Alika's adventures

[Alika]

Introduction

I feel rather silly and obnoxious making a whole sticky thread for myself and entitling it "Alika's Adventures", but as long as people are interested in my stories I will tell them! If a day should come where people say "Stop, Alika... your stories are boring and repetitive!" or they just stop reading, I will stop posting stories.

Having said that...

This is a thread dedicated to my adventures as a bird trainer and educator. I have three fids, but I want this thread to focus more on the birds I work with professionally. I work at a zoo for birds. We have over 400 birds on exhibit and over 30 birds in our education department. I work in education/bird show. My job involves caring for our ed birds, assisting with their training, performing with the birds in educational bird shows (both on grounds and our traveling school show), and using the birds in educational programs.

As you might imagine, a lot of... interesting... things happen on a day to day basis. Some things are good. Some things are funny. Some things are scary. And other things are really, really bad. (Wow, Alika, how articulate: "really, really bad") I've just about gotten to the point where it's all in a day's work, but it's still new and interesting for a lot of people, so weeding out the mundane from the truly interesting may prove difficult for me. We'll see how it goes.

You should know that I don't have tons and tons of experience... I am still learning, myself. As a matter of fact, this time last year the only birds I had ever handled were my own. I started as a volunteer at the aviary, then I was offered an internship which later turned into a job. Fair enough? Good.

Oh, and I have always wanted to be an animal trainer; this isn't something that just kind of fell into my lap so I decided I would take it. I've been studying for the past seven years, mostly on my own. I started with dogs, and I wanted to get into marine mammals, but somewhere along the line I realized I love birds. Working your way in from being a volunteer is really tough, because you start with the crap jobs and try to gain trust before you move anywhere. I did it backwards: I started my career BEFORE I've managed to get my degree, but I WILL get my degree, because I want to one day be one of the best at what I do.

Finally, if you're ever in northern Utah and you want to stop by, drop me a line and I'll hook you up with a private backstage tour and let you meet some of my birds in person (small groups only, though!).

Okay, I think I'm done with my intro now. Lets get to the goods.

[Alika]

Apologies for the double post. We should start this thing with a story, but I wanted it to be separate from the introduction.

I've accumulated a lot of interesting stories in my year at the aviary, and, obviously, I can't post them all at once. So I thought I'd start this thread with my most memorable moment thus far... the scariest thing I've had to do at the aviary to date.

Anami is our female bald eagle. She's six years old and has been with the aviary for three years. She was found up near Eugene, Oregon starving to death. She had a slight wing injury and was blind in her left eye. The wing healed, but because her eyesight is not what it should be, she can't survive in the wild.

We are fortunate that she can fly. Not many facilities in the US have flighted bald eagles, since bald eagles have to be injured to be captive and most unreleasable injuries are to the wings. There are only a handful of flighted baldies in zoos across the country.

So she does fly in our summer show. She has a release box above the wall that is a backdrop to our stage. She is trained to fly from that box off the wall to a lure center stage, then jump up onto a glove. It's really impressive to see, and a great piece in the show to do (actually, not one of my personal favorites because it seems like something always goes wrong).

On this particular day, there weren't a lot of guests at the aviary so we cancelled our show. Instead of the whole show, we decided to do what's called an up close an personal, where we bring a few birds out for anyone who shows up and talk about them in a much more informal setting. I wanted to practice Anami off the wall, and my boss agreed that I could do that. Anami had been hesitating from the wall lately, and had even flown off a couple of times; she needed the practice. I, on the other hand, had only been working with her for two months and also needed the practice.

We did all of the other birds first, then it was time for Anami's appearance. The box opened, and Anami came out. I stood on center stage swinging the lure and... nothing happened. Anami stayed on that wall, looking for all the world like she had no interest in coming down.

My boss when up on the hill in front of the wall, and tried calling her to the glove. Still, nothing.

At that point, I was instructed to climb the wall and get the bird down. I guess this didn't seem like a big deal to my boss. I, however, am afraid of heights and hate going on the wall for easy things, let alone to get the 10 lb bird to come down.

I didn't hesitate, though. I was still trying to impress everyone.

So I went back behind the wall where the ladder is and evaluated the situation. The wall is a good 9 or 10 ft high, and the ladder is a wooden homemade rig. Didn't look like fun, but luckily, there were two youth volunteers available. I made them hold the ladder for me.

