Falcon Breeding for Conservation by Jorma Jyrkkanen
1 Feb 2011
White Gyrfalcon male to stimulate female to ovulate and for sperm source. He hates the human breeder because the Falcon thinks of him as her mate because he brings the daily quail. My friend John Lejeune showed me the technique he uses. If your thinking of trying it, it takes years to develop the knowledge of the details involved for you to have respectable survival of chicks. It helps if your a veterinarian and a millionaire and a bit crazy with an amazing partner but then there is always 'A Kestrel for a Knave' as the medieval saying goes.
Female to lay up to three clutches with removal after each clutch after a week of brooding and crying. The eggs are placed in incubators and temperature and humidity and rotation are all conducted to coincide with their natural regime in the nest. Place in water periodically to see if the specific gravity is developing properly. The egg will float before hatching. Dead eggs are found this way also.
After hatching hand feed new arrivals quail mass produced in an automated breeder til they are old enough not to be killed by an agitated female.
Worth as much as diamonds or priceless to an endangered stock. For wild release do not condition to humans?
Ready to put out to a female falcon to care for.
Here is the falcon feeding her chicks for the first time.
After laying each egg, sperm is taken from the male, the tiercel, and injected daily until she stops laying. This process is called artifical insemination.
The result of all this hard work is a priceless clutch of Falcons to raise for wild release or genetic stock conservation and research. One of John's great research discoveries through captive breeding and AI is that Peregrine-Gyrfalcon hybrids are fertile meaning they are taxonomic sub-species of each other rather than perfect Linnaean reproductively isolated separate species. It also offers the strongest evidence they evolved from a common ancestor.
Or to sell if permitted to enthusiastic Falconers who have the means, knowledge, experiance, to ensure propogation of the species.
That in a nutshell is captive breeding of falcons or any raptor for that matter. Disease, genetic diversity, are a big problem for breeders and birds need exercise and the best diet possible to stay healthy. Eagles would be another story however and I advise not trying them. You also risk your life obtaining wild brood stock. Falcons like to nest in the most dangerous sites. Then there is the difficulty of getting government permits. That alone can stop an operation before it starts.
I honor and heap kudos to John LeJeune a fabulous innovator in Falcon breeding and conservation. http://www.falconscanada.com/site/Welcome.html
For more information see http://www.americanfalconry.com/
Copyright 2011 Jorma Jyrkkanen. All rights reserved. Strictly enforced.
Tags: Raptors, falcons, Artificial insemination, Peregrines, Gyrfalcons, tiercel, Captive breeding, conservation, Jorma Jyrkkanen
No comments:
Post a Comment