Raptors in Captivity: Guidelines for Care and Management
Raptors in Captivity: Guidelines for Care and Management
Raptors in Captivity: Guidelines for Care and Management
Raptors in Captivity: Guidelines for Care and Management
Raptors in Captivity: Guidelines for Care and Management
Raptors in Captivity: Guidelines for Care and Management

Raptors in Captivity: Guidelines for Care and Management

Condition

Regular price $49.95


Details

By: Arent, Lori R.
ISBN: 978-0-88839-109-4 [trade softcover B&W]
ISBN: 978-0-88839-613-6 [trade hardcover CLR]
Binding: Paperback / Hardcover
Size: 11" X 8.5"
Pages: 304
Photos: 196
Illustrations: 88
Publication Date: Original Printing 2007 / 2018 B&W Reprint

 

Description

PR Highlights: One of the best selling and most utilized raptor books ever published!

One of our best selling books on raptors!

Sample Chapter

Table of Contents

Description: A first-of-its-kind resource, Raptors in Captivity is designed as a reader-friendly reference tool covering a wide range of topics from choosing a suitable species, to housing and transportation, diet, medical care, equipment, training. Raptors in Captivity is the recommended US Fish & Wildlife Service 'bible' for the care and keeping of raptors in captivity -- an incredible endorsement! If you're a zoo, rehab center or a falconer, here are the guidelines for safely caring for raptors -- and complying with permits.

Covers a range of topics from making the decision to keep raptors and choosing suitable species, to housing and transportation, diet, medical care, equipment, training, and recovering a lost bird.

Author Biography

Lori Arent, M.S. is the Assistant Director for The Raptor Center at the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of MN. For almost 30 years, she oversaw the care and rehabilitation of up to 1050 raptors annually. A master falconer, she maintains memberships in several raptor and wildlife associations, has published numerous works on raptor care, management physiology, and pre-release conditioning, and has created multiple on-line self-studies and instructor-led courses.

Book Reviews

Raptor Conservancy of Virginia
Review by Kent Knowles, President, April 2008

Designed for persons keeping captive raptors for program or exhibit, this exceptionally complete and helpful reference contains a wealth of essential information for expert and novice alike. Raptors in Captivity - Guidelines for Care and Management thoroughly explores such key topics as housing, diet, selection of appropriate raptors, handling, medical care and permits. Lori Arent, long the chief of raptor rehabilitation at the Raptor Center of the University of Minnesota, focuses her extensive experience and knowledge in a reader friendly way to provide people who keep captive raptors for education purposes with an extraordinary reference and set of guidelines on education raptor care and maintenance. The book also contains detailed and comprehensive tables and drawings, as well as many helpful pictures. Although Raptors in Captivity is not primarily intended to provide guidance for raptor rehabilitators or captive breeders, much of the information in this book should be of much assistance in those areas also. This book is an outstanding source of guidance in maintaining captive raptors, and should be an invaluable tool for every person interested in this area.

 

Wildlife Rehabilitation Bulletin published by the National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association Journal
Review by Laurel Degernes, DVM
Volume 25, No. 2, Pages 46,47
Fall 2007

This book is long-anticipated and comprehensive update of the first edition, Care and Management of Captive Raptors by Lori Arent and Mark Martell in 1996. While the book is written at a level appropriate for introducing novices to captive raptor management, experienced individuals will also benefit from the wealth of information.
The 10 chapters are very well-organized, indexed, and illustrated with photographs and line drawings. A set of five appendices provide contact information for federal and state wildlife permit offices, seven pages of photographs of different enclosure and perch designs from nine centers, and options and sources for suppliers of food and vitamin supplements, handling and training equipment, and maintenance and medical supplies. The first chapter includes a discussion of federal and state permits, required for any individual or organization that plans to maintain native North American raptor species in captivity. The chapter on selecting a raptor for an education program summarizes a large amount of information about these species, including a brief overview of natural history, handling and husbandry characteristics, and medical considerations i.e., susceptibility to certain diseases such as aspergillosis, avian malaria, or West Nile virus). A set of symbols and stars is provided for dietary preferences, suitability for use as display and/or program birds, recommended level of experience necessary to work with these birds, and an overall rating for captive management. A list of the Steady Six species most suitable for novices and good all around program birds (garnering an five-star rating) is also provided. The chapter on diets includes useful information on suitable and non-suitable food options, food delivery and storage, and managing eating problems. Recommended food types and daily rations for the raptor species covered are summarized in a table. The chapter on housing is one of the more extensive chapters in the book, that reflects the importance of this issue. This well-illustrated chapter covers structural considerations including building materials, cage sizes, escape and predator proofing supplemental heat, shelter boxes, and perch designs and placement. When it comes to raptors, the one size fits all approach to perches can lead to serious foot problems, but fortunately, much of the guesswork for appropriate size and types of perches is eliminated with the extensive tables of species-specific information. The chapter also includes sections on tethering captive raptors, and common injuries associated with improper housing, such a broken feathers, bumble-foot, and soft tissue wounds. The excellent line drawings in the equipment chapter illustrate a wide range of jesse and anklet styles. Detailed instructions are sufficient for making equipment using readily available supplies. Contact information for equipment suppliers is also provided, for the less adventurous. The maintenance chapter includes examples of forms and important guidelines for routine record keeping. Descriptions of capture and handling techniques are described and illustrated, including common examination and grooming procedures (i.e., trimming talons and beaks). There is also an excellent overview of feather anatomy, com-mon problems, and step-by-step guideline for feather imping. The strengths of the medical care chapter are the sections devoted to captive management problems such as soft tissue trauma, bumblefoot, frost-bite, heat stroke, nutritional problems, and parasitology. Common infectious bacterial, viral, and fungal diseases are briefly covered, but it is important to note that this book does not suffice as a stand-alone re-source for diagnosing and treating diseases in captive raptors. A licensed wildlife veterinarian should al-ways be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of captive raptors. The chapter on training includes behavioral training methods for both the handler and program bird (i.e., motivation, reinforcement, cues, and bridges). The next chapter takes a very practical approach to trans-porting raptors, including different styles of carriers and crates for local programs, as well as shipping crates for airline transportation (tables are included that give size recommendations for different species). Useful training and travel tips are discussed, as well as travel hazards to avoid. The final chapter covers how to recover a lost bird. Housing and equipment recommendations are provided to try to prevent loss, but a number of options are provided to locate and recover an escaped bird. The decades of collective knowledge and experience of the author and colleagues at The Raptor Center and in other organizations, is complied into an organized and comprehensive book on the subject of cap-tive management of raptors. Any individual or organization that is planning to start a raptor education program will be well-advised to obtain this book and do their homework in advance. In addition, this book has a lot of practical tips and information for more seasoned raptor educators. This is a great book and an essential library addition for any individual or organization that manages captive raptors for display and/or education programs.

