To maintain healthy birds in captivity, we encourage natural behaviors to keep their minds and bodies active. Most of a wild raptor’s day is spent simply sitting on a perch and watching their surroundings. That is easy to replicate in the mews: our birds sit and watch the Museum’s backyard daily.
For the rest of their time, we place new objects in the mew for them to look at or toys to play with. Carson recently received a phone book that Jayme (Living Collections Assistant) carefully folded like a fan. After a few weeks, Carson had ripped up nearly half of the book! Shredding is a natural behavior that wild raptors do when they catch a large meal, like a rabbit. This kind of enrichment keeps Carson busy and gives her an opportunity to rip and tear something for fun.
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