The Star News (Summer 2005)

The Raptor Center at ArtSoup 2005

by Britt Aamodt

Six-year-old bald eagle Maxime, one of the Raptor Center’s education birds, spreads wings that tip-to-tip measure seven feet. Her preening and screeches have attracted a crowd. A young audience member leans into the cordon and asks what Maxime usually eats for lunch.

“Rats,” says education volunteer Claire Palmer. It’s a short answer but colorful enough to elicit looks of fascinated disgust. Hands go up.

The Raptor Center, headquartered on the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus, doesn’t mind if people are grossed out by their raptors. Their volunteers and staff have come to know what interests their audiences, even if the information might sometimes make them a little squeamish.

When the Raptor Center’s education birds and handlers alight in Handke Stadium, June 18-19 for Elk River’s 2005 ArtSoup Festival, be prepared to learn everything you ever wanted to know about these top-of-the-food-chain birds, including why turkey vultures regurgitate and what an owl pellet is.

Raptors—eagles, hawks, falcons, owls and vultures—will be on display in Handke Stadium. Audiences will get a close-up look at some of Minnesota’s birds of prey, including bald eagles and red-tailed hawks, and learn about species characteristics and habitats.

Every one of the education birds, Palmer explains, was injured in the wild and brought to the Raptor Center for rehabilitation.

Founded in 1974, the center has become one of the nation’s premier organizations for the study of raptors. Veterinarians from all over the world come to the St. Paul facility to train with Raptor Center staff.

“Right now our vet is from Portugal,” says Palmer. “Two others are from Costa Rica. We’ve had vets from every continent except Antarctica.”

Every year, the Raptor Center treats 750-800 birds. The most common injuries are head trauma and broken wings.

“Last year at this time we treated 72 birds. We’ve taken in 166 this year already. Almost twice as many,” says Palmer and adds that the migration of great gray owls to Minnesota has contributed to the increase.

Minnesota is not the great gray owl’s usual territory, she explains. This winter, a heavy snow drove lemmings and voles out of Canada. The owls followed their prey south.

“We have taken 104 great grays to date,” says Palmer, who as a volunteer helps care for the 106 birds, many of them great gray owls, currently convalescing in the clinic.

Once the raptors are healed, a crew takes them to nearby Como Park for test flights. Birds are flown several times before release back to the wild. Some birds never leave the Raptor Center.

“We have about 30 education birds whose injuries were so severe we couldn’t release them.”

Maxime, the six-year-old bald eagle, was injured as a fledgling when she fell out of her nest. Her left wing sags at the old break. But the eagle and her companions have thrived under the care of what Palmer calls the “Mayo Clinic for raptors.”

The center’s repute has brought them in contact with international clients. Palmer tells her audience about the sheik of Bahrain who sent for a Raptor Center vet to mend his falcon’s torn ligament.

“In the Middle East, falconry is a popular sport like horseracing here,” says Palmer. “We later found out that the falcon was sold for $1 million.”

Next door at the owl exhibit, a volunteer educator explains that owls cannot digest certain parts of their prey. Feathers, fur and bones are regurgitated as owl pellets.
Audience members grimace but they don’t walk away.

They are hooked on raptors. They stick around to learn how an owl’s asymmetrical ears allow it to triangulate mice in long grass and swoop for the kill.

Journalist

http://www.erstarnews.com 

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