I climbed the ladder. Okay, that was easy. There was Anami. I grabbed for her jesses, and she grabbed my hand with her foot. Luckily, it was just a warning; she didn't leave a mark... but it scared me. It scared me enough that I rushed her a little when I picked her up, and she panicked and bated (flew) off the wall towards me.

Remember, there is an audience watching all of this. They later told me that it looked like she pulled us both off the wall backwards, since we both disappeared at that point.

There I was, on the top of a scary ladder holding onto a 10 lb bird with a 7 ft wingspan who was trying with all her might to get away. But I know what it's like to follow her block to block, waiting for her to come down and wondering if she ever would... I wasn't going to be responsible for her getting away, so, even if I broke my neck in the process, there was no way I was letting that bird go.

Luckily, it didn't come to that. I don't know how I did it, but I managed to get her under control. She didn't like the volunteers standing beneath us, though, so they had to leave. I climbed down the scary ladder with the 10 lb bird on my own.

My boss was still with the audience when I emerged victorious from behind the wall. Apparently, she wasn't too concerned. Adrenaline pumping, short of breath, I exclaimed that I had just done the scariest thing I had ever done during my time at the aviary.

The audience applauded.

Anami and I have been good buddies ever since

And, yes, I will do it again if I have to... and I'm sure I will.

[Alika]

I went out on my first programs alone today. I was glad for it... I learn more by doing and by not having someone watch over my shoulder the whole time, you know?

It was surprisingly uneventful, except that I spilled Pepsi all over my nice, clean khaki pants during lunch. (Jeth, are you listening?) I had to go back with nice brown stains on my pants... just in the place where you don't really want nice brown stains. I can't wear khakis for more than a couple of hours at a time without getting them completely dirty. Oh, well.

The REALLY interesting thing didn't happen until after I got back. My boss had a meeting, so I was left to close up our area with a youth volunteer. This involved, among other things, turning on heat lamps for the birds that need them and bringing inside the parrots and Rafiki. On warm days, they weather in their cages outside. On warm nights, Rafiki gets to stay outside all night. His outdoor pen is larger than his indoor one, and I'm sure he likes being outside better than inside.

But Rafiki is a northern ground hornbill... a large African bird... African... as in, needs things warm and dry. He needs to come inside at night, whether he likes it or not.

(this is the best picture I have of him... I'm sorry it's not very detailed)

He must know that there won't be very many more days he can weather outside, because he did NOT want to come in this afternoon. Usually, if he's going to be slow coming in, he'll come out of his outdoor pen first then wander around. This afternoon, he didn't even come out of his pen.

We first enticed him out with a piece of a rat. It's an old trick with him; put the rat on the ground where he can see it, then back away. When he comes to get it, lay down another, then another, until he's finally inside.

I'll be darned if that bird didn't come out of his pen, grab the rat, then run right back in.

Okay, fine. I'm smarter than the bird. No problem.

We tried the rat again. This time, when he popped out, I closed the door so he couldn't pop back in again.

The gauntlet had been laid.

Rafiki tried to run around his pen the wrong way, but I blocked him. He ran up to me with his head down. If he hadn't still had that piece of rat in his beak, I would have been worried that he was going to bite me. Instead, I worried about him pounding on my shoe, so I eased back a little.

Rafiki moved with me. Head down, he waddled closer.

Hmmm... this looks suspiciously like a parrot soliciting a head rub...

I'd seen other trainers get down with Rafiki and give him some lovin', but I'd never done it myself. I wasn't sure if our relationship was strong enough. But since this seemed to be what he wanted, I cautiously tried it out.

Sure enough, his beak dropped even further and the feathers on his neck came up. Gradually, he sat on the ground, neck extended with his beak laid out flat. I was fully aware that I was reinforcing his bad behavior, but I had also seen him refuse to work in the past when he wanted attention, and then easily comply after he got it, so I was willing to try it.

After about 15 minutes of that, I decided that enough was enough and it was time to go inside. I stepped away, and Rafiki got up. He tried to move in the wrong direction. I blocked, and again his head went down. Again, I complied.

We went on like that for another 10 minutes or so. I'm such a pushover.

I had my volunteer run to tell my boss what was going on. He returned with a radio (I'm always in trouble for forgetting my radio) and told me that she would be by shortly and I was to call for help if Rafiki tried to kill me. Fair enough.

