{"id":771206,"date":"2026-06-30T14:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/771206\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T14:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:31:08","slug":"feliks-the-eagle-is-home-safe-after-a-cross-border-kidnap-ordeal-and-rescue-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/771206\/","title":{"rendered":"Feliks the eagle is home safe after a cross-border kidnap ordeal and rescue mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Feliks, an Eastern imperial eagle which flew from Serbia across North Macedonia, Greece, Turkey and Syria, where he fell victim to traffickers looks out as he quarantines at Palic Zoo after returning in Serbia on June 24, 2026.Darko Vojinovic\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Feliks\u2019 journey resembles a Hollywood movie script, with kidnappers, smugglers and clandestine border crossings. <\/p>\n

The year-old eastern imperial eagle from Serbia, started flying in August and later set off on his first migratory flight toward the Middle East, only to be captured by poachers, sold illegally and retrieved in a daring cross-border mission. <\/p>\n

While Feliks returned home safely last week, his ordeal highlighted both the widespread practice of profit-driven, illegal animal trade and an unfaltering struggle by animal protection groups to counter it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s getting worse year after year, season after season, day after day,\u201d said Michel Sawan, the head of the Lebanese Association for Migratory Birds, who played a key role in Feliks\u2019s rescue. \u201cWe can actually barely believe … the mission was done successfully.\u201d <\/p>\n

How Canada became a global player in the illegal wildlife trade<\/a><\/p>\n

Feliks flew for thousands of miles before he was caught in Syria<\/p>\n

The eastern imperial eagle is an imposing bird of prey with a wingspan of up to 2 meters (6 feet). The protected species in Serbia was down to a single breeding pair back in 2017 but has recovered thanks to the tireless work of the Bird Protection and Study Society of Serbia, or BPSSS.<\/p>\n

The precious offspring of a new generation of eagles, Feliks was ringed and got a \u201csmall backpack\u201d with a transmitter before setting off last August, Uros Stojiljkovic from the BPSSS said. <\/p>\n

\u201cEverything seemed normal,\u201d Stojiljkovic added. \u201cWe didn\u2019t dream all this would happen.\u201d <\/p>\n

Feliks first circled close to home before heading southeast across North Macedonia, Greece and Turkey. His tracking signal was lost in late October in Syria.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hoped this was because there was a problem with the transmitter or something,\u201d Stojiljkovic said. <\/p>\n

Weeks passed by before the news came from Sawan: Feliks was put up for sale after he was captured by poachers who catch migratory birds by placing water in the desert, or shoot at them, capture them with nets or even chase them with motorcycles. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Felix was caught at first, it was posted on many WhatsApp groups for selling wild birds illegally trapped in Syria,\u201d Sawan said. \u201cI started my phone calls with people I know in Syria and we were able to reach out for Feliks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paying money to smugglers was out of the question but Sawan wasn\u2019t ready to give up. <\/p>\n

He’s safe, nestled in the branches now. But Feliks has been on an adventure. The young eastern imperial eagle set off on his first migratory flight last year, only to be caught by poachers in the Middle East and illegally sold. That kicked off a story worthy of a Hollywood script to get him back. <\/p>\n

The Associated Press<\/p>\n

From smugglers to refugees and a Serbian army plane<\/p>\n

Feliks was sold to a buyer in Lebanon and resold back into Syria before Sawan managed to retrieve him through a network of associates. Getting Feliks over the border into Lebanon was then impeded by fighting in the region and bad weather, he said. <\/p>\n

Eventually, a group of refugees carried Feliks in a potato sack over the Nahr al-Kabir river on the northern border between Syria and Lebanon. \u201cIt was crazy,\u201d Sawan said. <\/p>\n

Now safely in Sawan\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

After three failed attempts, the Serbian army came to the rescue through its troops serving in a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. Finally, on June 22, Feliks arrived back in Serbia aboard a military transport plane.<\/p>\n

Feliks and other birds also face dangers at home <\/p>\n

Feliks is now in a zoo in northern Serbia where he must be quarantined for 21 days. Experts from the BPSSS say the eagle will get a new transmitter before he is released again. <\/p>\n

Over the past decade, the BPSSS has worked hard to plant trees and set up bird platforms across the flat agricultural plain of northern Serbia. Back in 2017, volunteers organized a 24-hour watch of the remaining nesting pair to make sure they were safe. A European Union-backed project later helped beef up the population to the current 29 breeding couples.<\/p>\n

Dangers are still many, from accidental poisoning to electrical cables, Stojiljkovic said. <\/p>\n

\u201cFeliks went full circle and came back to where he had set off,\u201d Stojiljkovic said. \u201cLet\u2019s hope he won\u2019t be bored here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Feliks, an Eastern imperial eagle which flew from Serbia across North Macedonia, Greece,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":771207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,66,865,61,900,892,886,323,883,913],"class_list":["post-771206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-science","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-wildlife","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}