Falcoentrevista Jennifer O. Coulson

Clique : Texto em Português

Jennifer Outlaw Coulson

Biologist and PhD in Evolutionary Ecology for her research about the populational ecology of the Swallow-tailed Kite (Elanoides forficatus). Jennifer has published several articles about birds of prey. President of the Orleans Audubon Society, Female Falconer Master, Director of the Raptor Research Foundation, Publisher of the Lousiana's Ornithology Newspaper and she's also one of the writers of the book Harris's Hawk Revolution. Jennifer has experience with captive breeding, environmental education and raptors's rehabilitation.

Now let's go to what matters. We had the pleasure of interviewing Jen and, even being too busy, she gave us a bit of her time.

Thanks!!!

Questions

1- Did you make a study about the Harris's cooperation? What did you find out? My husband, Tom, and I hunt with our captive bred Harris's Hawks in a group (usually 2 to 6 hawks). While traveling across the country and hunting different species of rabbits in many different types of habitats, we came to the conclusion that when the habitat was challenging (thick, thorny, lots of hiding places), we needed a bigger group of hawks to be successful. When the cover is low, the habitat is not challenging for the hawk, and 1 or 2 hawks are enough to hunt with and be successful in catching rabbits. This led us to wonder if wild Harris's Hawks might be experiencing the same challenges, and if they might tend to form larger groups to increase hunting success when living in challenging habitats.

Harris hawks hunting rabbits

2- We know that Harris are hunting masters and live in hierarchical society, like the wolves. Do you have any fascinating story that you noticed about this hierarchy? While observing our captive bred hawks during the breeding season, we have discovered many parental behaviors that are important to developing and maintaining the dominance hierarchy and social unity. For example the young sometimes fight with one another and every time that they do, the parents break up the fight. If two fledglings are fighting, one of both parents will give alarm-call vocalizations, raise their hackles, and move toward the fight. If the offspring do not immediately retreat and stop fighting, one or both parents will force their way between the offspring in what we call a body block. While in the body block position, a parent may also alarm-call and stare directly at one of the offspring, and possibly also strike it with an open foot (toes and talons extended). The parents will also run into and knock the young off of perches to interrupt a fight, or dominate them to keep them from rejoining a fight. If a fledgling continues to try to fight, the parent may chase it around the chamber, alarm-calling at it, striking it with an open foot, knocking it off of perches, etc.

3 - How many Harris did you train? Is there one that you consider the best and why? As of this season I have hunted with and caught game with 41 Harris's Hawks. (This number does not include the Harris's Hawks that Tom has hunted with, even though I am hunting alongside his hawks with mine.) Ten of these 41 were birds trained by other falconers that were later given to me. So I've trained 31 Harris's Hawks from their beginning. I've manned or partially manned over 100. I've been lucky enough to have had five outstanding Harris's Hawks: Sky, Ten, Lola, Hannibal, and Tipitina, perhaps in that order, starting with the best. They are all related. My best falconry hawk was Sky. I had to retire her from falconry in March of 2014 because of a wing injury incurred while hunting. This season Tom and I each trained and are hunting with her babies. Sky was my best hawk for several reasons. She is the smartest hawk that I have ever trained. I loved to watch her problem-solving in the field, all to do with catching rabbits. She is the most aerial female Harris's Hawk I ever hunted with. Flying was effortless for her. Sky also had incredible vision and would continually spy and go after game that no other hawk saw. The other hawks in the group learned to follow her and depend on her superior eyesight. Sky always had a knack for catching rabbits in impossible situations too. She was definitely a high-scoring hawk when it came to filling up the game vest. Besides rabbits and hares, she also really liked hunting ducks and coots. Sky and I also have a close or special relationship. I can usually figure out what she wants from her body language, posture, her gaze, or the vocalizations she is making. She "talks to me" or makes the unh-unh-unh Harris's Hawk contact noise every time she seems me.

