Oropherion the eagle and his handler enjoy their little morning rituals. The enormous desert raptor launches from his perch onto the falconer’s leather-armored hand, clasping her glove with bone-crushing power, then he rubs his razor-sharp beak delicately on her nose.

A morning peck.

This martial eagle, a species that thrives in the open savannahs of Africa, truly believes that Nathalie Denolf is his lifelong mate. Oropherion, or Oreo as she affectionately calls him, was produced in captivity in an effort to bolster the species against extinction. Denolf, who is involved in a conservation program at the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, bonded with Oreo at Deutsche Greifenwarte, a bird-of-prey sanctuary, breeding center, and research institution located at Burg Guttenberg in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Breeders had removed Oreo’s egg from the nest prematurely to trigger his biological parents into breeding a second time. So his first contact with humans occurred when his little eagle mind was still imprinting, and he grew up believing he was human. Denolf made the deepest, most permanent impression of all.
Nathalie Denolf and Oropherion at Burg Guttenberg castle in Germany. (Courtesy of Nathalie Denolf)
Nathalie Denolf and Oropherion at Burg Guttenberg castle in Germany. Courtesy of Nathalie Denolf
Twice daily, the falconer leads Oreo in a public demonstration of his flying. Deutsche Greifenwarte is no standard, caged arena, but is actually tucked inside Burg Guttenberg, an 800-year-old medieval castle. Denolf lifts Oreo onto high stone ramparts as he protectively drapes his giant  wings around her shoulders like a gorgeous feather cape and lets out a screech.
With onlookers in awe, the falconer launches the raptor. Oreo catches a thermal wind current with his 7.2-foot wingspan, rising higher and higher. He wheels overhead—far above the stone battlements, forests, and rivers of the Neckar River valley—and is lost in the blue expanse.

The audience watches the empty sky until Denolf raises her leather-gloved arm. Out of nowhere, the martial eagle dives from the sky, swoops over the slate castle roofs, and lands expertly on her hand.

Denolf isn’t just working with Oreo. A single demonstration involves managing a chaotic sky filled with giant Eurasian and Himalayan griffon vultures, golden eagles, and sea eagles. The falconer stands as their avian traffic controller. She rewards the birds for excellent behavior with scraps of raw meat.

Oreo lands on the gloved hand of Nathalie Denolf, a licensed falconer at the Deutsche Greifenwarte institution in Germany. (Courtesy of Nathalie Denolf)
Oreo lands on the gloved hand of Nathalie Denolf, a licensed falconer at the Deutsche Greifenwarte institution in Germany. Courtesy of Nathalie Denolf

The now-adamantine bond between woman and bird was built on trust.

“He was a parent-reared eagle who had never been handled, suddenly finding himself in unfamiliar surroundings with a complete stranger,” Denolf tells The Epoch Times. “I knew I couldn’t demand his trust; I had to earn it by giving him time.”

For Denolf, that time together involved learning Oreo’s body language. The eagle has boundaries and ways of communicating that make sense to him. She had to learn Oreo’s language before they could connect.

“I believe you need to be willing to step into their world rather than forcing them to fit into ours,” she says.

Through regular routines and countless everyday interactions, they learned to read each other’s smallest movements and reactions.

“My goal has never been to make him think like a human,” Denolf says. “It has always been to understand him as an eagle.”

She has committed to filling the role Oreo’s instincts have molded for her. She keeps the distance between them and their time spent away from each other very short, because in his imprinted eagle mind, Denolf and Oreo are soulmates. It’s a lifelong bond.

Now turning three, Oreo could live in captivity significantly longer than the 15–25 year lifespan of martial eagles in the wild. His young eyes, dark at birth, are already beginning to brighten; they will lock into a piercing, brilliant yellow between the ages of five to seven.

Denolf is in for the long term.

“It’s a life choice,” she says. “Their needs don’t stop because you’re tired, the weather is miserable, or you have other plans. They depend on you every single day, and that responsibility should never be taken lightly.”

Oreo and Denolf share a bond founded on biology and forged by trust. (Courtesy of Nathalie Denolf)
Oreo and Denolf share a bond founded on biology and forged by trust. Courtesy of Nathalie Denolf
Their bond was tested last June, when Denolf left Burg Guttenberg for five days to rescue a male Bateleur eagle across the continent. The moment she finally stepped back onto the castle grounds, Oreo greeted her in an ecstatic frenzy of high-pitched chirps and glued himself to her body, wrapping his wings around her.

But his protective behavior also springs to life in other forms multiple times each day.

The giant eagle becomes protective and enters “dragon mode.”

If anyone—human or eagle—gets too close to Denolf, Oreo poofs up his impressive crest feathers and claps his enormous wings.

“He looks like a creature straight out of a fantasy film, a real-life dragon,” she says.

Oreo the martial eagle. (Courtesy of Nathalie Denolf)
Oreo the martial eagle. Courtesy of Nathalie Denolf

Oreo’s flights have captivated not only visitors on the castle ramparts but also millions online. The intention is not to entertain but to impassion others to stand up and speak out. Denolf’s plan is for Oreo to be the spark for the protection of eagle species.

But some observers, especially online, have condemned the sight of Oreo and Denolf together. When she sees comments like “set him free,” she sees the vast rift between her work and common understanding.

“I can’t help but think how little understanding there often is of just how little truly wild, undisturbed nature we have left,” she says. “People assume that simply opening an aviary door would somehow give a captive bird a better life.”

“Freedom without the ability to survive is not conservation,” she adds.

Denolf notes that there are many legitimate reasons birds live in captivity: permanent injuries, conservation, breeding, education, and scientific research. Martial eagles in particular reproduce slowly, spurring groups like Denolf’s to engage in captive breeding programs.

“Of course, captivity carries an enormous responsibility to provide the highest possible welfare standards,” she says.

Martial eagles have been impacted by hunting, habitat destruction, and electrocution from power infrastructure. Many are shot, trapped, or poisoned to stop them from hunting livestock. The colossal predators can snag chickens and even young goats right off the ground.
Denolf’s passion to share Oreo’s story—and what gives her the courage to stand up to those who tell her to “set him free”—stems from an earlier rescue. Before Oreo, there was Valinor. In June 2021, a female bateleur eagle collided with an un-insulated powerline, frying her nervous system.

Unable to fly, the eagle’s permanently ruined wings and singed tendons were the reasons Denolf spent months nursing the bird. That encounter with Valinor launched her on her journey to help save the eagles.

Denolf and Oreo at an earlier stage in his life. (Courtesy of Nathalie Denolf)
Denolf and Oreo at an earlier stage in his life. Courtesy of Nathalie Denolf

Valinor was why she jumped at the opportunity when friends asked her to train a one-year-old captive-bred juvenile shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic hit. In the beginning, Denolf was the last person in the world Oreo wanted to see when he first emerged from his transport box.

Now, every morning after their ritual embrace, Denolf walks Oreo across the stone courtyard to the scales for his daily weigh-in. The eagle’s massive wings wrap around her, he lets out a fierce screech to ward off the other birds. She’s his soulmate.

“It’s quite a dramatic procession,” Denolf says. “The eagle who once wanted nothing to do with me now voluntarily seeks out my company.”

Original article
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