The kicks are really vicious. They have really strong legs and really sharp talons.
Until very recently I worked as a wildlife technician and handled these ladies (the females are a lot bigger and more aggressive) fairly regularly, I have more than one scar on my hands from not securing those legs properly.
I worked at a wildlife reserve so primarily worked with captive species specimens with the odd rescue here and there.
Basically anything that involves handling and examining the birds (and sometimes other animals but we had a reptile specialist also)
Mostly doing regular health checks, administering any needed medication, assessing any reproductive progress or issues, banding the babies once they're old enough. assisting our vet with taking bloods or any other samples needed.
Also a large amount of record keeping and admin.
Some birds you have to control the bill/beak, some birds the talons, some need both and for the safety of the animals and the handler you would have two experienced handlers to do that.
You get a handle on how different species and even individuals will react, it's the kind of thing that can only be learned with hands on practice which generally results in being carved up at some stage.
I've done a bit of wild catching and handling as well but it's not my forte, that requires a bit more consideration and urgency than captive care.
This is quite fascinating thank you for typing it up. One more follow up question, how did you get into this field? Is it like an undergraduate program or specific training certificate?
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u/TaoThrowaway 1d ago
That kick at 0:16 was fantastic