Eaglet progression and growth right on track
The eaglet is yet to be named, but is already nearing the 60-day-old mark.
The latest addition to Roodepoort’s Black Eagle family has officially passed the two-month-old mark, and now has under a month before it leaves the nest.
As the years have gone by, we’ve become accustomed to the rate at which an eaglet grows, yet year-on-year we’re still blown away at how time flies before the eaglet does. To point out just how fast the eaglet grows while it’s in the nest, its wingspan grows by 2cm every day in the 90 days (three months) it spends in the nest in order to reach the full 2m wingspan by the time it fledges.
According to the Black Eagle Project Roodekrans (BEPR) chairman, Gerald Draper, the chick’s growth and progression is right on track. “Everything is 100 per cent at the moment, it’s all going according to plan,” he said.
BEPR member Garth Heydenrych was able to capture a photo of the chick at about 54 days old, showing how much it has grown since hatching on 16 June. It turned 2 months (60 days) old on Thursday, 16 August, and the photo just goes to show that Makatsa and Thulane are feeding their offspring well.
According to Johann van den Berg, one of the BEPR’s photographers, “Spring is around the corner, and in just over a month, we will start our watch to see the youngster take that leap of faith, to become a beautiful juvenile”.
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