In this and three further articles I will be giving information on the captive breeding of birds of prey. I will be referring to all the major knowledge and practical skills areas. My aim will be to provide a basic grounding. However even though I have given me more space than is often possible in a web-site, it is important to note that only the major points can be conveyed and that in many cases there is substantially more detailed information to be imparted.

This additional information will be available from a variety of sources and if you stay with me until the fourth and final article I will give you some pointers in that direction. In this first Article I will cover commitment, planning, choice of breeding stock, housing and nutrition.

In addition to being of help to the tyro propagator, I also hope these articles will give some indications to falconers on how much time, effort, planning and cost is involved in producing a quality eyass raptor. From the falconers' point of view, it is well worth bearing in mind that the quality of the young bird produced by a breeder for the falconer, will depend on the quality of the rearing processes and nutrition used. This will translate into the bird's performance in the field later on.

 

Commitment and Planning

When starting to plan any breeding programme, bear in mind that success is directly proportional to the amount of work, time and effort you are willing to put into the project. It is assumed for the purpose of this series of articles that the raptors you are aspiring to produce are for falconry use, and/or for future captive breeding. Before beginning you should consider carefully before taking on the task of captive breeding. As well as the cost both in financial terms and in time, if you are the type who gets uptight or upset when things go wrong, then this is not the pastime for you. After personally experiencing all the ups and downs (and there are more downs than ups) of captive breeding, it is easy to see why most falconers take the option of not bothering to breed their own birds. During the mid eighties, with raptor prices spiralling, quite a few people jumped onto the

Modern Captive Breeding by Peter Gill

 

PART 1—GETTING STARTED

Continue here….

Index

captive breeding bandwagon. It seemed an easy way to make money. Many found this was a cloud without a silver lining, and having paid big prices, produced nothing. If financial reward is your major incentive, rather than a byproduct of your breeding success, 1 strongly advise you to invest your money in something else. Also keep in mind that good falconers do not necessarily equate to successful raptor propagators. Although a good grounding in falconry is required, it is avicultural skills, albeit specialised ones, that have to be learnt.

 

The first choice to be made is what species you intend to breed and by what method of propagation. I will not be presumptuous and recommend a species, as this is purely down to an individual choice. Although no raptors are easy to breed, if from the human angle, you are a beginner then you will find that the Harris hawk and Saker falcon are two of the easiest species to persuade to reproduce.

 

When choosing a species, the long-term requirement of that species within the falconry community also has to be taken into account. For instance, in the UK the common Buzzard has been a primary choice of the novice falconer for a good few years and rightly so. However, with the increased number of captivebred Harris and Redtail hawks available today at very modest prices, the Buzzard is now being overlooked. So why breed a species that nobody wants? Sure, some people will want Buzzards in the future, but my own 24 year old pair have averaged 4 young per year for the past 20 years and that's a lot of prospective new owners to find, believe me.

 

It is also worth considering concentrating on those species you are especially interested in, as my view is that if the interest is lacking then results in terms of productivity will reflect this.

 

Like any commercial breeder of raptors, 1 have to endeavour to predict what species and in some cases subspecies, falconers