FEATURE


fully achieved in the time was explained by the fact that ravens do not like be in enclosed spaces and they are super fast and intelligent.


Professional Trainers at the ranch We assisted at several sessions of outdoor training of macaws and raptors sometimes as spectators and sometimes as participants. Dillon Horger a senior trainer and two others took a pair of Greenwings macaws for outdoor flight training. The birds, two brothers, were placed on a high perch and encouraged to fly to the trainer and also to fly around at liberty, which they did. It is a cardinal principle at the ranch that bird is never tossed from the hand. This is common practice elsewhere but trainers at NEI believe that it can lead to a host of problems from using an aversive. The Greenwings first day for an at liberty flight was hot. The young macaws flew around, flew back the trainers and were taken back inside. Everything done in the calm relaxed manner that I associate with this sort of work. The birds were not hungry, nor frantic for food. Dillon told me that frantic birds are at risk out of doors; they have not the strength or motivation to evade any hawk danger.


Disney Show at Orlando Our group was taken for a morning to see the free flying bird show at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. We watched the show which runs for 24 minutes from backstage and from front of house.


42 BIRD SCENE


This is a highly choreographed show with a presenter and an actor, a script and around 25 birds that make brief appearances. It runs, as you might expect, like clockwork. Behind the scenes, a rank of TV screen cameras record every movement. The show features many species not just parrots. Groucho the Yellow- naped Amazon sings a song as he does on numerous TV shows. The show ends with a burst of colour as several macaws free fly over the auditorium, At Disneyland, as at the ranch every animal performing or in training is daily weighed even the hens and their cockerel. Another Seriama not Pebbles did the lizard bashing trick. A raven stole the actor’s flag but returned it to him at the end of the show. The script is lightweight and amusing but contains a serious message about conservation.


The birds that students train with at NEI are usually NOT pets or ex-pets like Samson so that they do not have the baggage of companion birds. Sadly us students are not supposed to pet them. Steve maintains they have bird buddies for their emotional life. They have not picked up any of the unpleasant behaviours that captive birds can acquire like biting, plucking and over bonding and excessive screaming. At the end of the show season, the show birds take a rest. Not so for me, greatly inspired by what I had learned, I couldn’t wait to implement what I’d learned into my own training regimes.


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