SKY

4- We know that you have a S. ornatus couple. We would like to know if you already hunted with that specie. How does it hunt? My experience in training this species is extremely limited and involves only 1 juvenile and 1 adult. The main frustration I had was that both birds (not related) were terrified anytime a large bird flew overhead. Louisiana is rich with bird life, and hawks, vultures, herons, egrets, anhingas, cormorants and other large birds are constantly flying overhead. I only flew the adult on a creance and trained it to the lure. I tried to hunt with the juvenile (a female we bred) on several occasions, but it was frustrating because as soon as a rabbit hid behind a clump of grass, she would veer off and fly away as if the rabbit had vanished. At that point in my life, I did not have the time it would take to train her to hunt, so we sold her :( I would venture to say that this species takes a lot of time, patience, individual attention, and repetition. It probably does best with simple hunting situations like flying it from the glove in open country. I know this seems counter-intuitive for a super-talented forest raptor, but I think this is how the species probably would have the most success in falconry. I know someone who caught black-tailed jackrabbits with one hunting with it in this manner (flying it off the glove in open country).

5 - We would like to know if you can make an analogy between the Harris hawk and S. ornatus about strength, intelligence and hunting?

In my humble opinion, these two raptors do not have much in common--they might even be at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of intelligence. I have been reminded by Harry McElroy via Noel and Helen Snyder that humans should not judge animal intelligence using our own frame of reference. Spizaetus certainly has all the intelligence it needs for what it does. Having said that, I stand by my conjecture. I think intelligence sometimes evolves in social situations which require cooperation, and the Harris's Hawk is much more social than the Ornate Hawk-Eagle. I can at least say with certainty that in falconry, the Harris's Hawk is more malleable, easier to train, more adaptable behaviorally, and more cooperative. I have observed that Spizaetus ornatus has incredible gripping straighten. I wonder what it hunts in the wild that requires such force and power? I am impressed with the physical talents of this species--especially the male's speed and agility. 6 -The S. ornatus couple is really a reproductive couple? No, they are not. Unfortunately the female is an imprint and the male was taken as a brancher. We have tried many techniques to gradually introduce the male and female to one another, but anytime we put them together the female attacks the male. We are afraid that she will kill him, so we house them in separate flight chambers. We are hoping to use artificial insemination, but I have not been able to successfully strip the male and he is not a donor. We did have a pair that we bred successfully a couple of times, producing one male and one female. Unfortunately, the pair died when they were in their late thirties or early forties.

7- Can you describe an awesome game with your Harris that you can't ever forget? In 2010 Tom and I made a special hunting trip to Tucson, Arizona to hunt a species of hare that is seldom taken by falconer's hawks in the U.S., the antelope jackrabbit. It is a large, lanky desert-adapted hare with very long hind legs and long ears. Two falconers met up with us in Tucson for this hunt, Toby Bradshaw of Seattle, Washington, and Bob Armbruster, of Acton, California. We managed to scout and find a lot of antelope jackrabbits. We were hunting in places where wild Harris's Hawks might live, so our hawks were following us some of the time atop huge, tree-like saguaro cacti, which was beautiful. Our hawks caught antelope jackrabbits every day during our trip and it was really a treat getting to know and understand this strange and elusive quarry. My best hawk, Sky, was an important hawk to have on these hunts because the jacks often ran far ahead of us. We were usually hunting in thick creosote bush that was over our heads, so Sky was the best hawk to spy and follow the jacks moving ahead. The other hawks quickly learned to follow her lead. With this type of hunting, in this habitat type, cooperation is very important to success. Many times we watched as the hawks followed the leader after the hare. If the leader stooped on the hare and missed, the second in line pitched up to get better height, find the hare and keep pressing it. So the second in line moved to first in line--and when it stooped, if it missed, the third hawk in line moved up to first place, and by this time, the original lead hawk was back up, in the line, also helping to track or follow the hare through this dense, tall brush.

8 - You already have observe a wild Harris hunting in Texas. How is the sensation? Tom and I were awestruck and completely absorbed in the moment. I think I memorized every move that each hawk made. After the hawks fed on the cottontail that we saw them capture, one of them brought a leg to another adult perched low in the bushes. We think this hawk must have been injured or ill because it did not join in the hunt, and because iti was perched only about a half-meter above the ground.

9 - We would like to know why the species with most interest in your study are: parabuteo unicinctus, spizaetus ornatus and eloides forticatus?

