Some of you might have already meet Pi, who is one of our "newer" education ambassador birds at The Raptor Center. Pi is just finishing some of his training to learn how to be an education bird at TRC. He was admitted into our clinic as an already fledged (flying) bird. We found nothing wrong physically, but he showed too much curiosity/interest in people. Some of the behaviors were consistent with birds that are human imprints (meaning, there was interaction with humans during a critical part of the bird’s cognitive and behavioral development.) Imprinted birds do not interact with other wild members of their species in the expected ways related to breeding and territorial behaviors. They also do not show the avoidance of humans that would normally keep them safe. Pi (short for pilot) was recovered on land owned by an airplane pilot, whose nickname is “Pi.”
We determined that Pi would be a good candidate to join our winged ambassador team to help teach the 150,000 people we see each year. Gail Buhl, Education Program Manager at The Raptor Center and Pi’s primary trainer, is working with Pi to ensure that he is comfortable with the different things that he will encounter in his new job as an ambassador. He will learn that doorways, cars, baby strollers and loud noises cannot hurt him as Gail slowly exposes him to these new experiences. This will allow him to grow tolerant with all of these different stimuli in the world he now lives in.
We invite everyone to come to TRC and meet Pi, and our other education ambassadors!
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