Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Eagle Scout Award - Zambia

The Republic of Zambia is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west. The capital city is Lusaka, located in the southeast of the country.


The highest scout award is the Eagle Award.
However, in the process of identifying what type of eagle that represent in the badge is truly a nightmare. The eagle must be brown, with grey colour beak and a prominent crest on its head. Therefore, 3 eagles species are short listed. There are Harpy eagle, Brown Tawny eagle and Mertial eagle. Three of these are all very common in Zambia. However, they are all not the candidate. So which? Let look at the Zambia national flag and the coat of Arm.













The answer is Zambia Fish Eagle.


The fish Eagle is Zambia's national symbol.


The African Fish Eagle is a large bird, and the female, at 3.2-3.6 kg (7-8 lbs) is larger than the male, at 2-2.5 kg (4.4-5.5 lbs). Males usually have a wingspan of about 2 m (6 feet), while females have wingspans of 2.4 m (8 feet). The length is 63-75 cm (25-30 in). They are very distinctive in appearance with a mostly brown body and large, powerful, black wings. The head, breast, and tail of African Fish Eagles are snow white and the hook-shaped beak is mostly yellow with a black tip.
This species is still quite common near freshwater lakes, reservoirs, or rivers, although they can sometimes be found near the coast at the mouths of rivers or lagoons. As their name implies, African Fish Eagles are indigenous to Africa, ranging over most of continental Africa south of the southern-most edge of the Sahara Desert.
The African Fish Eagle feeds mainly on fish, which, upon spying it from a perch in a tree, it will swoop down upon and snatch from the water with its large clawed talons and fly back to its perch to eat. Should the African Fish Eagles catch a fish over 1.8 kg (4 pounds) it will be too heavy to allow it to get lift, so it will instead drag the fish across the surface of the water until it reaches the shore. If it catches a fish that is too heavy to even allow the eagle to sustain flight, it will drop into the water and paddle to the nearest shore with its wings. It will also feed on waterfowl, small turtles, baby crocodiles, and carrion.











































Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Caballero Aguila Award - Mexico



The bird featured on the Mexican coat of arms is the golden eagle. This bird is known in Spanish as águila real (literally, "royal eagle"). In 1960, the Mexican ornithologist Rafael Martín del Campo identified the eagle in the pre-Hispanic codex as the northern caracara or "quebrantahuesos", a species common in Mexico (although the name "eagle" is taxonomically incorrect, as the caracara is in the falcon family). Even so, the golden eagle is considered the Mexican eagle for official purposes, and for the same reason is considered the official bird of Mexico.


The coat of arms of Mexico depicts a Mexican golden eagle perched upon a cactus devouring a


Caballero Scout Aguila (issued 2006)


Caballero is known in Spanish as Knight



Introduction

I come to work on this special project - The Eagle Scout of The World on the way when I join hand with my friend Mr. Goh YHeng in another project - "The Scout Highest Award Around the World". Mr. Goh and I were both the King Scout Awardee from Malaysia, and we are both still active in local scouting.

Many countries in the world name their highest scout award as Eagle Scout in their own language such as Cabellara Aguila Award from Mexico.

In order to have a bigger coverage of this topic, I include not only the eagle, but vulture and condor as well; and to distill more interest, my scope of research will not just about the Award and the badge, but about the bird as well.

Base on the very limited resources, I manage to find the following countries that award their scouts with Eagle Award:
1) Philippines
2) Chile
3) Czech Republic
4) United State of America
5) Cyprus
6) Eypgt
7) Mexico
8) Indonesia
9) Albania
10) Zambia