Parabuteo unicinctus captured my heart because this predator is a cooperative breeder and hunter and a most excellent species for use in falconry. I think the Ornate Hawk-Eagle is the most beautiful bird on Planet Earth! I thought it would be a better bird for falconry in my area than it is. I have not given up on the species though. It is a powerful raptor that commands one's attention. (I am currently studying some reproductive behaviors of the species.) At the time when I began to study the Swallow-tailed Kite, Elanoides forficatus, very little was known about the species and its northern population had declined dramatically about a century before. I hoped to find out why the northern subspecies had not recovered to its former population size. I was/am also interested in it because it is also a social raptor that often hunts in groups, but how much cooperation is involved in its social hunting is a question I am still trying to answer.

Recapture of a 7 year old Swallow-tailed Kite banded as a nestling.

10 - Have you ever observe any old form of training used by falconers that today you consider "wrong" or that causes a negative behavior from the Harris? There are two main mistakes that falconers often make with captive bred Harris's Hawks: The captive bred Harris's Hawk is usually a quick study (a fast learner). If a falconer over-trains the hawk this can result in problems like gripping the glove and becoming fist-bound. Monitor the hawk's progress closely, allow the training to progress as rapidly as possible, and get the hawk out hunting as soon as possible. A lot of initial behavioral problems can be solved by hunting. Change what you are doing the first time the hawk grips the glove. Stop rewarding the hawk on the glove, change to a different glove, use a T-perch instead of the glove, etc.

11 - Do you have any important tip that you want to say to the Brazilian falconers that fly parabuteos? Yes, I have three. The first tip applies to all falconry raptors, but especially to the Harris's Hawk: treat each hawk as an individual and be aware of its needs, strengths and weaknesses, etc. And...this intelligent hawk can easily outsmart the falconer who is not paying attention to the hawk. The second is: if you are planning to hunt a Harris's Hawk with one or more of its species, it is best to have a hawk that is raised by its parents and kept with its parents for at least 15 to 20 weeks, and that is housed within sight of and trained and then hunted alongside another Harris's Hawk. In other words, maintain some degree of socialization at ALL times. However, when the hawks are at a reduced weight for training and hunting, they must not be allowed to reach one another when they are not hunting (i.e., not free-lofted together). The third is that captive bred Harris's Hawks tend to fly back to you at a weight higher than what their best hunting weight will be. Falconers who have not trained captive bred Harris's Hawks before are often fooled by this. If the hawk is continually following the rabbit (or prey) but not crashing into cover, and if it continually appears to follow at a distance and not have quite enough speed to overtake the rabbit, its weight is too high. It might come back to the glove quickly when called, but it is not hunting as it should.

12 - Which are the best prey for a Harris hawk? I am assuming you mean in falconry. In the U.S. falconry, rabbits and hares are the most frequently hunted prey with a Harris's Hawk. That is 95% of what Tom and I hunt with Harris's Hawks. The Harris's Hawk is possibly the best species for hunting rabbits and hares in warmer climates like ours. I mention the temperature because the species is well adapted to handle the heat, but it is sensitive to cold weather and susceptible to frostbite. The males are also very good at hunting birds, including quail.

13 - Which is this important role in the cooperation between you and your husband? That is a funny question! There is some division of labor in our household: we both do everything, but Tom does most of the husbandry and I do more of the record keeping and handling of permits. Probably what is most important is we consult one another about everything. For example, anytime we think we see a problem, or we are deciding whether to change up a pair of breeders, or one of us is contemplating changing the weight on a hunting hawk, etc., we ask the other's opinion.

Jennifer and Tom

14 - How did you feel about the important compliments that you received about your book "Harris hawk revolution"? Did you expected all this success?

The book is our life's work and knowledge about falconry. We felt compelled by duty to write it since we had much more experience than most falconers and breeders. Any time someone learns and benefits from our experience, it is a dream come true. The reviews have been more than generous, and the fact that they are written by people we admire makes them all the more meaningful to us. The book's success has been beyond what we could ever have hoped for!

