Raising Orphaned Raptors

Imprinting is an important, natural part of a young animal’s development where it learns to recognize its own species. Imprinting utilizes the senses of sight, touch, and sound. Imprinting via sound probably begins in the egg during the pip-to-hatch stage when the parent and chick vocalize back and forth. After hatching, sight becomes an important factor in imprinting as the chick’s visual ability improves. The chick associates the images it sees with the sounds and tactile sensations with which it is already familiar.

It is not enough to prevent imprinting on humans . . .


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References

Alabama Wildlife Center. Juvenile Raptor Restoration Project: Photographs and Case Histories. 1997. Available at www.awrc.org. Accessed April 23, 2010.

Blair SK. Caring for Raptors (Birds of Prey) (7th ed). 2000. Available at www.birdcare.asn.au. Accessed April 7, 2010.

Dzialak MR, Lacki MJ, Carter KM, et al. An assessment of raptor hacking during a reintroduction. Wildlife Society Bulletin 34(2):542-547, 2006. Available at www.jstor.org. Accessed April 23, 2010.

Gage LG, Duerr RS. Hand-Rearing Birds. Ames: Blackwell Publishing; 2007.

International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council. IWRC Raptor ID Series. IWRC Online. 2008. Available at www.iwrc-online.org. Accessed April 23, 2010.

Ueblacker SN. Imprinting, nutrition, and rearing of orphaned raptors. National Wildlife Rehabilitator’s Association Annual Symposium. Houston, TX 1996. Available at wildlife.state.co.us. Accessed April 7, 2010.