Growing up and ready to be with other young lanners

Aida is becoming independent of her parents

Young Aida, the lanner born at Lake Vico rescue centre, spent a couple of weeks being cared for by her parents, Gea and Atlante. We made sure their lack of parenting experience would not put the life of their chick at risk, and everything went indeed smoothly. We talked about our approach in our previous update. Seeing Aida being fed by her parents has been heartwarming! Even more so considering she is the first lanner falcon ever to be born from a couple in an Italian public breeding centre. Now that she is growing up, we have moved her to a separate aviary.  

An adjustment period before the hacking box

Aida is now back in the hands of the rescue centre personnel for a few days. This is an essential step to carefully evaluate her physical condition. More importantly, it is critical to establish a contact with human presence, which will take the place of her parents in the next phase of her life as a young falcon.

In the early stages of life, a young lanner often feeds on large insects caught on the ground, because they are much easier sources of nutrients compared to birds. This is also a way to train to capture moving prey, improving their hunting skills. During this period, in fact, we started supplying Aida with live insects in addition to the usual food. This activity sparked her interest, stimulating her predatory instincts. She is successfully catching her prey, and will continue to do so once transferred to the hacking box. There, she will gradually prepare for her life as a hunter in the wild.