Feliks the eagle returns to Serbia after Hollywood-style ordeal.
A year-old eastern imperial eagle named Feliks was captured by poachers in Syria, sold illegally, and retrieved in a daring cross-border mission. He returned safely to Serbia, highlighting the widespread illegal animal trade.
Feliks’ journey resembles a Hollywood movie script, involving kidnappers, smugglers and clandestine border crossings. The young eastern imperial eagle from Serbia started flying in August and later set off on his first migratory flight towards the Middle East, only to be captured by poachers, sold illegally and retrieved in a daring cross-border mission. While Feliks returned home safely last week, his ordeal highlighted both the widespread practice of profit-driven illegal animal trade and the unwavering struggle by animal protection groups to counter it.
His tracking signal was lost in late October in Syria. Weeks passed before news came from Sawan: Feliks had been captured by poachers who catch migratory birds by placing water in the desert, shooting at them, using nets or chasing them with motorcycles. Feliks was sold to a buyer in Lebanon and then resold back into Syria before Sawan managed to retrieve him through a network of associates. Getting Feliks across the border into Lebanon was then hampered by fighting in the region and bad weather, he said. Safely in Sawan’s bird sanctuary in Beirut, Feliks still needed to get back home, a task that became virtually impossible after the start of the war in Iran in February. Eventually, a group of refugees carried Feliks in a potato sack across the Nahr al-Kabir River on the northern border between Syria and Lebanon.
The protected species in Serbia was down to a single breeding pair in 2017 but has recovered thanks to the tireless work of the Bird Protection and Study Society of Serbia, or BPSSS.