THE PROJECT

Aguilucho: Dance of the Harpy Eagle is a documentary short about indigenous-led conservation efforts to bring back the endangered Harpy Eagle to the remote Darién Gap rainforest in Panamá. The Emberá tribal community of Playa Muerto live here, in one of the last untouched rainforests in Central America—the only break in the 19,000-mile Pan-American Highway, which winds from Alaska to Argentina. The film is an exploration of a renewed relationship between the tribe and the great raptor, in the face of threats to the species and its ecosystem from deforestation and encroachment from loggers. 

From the development of collaborative monitoring practices to the revival of an ancient Eagle Dance, this incredible relationship is a model for conserving both a culture and a rainforest. The film was made in partnership with the Emberá of Playa Muerto and The Peregrine Fund, who work tirelessly in Panamá and around the world alongside various indigenous peoples to help save birds of prey from extinction.

THE EMBERÁ

The Emberá are an indigenous people of Panama and Colombia. There are currently about 33,000 Emberá living in Darién, Panama, and 50,000 in Colombia. The tribe speaks a unique language and is largely self-sufficient, through small-scale agriculture, fishing and hunting, but relies on some supplemental government services such as education, as well as cultural tourism.

The Emberá are a riverine people, often travelling by dugout canoe, and live in houses raised 6–12 feet off the ground on stilts with thatched roofing made from palm leaves. They have traditionally been an egalitarian society, without formal leaders, but now each village elects a mayor who serves a five-year term which is reviewed annually, as well as a shaman who has a lifelong term.

The tribe have a beautiful and distinctive presentation, with the women wearing brightly-colored cloth called paruma wrapped at the waist as a skirt, and the men, a loincloth and colorful beads. The adults paint their bodies with a dye made from the berry of the Genipa americana tree. The dark-colored dye is thought to repel insects and the geometric designs are known as jagua tattoos.

THE HARPY EAGLE

The world’s largest and most powerful raptor, and the national bird of Panama, the Harpy Eagle is critically endangered due to habitat loss and hunting. With the exception of some areas of Panama, the species is almost extinct in Central America.

Harpy Eagles stand up to three and half feet tall, with a wingspan of up to seven and a half feet. Like most eagle species, the female Harpy is almost twice as large as the male, and can weigh up to 26lbs. The species' main prey are tree-dwelling mammals such as sloths and monkeys. Harpy Eagles can reach speeds of 50 miles an hour while hunting and possess the strongest and largest talons of any living eagle, larger than a grizzly bear’s claws at five inches long. With them they can lift prey equal to their own body weight including chickens, lambs, goats, and young pigs, and in some mythology, babies. For this reason they have been feared and hunted. 

Another reason for their scarcity is their slow reproduction rate—a pair of Harpy Eagles raises just one chick every 2–3 years. Harpies mate for life, and take turns incubating and feeding their young, who stay vulnerable in the nest for up to a year. Breeding maturity is not reached until birds are four to six years old. Harpy Eagles can live as long as 25 to 35 years in the wild.

Harpy Eagles are apex predators and are very important for the tropical rainforest ecosystem. Saving the population can help in conservation of numerous tropical species that share its habitat. These raptors keep a check on the numbers of arboreal and land mammals of rainforests, allowing the vegetation to flourish. Extinction of such an important creature may adversely affect the entire tropical rainforest ecosystem of Central and South America.