A local wildlife rehabilitation and conservation centre is currently hosting a weekend-long Easter egg hunt in aid of the centre’s birds of prey breeding and rehabilitation programme.
The four-day event is being held at Eagle Encounters on Spier wine farm in Stellenbosch from 15 to 18 April. This is according to Josh Chalmers, director of Eagle Encounters.
Chalmers explained that some of their young patrons participated in their first-ever Easter egg hunt at Eagle Encounters during the weekend’s festivities. “You can see birds here you’ve never seen before,” said Cullen Cloete, a six-year-old who attended the festivities with his parents.
“We facilitate interaction and teach [kids] not to take the animals home,” said Josh Chalmers, director at Eagle Encounters, who explained that their main goal is to return healthy birds to the wild where they belong. PHOTO: Kara Olivier
Care and release
According to Chalmers, their rehabilitation programme receives more than 400 birds of prey every year. “We take the birds in and care for them until they are well enough or old enough to be released back into the wild and given a second chance at life,” said Lauren Conradie, a handler at Eagle Encounters.
Although they have a high release rate, 75% of animals brought to the centre are released back into the wild, Conradie explained that, “all too often we have animals that have to stay behind here at the centre”.
Josh Chalmers, director of Eagle Encounters, stated that Cape vultures (photo 1), Martial eagles (photo 2), and African harrier-hawks (photo 3) are some of the rare and endangered species that the centre has taken in. PHOTOS: William Brederode and Kara Olivier.
Fostering rehabilitation
Conradie explained that the birds who stay behind in the centre have been permanently injured or have been raised by people as pets and therefore are too tame to return to the wild. “[Exotic birds] cannot legally be released [locally],” said Conradie.
These animals then become part of Eagle Encounters’ education program or join the rehabilitation and breeding program as “foster parents”, said Chalmers.
“As [chicks] go through our system we care for them but we are not the ones who raise them,” said Chalmers. After the chicks are brought to [Eagle Encounters], they are raised by ‘foster parent’ birds to ensure their chances of successfully surviving in the wild, he said.
A dark, quiet and ventilated environment can help calm an injured bird during transportation to a rehabilitation centre, according to Josh Chalmers, director of Eagle Encounters. PHOTO: Kara Olivier
Birds of a feather flock together
Chicks that are raised by humans often undergo a process called “filial imprinting”, which is a social attachment issue that inhibits the animal from effectively adapting to its natural environment upon release, explained Chalmers. “In other words, whatever raises them is what they perceive themselves as.”
“We are now at a point where humans decide what gets to live in mother nature, and that is a terrifying thought considering how we treat it,” said Chalmers.
“Owls serve an important role in pest controlling winelands,” said Josh Chalmers, director at Eagle Encounters, who explained that the owls they receive often suffer from second-hand poisoning. This happens when owls feed on prey that has ingested agricultural pesticides, according to Chalmers. PHOTO: Kara Olivier