The Falconer Journal
2008, pg 107
Review by Andrew Heath
University of Nottingham-School of Geography

First off, this is not a book written for falconers. Falconers' knots and creances hardly get a mention; training techniques, although covered, are barely relevant to the falconer and his hawk, and there is nothing whatsoever to be found regarding taking of quarry. For those still reading this, well done, for there is much here that is still of use.
Lori R Arent, the author, is the clinic manager at The Raptor Center, which is based at the University of Minnesota. For those who are not aware, TRC is the most likely candidate for the title of international hub of raptor veterinary progress, and all the latest innovations, if not actually invented there, are very soon adopted. The book is intended to be the latest bible on all things pertinent to the happiness, health and well-being of any raptor kept in captivity, but with a particular bent towards wild-injured raptors being kept for public education, either by individuals or larger organized set-ups. Apparently the TRC treats 700 poorly wild raptors every year, and runs a public visitor center using birds that are not fit to be released following treatment. From this starting position it was always likely to be a book that could cause slight irritation to your average hard-line BFC member, although, as it happens, it was not as bad in this respect as I was expecting after reading the preface and code of ethics (for 'wild-life educators'). However, one of the points covers the importance of euthanasia for seriously disabled birds, to my relief. The five words I would pick for summing this book up are as follows; utilitarian, comprehensive, detailed, American, dry. Very few people will read this from cover to cover and enjoy the experience, and the style as a mix between Vets in Practice and one of those east coast American physicists we used to get on BBC2 with huge, unkept beard and suspiciously falsetto voice, muttering earnestly in front of a maths-strewn blackboard. But of course, far more important than style (and my tastes), is content and quality of information. To give credit where it is due, much of the information pertaining to raptor husbandry is spot on, and picks up the slack on many subjects with which falconers are not always up to speed. Some of the chapters are driftwood as far as we are concerned, such as those covering US regulations and how to select your wild-injured 'educator'. But after that, there is everything you need to know about diet, coping, perches, medical care etc., and the author constantly outlines the differences between manned and unmanned raptors, which is very useful. There is a whole chapter devoted to transporting raptors, which is a very rare thing indeed, and although it won't satisfy completely while out hawking with trained hawks, if you are moving untrained or sick hawks you cannot go wrong if you follows the instructions herein. There are one or two slightly pedantic suggestions that push the point a bit far, but basically, if you want to make sure that your husbandry techniques are as good as they can be, the information is here, and although the book is not written for falconers, it contains much knowledge that all falconers should have. The section on housing/aviary design is not as polished as the rest, and I may have even spotted one or two little errors. This is probably down to the consideration of housing birds in a manner that makes them viewable by the public. There are still some use-ful pointers though. Things are not well illustrated generally, but the aim of the author was clearly to provide information, not to produce a coffee-table piece. The chapters on training and recovering lost hawks are much better dealt with in other books that are probably already on your shelf, but there is so much information here on raptor husbandry best practice that, although the book is aimed at the inexperienced, there are probably very few falconers who would not learn something by reading it, particularly if the opportunity to put some of the tips to immediate practical use is available. Reading it end to end has been a bit of a slog, but if you can stomach the use of 'wild-life educator' instead of 'hawk', then much of the information is worth having around, particularly if you have a few hawks or more to manage.

 

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