I finally stopped being the nice guy and refused to give him lovin'... so he simply ran around our backstage area. He was clearly not interested in food; he was still dragging around that rat chunk. The volunteer and I did our best to keep him contained to the middle near the door of the building he was supposed to go into (and, oh yes, he knew where we wanted him to go) but eventually he managed to sneak past me.

When my boss still hadn't shown up, I realized that she had decided to make me handle this on my own. No problem...

Until Rafiki found our Emu pen and started crap with Sydney. That's when it got bad. Up until that point, he hadn't shown any signs of aggression towards anything. Now he was jumping at Syd's fence, trying to get at him. Sydney was equally upset, displaying, hissing, and growling on the other side.

It had reached the point where it was unsafe. Time to grab the bird.

I grabbed Rafiki's beak and tried to lead him into the building. I had already decided that if he refused to comply, I would pick him up and carry him, but I got lucky... he walked right in with me. Oh, he didn't like it too much, but he didn't fight me and I really had no trouble after that.

I waited five minutes to feed him... no point in making him think he had done something good.

As I left the area, I ran into my boss, who was on her way back. She hadn't come because I hadn't radioed. I hadn't radioed because Rafiki hadn't tried to kill me. It worked out okay... we were both proud of me that I had handled it on my own, and proud of her that she hadn't tried to rescue me (she has a tendency to do that).

Is this a good time to mention that Rafiki is and always has been one of my absolute favorites? He has sooo much personality! I love him to pieces.

Thursday is our first school show of the year. I'm sure I will get a great story out of that.

[Samm]

Alika:

Keep the stories coming! You have such a cool job, very interesting to read about it.
Please post a pic of your bald eagle, we'd love to see her.

[Alika]

I've posted these before, and one of them is in my sig, but I am more than happy to comply...

These are the best pictures I have for now. My uncle tried to take some pictures of her when he came last month, but she was scared to death of him and we had to put her up. We'll try again in the spring.

[Casa Amazona]

Wow, my all-time favorite bird. What beautiful pictures. Sounds like you had quite a day today. Bet you'll sleep well tonight.

[Samm]

Wow, she is absolutely gorgeous! Thank you!

What do you feed her? Raw meat, would be my guess.

[Alika]

Originally Posted by Samm

Wow, she is absolutely gorgeous! Thank you!

What do you feed her? Raw meat, would be my guess.

You're very welcome.

And yes, we feed her raw meat.

Specifically, mice, rats, quail, beef heart, trout, and capelin. In the wild, bald eagles are primarily fish eaters, so we tend to give her a fish-heavy diet balanced out with the other "ingredients".

***

On eagle courts, we talk about how so many bald and golden eagles were shot because farmers believed they were carrying off livestock, which was untrue. A lot of the time, eagles will scavenge on animals that have already died or prey on smaller, pest animals like rabbits and rodents.

But the other night during my question and answer session, some old guy raised his hand and bragged about all the bald eagles he had shot back on his farm back in the day because they were carrying off lambs.

Bald eagles are incredible wusses. They can only carry half their body weight, and would very likely NOT go after a lamb. It was NOT bald eagles.

Golden eagles can carry their full weight, but it is believed that they can't carry it far and only when they are flying down, using gravity and the weight of the prey. In other words, if they caught their prey ontop of a cliff and wanted to fly down to a nest with it. They have been known to take sick or injured deer, but it doesn't happen very often.

Certainly, even if a golden eagle did kill and carry off a lamb (and this guy claims he saw it with his own eyes) it would be an isolated incident. This guy claims he killed many, many eagles for this reason.

Arrgh! What do you SAY to that?!? It was probably the eagle scout's great grandpa... not like you can start a huge argument.

I conceded that it MIGHT have been a golden eagle and that a very large female could conceivably carry off a lamb... and then quickly moved on. I wish I could have said more, but I was trying to be professional and not start unneccessary arguments.

[cfulhage]

I would not have been able to stay professional in a situation like that! Some people are just SURE that they know EVERYthing.... I'm glad there are people like you that can set people straight!

[Tiki]

Alika, that eagle is just stunning! I am so jealous of your job! Sure beats accounts!

I stickied this, we look forward to hearing more about your birds!