50 years of saving birds: U’s Raptor Center sees thousands a year

CATHY WURZER: Thank you so much for being with us. We are live here at the Minnesota State Fair. This is Minnesota Now. Now, there are a lot of creatures at the fair, obviously. Two-legged, four-legged, feathered. We're going to meet one of the latter right now, a bird. It's a big one. Rowan the red-tailed hawk is here. Rowan is with his human friend, Lori Arent, the assistant director of the Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota.

Now, the Raptor Center, you all know about it. It's been in existence for 50 years-- 50 years ago this year, as a matter of fact. The Raptor Center sees nearly 1,000 birds every year in its clinic. And they run educational programs with help from folks like naturalist Catherine Hastings, who actually is perched on-- Rowan's perched on her hand. So with us right now is Lori and Catherine and Rowan. Good to have you back, Lori. How have you been?

LORI ARENT: I've been great, thank you.

CATHY WURZER: Excellent. Rowan is gorgeous. Oh my goodness. Tell me a little bit about him.

LORI ARENT: Yeah, so Rowan is a nine-year-old red-tailed hawk that was injured-- we don't really know how, but she ended up with a broken wing. And she has a condition that's called microphthalmia, which basically means one of her eyes is super small and she can't see out of it. So because raptors are such visual creatures and they need really excellent eyesight, Rowan cannot be released to the wild. She would not survive.

CATHY WURZER: She's gorgeous, though. I've never seen a red-tailed hawk in person. They are absolutely stunning.

LORI ARENT: But many of you may not know that red-tailed hawks, during their first year of life, they don't have a red tail. They get that beautiful red tail when they're one year old.

CATHY WURZER: Wow. See, I want to talk a little bit more about Rowan, but I remember doing some of the very first interviews about the Raptor Center-- not 50 years ago, for goodness sakes, but just in the infancy of the Raptor Center. And it's just been so popular since. I can't believe it's been around for 50 years. Wow.

LORI ARENT: Pretty amazing, yes.

CATHY WURZER: Yeah. What have you learned in those 50 years? Because you've treated all kinds of birds like Rowan. You've done so many educational programs. How do you think the Raptor Center fits into the fabric of the state of Minnesota, when it comes to research and education about raptors?

LORI ARENT: Well, certainly we've also had a global impact, right? When we first started our hospital, we didn't know how to fix a bird bone. Right? That wasn't even a science. So Dr. Redig, who is one of our co-founders, created orthopedic techniques that are used around the world today. They're also used in pet birds. So I don't know how many of you have a pet bird at home.

CATHY WURZER: So several. Yeah.

LORI ARENT: Yeah.

CATHY WURZER: I'm wondering here, going back to Rowan, if I could, does Rowan go to schools and does some educational programs?

LORI ARENT: She does. She's one of 25 of our raptor ambassadors. All of them cannot be released. And we put them through what we call kind of a raptor training school, right? There's a lot of things that have to happen before she will be comfortable to be in front of an audience like you, to be able to travel in a van, and just to be able to engage in programming. So Rowan here goes out to different school groups, scout groups, adult activities, venues like the state fair.

CATHY WURZER: And I'm wondering, what do people normally ask about your raptors? Because people in the audience here are absolutely fixated on Rowan, for good reason.

LORI ARENT: Yeah, so one question we always get is, how much do they weigh?

CATHY WURZER: They don't look like they weigh a lot.

LORI ARENT: They actually don't. Rowan here is about, oh, maybe a little bit close to 3 pounds. But they're all feathers. Their bone structure is very light so that they can fly very well. So it's all feathers.

CATHY WURZER: How much does a hawk like Rowan maybe eat in a day? Is that a good question to ask?

LORI ARENT: Yeah. So Rowan would eat an average of like three to four mice. Just full grown mice.

CATHY WURZER: OK. Well, that means that she's busy trying to find those mice, and she's--

LORI ARENT: Yes.

CATHY WURZER: --obviously-- Catherine is carefully feeding her with a forceps, I can see.

