a free consultation out of me by saying “I have a dog with a problem…” I would then explain that I’m not that kind of veterinarian, as many of [...]

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How many Philippine Eagles are there in the wild?

As an ordinary bloke with no formal training in biology, I’ve always wanted—perhaps unreasonably—a clear answer to this question.
But it seems that no one knows—or at least, no one is reckless enough to hazard an answer. Why is this? I figured the history of the struggle to conserve the Philippine Eagle has its fair share [...]

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“Philippine Eagle feeding its young.” Oil on canvas. 24” x 36”

A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from wildlife illustrator Oscar Figuracion Jr. saying that he had just finished an oil painting of a Philippine Eagle and was looking for buyers. I came to know Oscar a few years ago when his illustrations had graced a series of NGO-produced species-identification guides meant for DENR [...]

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Of Coffee Shops and Endemic Species

Endemicity. Threatened species. Cacatua haematuropygia. Protected area management. Biodiversity. These are not exactly things that you would normally talk to your friends about while sitting in some coffee shop, but for a small community of conservation workers, this group of bloggers for instance, that is precisely the case. Except, perhaps, instead of a coffee shop, [...]

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