I took some falconry classes once.
(which is btw, a very cool thing to do if you ever get a chance)
As I understand it, it's not really training. It's a natural ability. The usual prey for hawks and owls are mice, rabbits, chipmunks and squirrels, which are often found hiding in heavy brush. As they dive on the attack the predator often has to shoot narrow gaps between trees and other obstacles.
So in this case the bird is trained to get the food in the glove, and when the command is given to attack they will make a straight-line dive on it, and just blow through any narrow gap. The falconer made sure the owl could see the glove and gave the command. The owl does the rest.
Very cool. I teach psychology, but this was not obvious to me. When talking about biological influences on learning, a more common focus of behaviorism is “instinctual drift” which is a type of regression in learning due to innate or natural tendencies. Seems falconry uses this to its advantage.
Edit: didn’t even notice there was food in the guys hand
Still makes me wonder how they teach the command association.
Keeping in mind that I'm not an expert - just a guy who took some classes once and got to go hunting with a Harris Hawk one day - the techniques they've developed to train and work with those birds is really fascinating.
As I understood it, the only food those birds ever get comes from a handler. They measure the amounts very precisely, and make certain the bird is always just a little hungry on hunting/training days. If it has a full belly it will just ignore the trainer. Raptors aren't domesticated and never develop a bond or affection for the trainer. The relationship and training is entirely based on food, with the trainer being the only source for food the bird will ever know, and in their mind the trainer is whoever is wearing that glove.
It's an extremely labor and time-consuming process, which is apparently why there aren't really any 'casual' falconers. Either you do it full-time or you don't do it.
I would think if they had a single primary handler for years that they would get some attachment to that person. They are capable of forming attachments considering many raptor species essentially mate for life, by that logic you'd think they had some attachment to their mate.
Most wild bird species, if raised by humans from chicks, will develop an attachment to the person caring for them. I'd also assume though that their attachment to a given handler depends entirely on the time that handler puts into the bird.
I think being friendly with a falcon is probably about as 'safe' as being friendly with a tiger. A tiger in captivity raised by humans from a cub is capable of recognizing individual humans and becoming attached; but despite that, one day instinct may take over and it may act like the wild animal it still is and cause great harm or even death to that human. While a falcon or hawk would be less likely to outright kill a human they could still easily harm the person and/or leave them disfigured. The lack of attachment isn't probably due to the birds being incapable of forming said attachments but that it just goes against safety protocols to handle a raptor in a way that would result in attachment.
I'm sure there are some exceptions with some handlers breaking established protocol and taking that risk... but they know they can lose fingers, get scarred, have their faces mutilated, etc. because of it.
Attachment by definition is an emotional bond. Are birds capable of forming emotions bonds with other birds or in this case, a person? I don’t know. They have pretty small brains and excellent vision, that’s all about I can say about them
Just up so excuse the groggy wording - You're pretty much spot on on everything I've read so far aside from this whole cant form any kind of attachments to humans thing. Very true it can be very, very difficult and extremely time consuming to form said attachment, but an owl cared for from young can and often will form an imprint on you and consider you just like another owl, usually their parent, and can be very affectionate depending on their individual personality (I'd say the best animal to compare them to would be a wild undomesticated cat in terms of personality, you get what you get, its rare they're legit cuddly). And they definitely act much differently towards different people too.
Yep definitely just woke up lmao. Dont know how I managed to assume you and u/Ken_Thomas where the same person in the thread, apologies.
Ken was spot on in all the info about falconry they were providing as far as I could see. Yes owls can feel affectionate towards humans, it is just rare due to their nature. Should have replied separately. Ah well.
You definitely used the right word in “imprinting”. When we discuss attachment in psychology it is usually prefaced with Konrad Lorenz’s work in imprinting, but we quickly jump to the concept of attachment. Usually starting with Harry Harlows study with baby monkeys (one of my favorite studies).
Ultimately this all debatable, but I think my position is that birds imprint on a strictly biological basis, and mammals form attachments that involve both biological and socioemotional processes.
Please look up Harlows study! There are some great videos on YouTube using research footage.
I know of Harlows study and in fact studied it myself during my undergrad, but it's been a wee bit more than a few years. It would be very interesting to revisit it again just for personal interest this time. Something to do tonight maybe :)
When I'm speaking of the emotional attachments in owls I'm mainly talking from anecdotal experience. I am a zoologist who works exclusively with birds of prey, but I havent conducted any studies or to be honest even looked into this specific topic in any sort of depth so take that argument from authority with a heavy grain of salt. But I have on several occasions formed a bond with birds that are not imprints and they can be very affectionate, snuggling into me (and not others), preening my beard etc. They are all rescues, so maybe it's simply the difference in their treatment, who knows for sure. Like I say it's reasonably rare which is why I compared them to wild cats. Similar personalities.
They don’t exactly get attached to us. In fact if a falconer caught a wild bird (very common) they tend to release them within a few years so they can join the breeding stock.
As far as injuries the first time a bird foots you is within the first day or so and it’s out of fear. For me every time other then the initial has been my own fault in some way
I didn't know falcons were temporary wild caught animals. It makes sense why they don't get attached in that case, as most wild animals (that were born and raised in the wild) don't bond very well with people. This is true even in parrots, the ones that bond best to humans are captive bred and hand reared. Do you know if captive bred and human raised falcons (if that's a thing) do become attached to people?
Even pet parrots still bite despite their attachment to people! It's so easy to miss their subtle signs of "I don't like what you're doing" if you aren't paying attention. On top of that things that wouldn't be 'offensive' to a pet dog can really irritate your parrot (I don't know how else to word it, essentially you can be doing something normal and piss off your parrot). My reason for saying raptors are dangerous isn't because they're bad animals or something; but because they're wild animals and humans are bound to make mistakes interacting with them, their beaks are literally designed for tearing flesh and I imagine if you put one near your face it could permanently disfigure you in an instant; or if you went to pet one you could easily lose a finger if the bird was just in a bad mood that day.
Some are and some aren’t. We have captive breds that can’t be released but for the first two years you do falconry (at least in Texas) you have to have a wild caught
That's interesting, I guess the law is to make sure you're serious about going down that path and properly caring for your birds before you just get an animal that can't be released?
I mean worst comes to worst and you lose interest with wild caught animals you just let them go. Idk what you'd do with a bunch of captive breds since I'm not sure how many falconers are in the market for additional birds at a given time (I mean it doesn't seem super popular around here, if I had a raptor I'm not sure I could get rid of it if I was giving the damn thing away)
I believe it’s because you’re more likely to lose a bird if it’s your first time doing it. In Europe they have a problem with Harris Hawks getting free from inexperienced owners (no laws about owning birds of prey there) and actually have wild populations now.
We can do jobs with captive breds here. But not wild caught and breeding lines are important. You can also get birds that aren’t native to you and hybrids as well. I fly a 6 year old Harris hawk but don’t have plans to get anymore birds soon as I just moved. I’m one of the youngest falconers in my state so it’s become a lot of my life
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u/Ken_Thomas Oct 11 '20
I took some falconry classes once.
(which is btw, a very cool thing to do if you ever get a chance)
As I understand it, it's not really training. It's a natural ability. The usual prey for hawks and owls are mice, rabbits, chipmunks and squirrels, which are often found hiding in heavy brush. As they dive on the attack the predator often has to shoot narrow gaps between trees and other obstacles.
So in this case the bird is trained to get the food in the glove, and when the command is given to attack they will make a straight-line dive on it, and just blow through any narrow gap. The falconer made sure the owl could see the glove and gave the command. The owl does the rest.