15 - Why did you decide to be a different breeder that selects (through active hunting with the matrices) the lineage of your birds? We trained and hunted with many individual Harris's Hawks and discovered that they differed tremendously. In spite of a similar upbringing, housing, training, and hunting opportunities, some hawks were much better at falconry and caught a lot more game than others. We observed many physical and behavioral differences: some were tamer, others were considerably faster, some were hungry beyond belief, and a few had truly exceptional eyesight. Body types differed too: some Harris's Hawks were long and lean, others were squat and more compactly built. It was easy to conclude that many of these traits were genetically based and heritable, which meant that the desirable ones for falconry could be selected for and the undesirable ones could be selected against. Once you have hunted with an exceptional hawk, you really want to have more like it. You simply cannot get enough of a hawk like this! Life is short, so why not hunt with the nicest, most driven, athletic hawk possible? The fastest way to finding that type of game hawk is through selective breeding.

16 - (Harris Hawk hunting Preá) We would like you to evaluate a video made by us from Brazil and say what you think!

This is a fun video, and I would like to take my hawks to this spot! I wonder what type of rodents you are hunting? And do you have to worry about bites? The hunting looks a little chaotic, for example when another falconer's hawk piles in on the rodent after a hawk has already caught the rodent, but we've certainly been in circumstances like that. I like the video a lot, and I think it could be improved for international audiences if you could provide a little more information about the quarry, where you are hunting, etc. A little interpretation would help (but I may have missed some of the writing at the end--it rolled by too quickly for me). 17 - Lots of people think that the Harris hawk is a great bird for a beginner, because it accepts well some mistakes in the beginning of the training. Knowing the harris's intelligence, do you agree that it is a good bird for beginners? It depends on the beginner. Most people in the U.S. who are beginning falconers tend to reduce the hawk's weight too rapidly and reduce it too much. This is a recipe for disaster with a captive bred Harris's Hawk. Beginners are also more likely to put the cart before the horse, meaning they have the hawk but they have not found good hunting spots. So they keep training the hawk (over-training it) instead of taking it hunting. When they do finally take the hawk hunting, they can't find much game. A young hawk doesn't develop well under these circumstances. The third part of my answer to Question 11 also applies regarding weight control.

18 - The Brazilian falconers can register on the baywingdb project? Which is the importance of this project? The Baywing Database, the Harris's Hawk Pedigree and Hunting Performance Registry, is open to everyone, and it is free. We hope that falconers and breeders from all over the world who hunt with and breed Harris's Hawks will submit data on their hawks. Are falconry Harris's Hawks banded or micro-chipped in Brazil? I ask because it is helpful for record keeping. If the hawks are not banded, the clubs might want to consider organizing a banding or some type of marking program. Tom and I think that performance-based, selectively bred Harris's Hawks are bringing greatness to falconry. For example, a few hawks descended from our bloodlines have taken Roe Deer in the Czech Republic at field meets. The pedigree aspect of the Baywing Database is most important because ANY breeder who breeds raptors in captivity is practicing some level of selective breeding whether he/she likes it or not. The fact that these animals are accepting captivity enough to breed in captivity is one level of selection. If animals are going to be selectively bred, this should be done with goals in mind. The logical goal for falconry is to select for traits that relate to hunting performance. This is why the hunting performance of each hawk can also be important, for selecting the future breeders. The last thing a breeder should do is pair together two hawks that did not work out well in falconry and breed them! Yet this is what so many people still do. The Baywing Database has also helped breeders to discover that they were unknowingly breeding brother to sister or uncle to niece. In-breeding and line-breeding should only be used as a tool, to try to pass down desirable traits, instead of being an accident. A Harris's Hawk breeder we know discovered a deleterious mutation in his breeding project and he used the Baywing Databse to track its inheritance and change up pairs to avoid it. On August 29, 2005, we lost almost everything (home, trucks, boats, animals) in Hurricane Katrina. Fortunately, for us, Toby Bradshaw had almost all of our Harris's Hawk breeding records stored safely in the Baywing Database. It's a way for breeders to protect their records, and their legacy from floods, fire, and even memory loss. The Baywing Database is also helping to track the history of the Harris's Hawks in falconry and captive breeding. We implore Brazilian falconers to make your hawks part of this history! The Baywing Database links are: http://www.coulsonharrishawks.com/baywing-database.php http://www.coulsonharrishawks.com/baywing-db-data-entry.php

If there is anything we can do to help falconry in Brazil, we would love to help. We would be happy to provide letters of support from U.S. falconers, falconry clubs, and national organizations. We would love to provide advice when it is needed.

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