LORI ARENT: Yeah, so what Catherine is doing is Catherine is actually rewarding Rowan for good behavior. So-- and as you can see, Rowan knows the game, right? She knows where that food is coming from. So the goal is to have Rowan just sit very comfortably on the glove in front of all of you. And so when she does that, she gives certain postures. And so what Catherine does is reward those postures with a little tidbit.

CATHY WURZER: You know, I hate to bring this up. For some species, evidently, even this morning because of the storms, some of the tanagers and some of the smaller birds, the warblers, they're already leaving. They're leaving. And they were taking a kind of a ground stop this morning because of the storms that came through earlier this morning. So let's talk about migration. And I have loved to go up to Hawk Ridge in Duluth to watch the migration. When does that start normally for birds like Rowan?

LORI ARENT: So not all red-tailed hawks migrate out of our area, but those that do typically will wait until October before they start heading south.

CATHY WURZER: OK. Do you have a question for the audience, by the way?

LORI ARENT: I do. You know, as Cathy mentioned earlier, we see about 1,000 raptor patients every year. And my question to you is, what do you think happens to them? Why do they need our help?

CATHY WURZER: Anybody? Why do you think these raptors need the help?

JACOB: You can raise your hand and I'll come and meet you with a microphone. Yeah.

CATHY WURZER: There you go.

JACOB: Right over there.

CATHY WURZER: Thank you, Jacob.

JACOB: Hello, what's your name? Where are you from?

ELLEN: Ellen from Saint Paul.

JACOB: And?

ELLEN: I think they get hit by cars sometimes.

LORI ARENT: Yes, a fair number get hit by cars. And something we can all do to help minimize that is not to throw those apple cores and banana peels out the window. When I grew up, it was always like, oh yeah, they'll be recycled. But what happens is they attract rodents to the side of the road. And of course, the hawks and owls, they come down then to feed on the rodents. And it increases the probability they're going to get hit by a car.

CATHY WURZER: I did not know that. Oh my gosh, I can't tell you how many times I did that as a kid. My parents said, oh, it's OK, it'll be fine. Something will eat it. Are there other things that we can do to help birds like Rowan?

LORI ARENT: Oh, for sure. So if you ever play soccer, how many soccer players are out there or have kids or grandkids that play soccer?

CATHY WURZER: Right.

CATHY WURZER: Right? A problem that we've discovered over the past several years is that especially owls, they will get entangled in soccer nets at night. So if there's a way to either tip that net over or even completely take it down when it's not in use, that'll help prevent those owls from getting stuck. And of course, the owls get stuck at night, and they struggle all night long to get out. And then they're not found till the next morning.

CATHY WURZER: Oh. By the way, now, for folks who may come across a raptor that's in need, what do they do? How do they handle that?

LORI ARENT: Well, the first thing I would do is call the Raptor Center. Or if you're not from our area, call a local rehabilitator. Right now, we're just ending up baby season. And a lot of times, people will find a young raptor that-- in a place they don't expect it to be. And that raptor is just fine. So one thing we always try to do is to make sure that the raptor doesn't indeed need help. And then if you're in our area, we have actually a whole cohort of rescue transport volunteers that will come out and help rescue that bird.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, thank you for doing that, by the way. Say, you're going to have events right across the street at the DNR stage behind us here at the fair tomorrow and Thursday, I believe?

LORI ARENT: Yes.

CATHY WURZER: What are you going to be bringing? What birds might we see?

LORI ARENT: Oh, I'm not going to tell you, but it won't be Rowan. It'll be several other different species.

CATHY WURZER: Well, you've got some amazing ambassadors. I thank you for the work you do, you both do. The whole staff does amazing work. It's been really fun covering you for all these years.

LORI ARENT: And we so appreciate it. Thank you.

CATHY WURZER: And the success stories are really amazing. Lori, thank you. Catherine, thank you. And Rowan, thank you for being with us, too.

[APPLAUSE]

I think Rowan likes the applause. Lori Arent, assistant director of the Raptor Center, along with naturalist Catherine Hastings and, of course, Rowan the red-tailed hawk. You can catch the Raptor Center again on stage at the DNR Park tomorrow and Thursday three different times, 11:00, 1:00, and 3 o'clock.