Sunday, June 17, 2012

Destiny--United States Air Force Academy 2010











7 comments:

Ryan Easley said...

Why do the falcons wear hoods?

Wade G. Burck said...

Radar,
Falcon's wear hoods to keep them calm and assure they are ready when the Falconer needs them. "Hooding" is one of the first step's in the manning process(acclimatising to humans and the human world). There are two standard types of hood's, the Anglo-Indian hood which is made from one piece of leather, and the Dutch hood which is made from three pieces of leather. It is very important that the hood fits the raptor in a comfortable way or the raptor will reject the hood, making training very difficult.

A raptors sight is up to 10 times better then a humans. This means the bird of preys visual stimuli and input is very high and it can see many potential prey targets long before we can. The Falconer may see a target and release the bird, however the bird may have seen something else long before that has caught it's attention, and may go it's own way after it's own target. Bad, bad deal thus the falcon is kept hooded until the Falconer see's the the target he want's, then removes the hood, and the Falconer's target will immediately catch the raptors attention, putting it in hunting mode with the Falconer's target as prey instead of something else it has seen and chosen in advance.

Falconry is one of the oldest, purest form's of animal training/behavior modification requiring absolute patience and perfection. Very, very few mistakes will ever be allowed. I have often said that anybody who want's to be an Animal Trainer should first be required by law to train a bird of prey to free flight hunt. It would require a person to develop the utmost patience, that you never imagined could be possible. Birds must be weighed by grams each day before flown. Too heavy and your bird may not want to hunt, worse yet he may just fly away and you may never see him again. Hit him or curse him, and I promise you will never see him again if he is untethered. Hit him or curse while he is tethered, and he will never come to your fist again. Having to learn patience, co-operation, compromise, and pure partnership with an animal before someone is turned loose with one, would have aided many wild animal and elephant trainers.

Wade

Jim Zajicek said...

Dated a Girl that was a Licensed Falconer in Arizona...She flew a Red-tailed Hawk named Gomez...

Wade G. Burck said...

Zych,
When people whine about the regulations and paper work required for a feline or elephant, they should try applying for a Falconer's license, to find out what paper work, hassle, and bureaucracy is really all about.

Wade

Darryl said...

I beleive all animal trainers should have to meet same standards as a master falconer

Jim Zajicek said...

Wade if i remember right, (this was in late '80s) She had told me she had to serve a 2 year apprentice under a Licensed Falconer, and then when allowed to capture her own Bird still had to pass State and Federal Exams to acquire her License/s...

Wade G. Burck said...

Jim,
That is correct, and the regulation's still had their "training wheels" on in the 80's. They eventually became much, much tougher.

Wade