The majestic golden eagle may stand proudly as Mexico’s national symbol, but toward the end of the 20th century its numbers in the country had dropped so dramatically that in 1994 the Mexican government placed the revered aguila real on the endangered species list.
Conservation work since then has concentrated on efforts to increase the number of eagles in the wild by identifying and protecting nesting sites, and keeping the birds safe from the threats of urban development, mining, poisoning and illegal hunting.
Jalisco has been doing its part, and on February 13, National Golden Eagle Day, the state Environment and Territorial Development agency (Semadet) gave an update on the current status of its labor to protect the golden eagle in this state.
Since 2020, seven new golden eagle nesting territories have been identified and monitored, Semadet reported, while 18 specimens of the bird have been identified in the northern zone of Jalisco. (The eagle-and-snake image seen on Mexican coinage and the flag is also significant to Wixaritari indigenous people of in northern Jalisco and Nayarit, who refer to the golden eagle as Tatei Werika Wimari or Our Mother of the Skies, and consider the bird to be a bridge between the Gods and humanity.)
Semadet said that in March 2022 an inter-municipal environmental agency in the northeastern Los Altos region of the state, working closely with an NGO, confirmed the nesting of a Golden Eagle couple, reporting that the chick left the nest in May of that year. This was the first recorded instance of reproductive success in the region, Semadet noted.