SC - period falconry info

[James F. Johnson]

> > > Actually, I wonder if this has to do with not rupturing the abdominal
> > > cavity, which, I gather, affects the ability to hang the game. How does
> > > a hawk despatch small game? Or does it just pick it up it bring it in
> > > alive? I know birds of prey tend to disembowel small mammals pretty
> > > quickly, but I'm not sure what their training imposes upon their nature.
> > > Has anybody done any hawking?
> > >
> > > Adamantius

Raptors, as most predators do, tend to go for the easier soft tissue of the
abdomen and the accessible flesh of the limbs first. Those with strong jaws,
such as canines and felines, may proceed to eat the entire animal (pumas I've
known were quite fond of deer heads, bone and all). Raptors tend to lack strong
bone-crushing mandibles, and thus tend to tear apart their prey, centered around
the abdomen and the flight muscles of birds.
Falcons attack prey by striking it in flight, then either catching the stunned
or dead bird in a rebound loop, or following it to the ground and then mantling
it. This is the point that the falconer would try to glove the bird before it
had a chance to eat (also keeping the bird hungry means the bird keeps hunting).
Hawks and buteos tend to puncture their prey with those nice sharp talons, that
might puncture internal organs and major arteries. Most prey I've seen tends to
go into a form of shock once it's captured, and doesn't struggle. Distress calls
and struggling encourage the raptor to tighten down (personal experience tells
me not to squeak like a mouse the next time I might have a Great Horned Owl on
my gloved hand.....).

Raptors cannot fly off with prey unless it's quite small relative to the raptor.
Most have difficulty flying off after they've eaten, and will seek out a
suitable perch to rest and digest. Once they've got their prey, they will mantle
it (cover it with their wings so other animals don't seeit--they can catch it,
but they can't defend it well), bending their head down between their wings to
eat the prey still within their talons. If it's small enough to fly up into a
tree or cliff, they might do that, to avoid ground interference.

Generally, a falconer or hawker would want the biggest game his/her bird can
take and won't release it unless their is one about. Therefore, it's both
unlikely, and undesirable, that the bird fly with it's prey, in or away. If it
was subsistence hunting, whatever shows might be taken, but one runs the risk of
one's hawk flying into a tree with the game, and not coming back to the glove
because it's too heavy to want to fly, and no longer hungry.

Seumas dubh

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