Abstract
Editor's note: the following is a human interest story from South Africa. But it must be emphasized that any bird of prey in the United States must not be removed from the wild. It is strictly against the law. If one observes an injured or distressed bird of prey in the wild, please call your local or state Fish and Game Department. But as seen in the article below, disturbing wildlife usually ends in disappointment and/ or disaster. Editor's note: the following is a human interest story from South Africa. But it must be emphasized that any bird of prey in the United States must not be removed from the wild. It is strictly against the law. If one observes an injured or distressed bird of prey in the wild, please call your local or state Fish and Game Department. But as seen in the article below, disturbing wildlife usually ends in disappointment and/ or disaster. tion he did not really know how to handle, especially as chirps and squeaks could be heard inside the shell. Obviously, the little guy was ready to make his entrance in our world and was becoming increasingly impatient.It was brought to the Parrot Breeding Centre for a proper hatching the same evening, and was put into an incubator. It had not been kept at the right temperature for a few hours so it was left there until late at night to warm up and at midnight we decided that a little help would be advisable. I then opened up the shell at the large end, after making sure by candling where the head was. As this was done, we were taking shots and a video movie of this exceptional hatching, but the egg had to be put back into the incubator every couple of minutes. Recording the hatching of a baby Black Eagle seems to be a first world wide, so we were very eager to do things right! The baby was very weak when it got out of the egg so I gave it two drops of Lactated Ringers to boost its energy and wait for the first dropping to indicate that the digestive system was ready for solid food. His birth-weight was 98 grams, a very unusual weight to a parrot breeder!
The next morning, he was ready for a first feed and another series of photographs. After all, he was unknowingly a star! His energy was rising and he could stand on his legs for a few seconds at a time.
As we are not familiar with hand rearing ra pto rs , and because we wanted to remain on the legal side of things, we phoned around to discover who would be best suited for his care. Another very good friend of ours who rehabilitates indigenous birds, told us she knew just the right person, Lorna
tandton.
We phoned Lorna after trying in vain to reach Nature Conservation in Pretoria in the hope that they could tell us what should be done and who to entrust it to. At first, we wanted to meet her at her own place to see who we were dealing with and if she sould have the right viewpoint on this matter, which was for us to rehabilitate this bird the best way possible. The same day it hatched, we went to Lorna's and saw at first a few raptors in her garden, including Bateleur Eagles, a beautiful Giant Hawk Eagle, Giant Eagle Owls, and as we came closer to the house, we could see many other raptors in aviaries that she kept for breeding purposes since most of these birds were brought to her after being injured for different reasons, often because of the heartlessness of some people.