Volunteers: an essential tool in the recovery of raptors

ANDRÉS CAPDEVIELLE; FACUNDO BARBAR; MANUEL ENCABO; FLORENCIA SANZ; GUILLERMO WIEMEYER; MILENA DE BENITO; NAHUEL PALLITTO; NATALIA ROSCIANO; RAMIRO RODRÍGUEZ

Iguazú

Conferencia; Second Neotropical Raptor Conference; 2006

Hawk Mountain Sanctuary

The Buenos Aires Zoo is one of the legal depositories of the confiscations carried out by the Direction of Wild Animals. As the number of raptors confiscated increased, it was necessary to create a program, called the Birds of Prey Conservation and Rescue Program, to help these birds. More than 100 raptors have passed through this program. Thanks to an agreement of mutual cooperation between the Zoo of Buenos Aires and the Fundación Bioandina Argentina, a large number of volunteers that make recovery of birds possible, have been trained. Passing through different stages, the volunteers learn how to train raptors, to make courses, organize releases, and monitor released birds, as well as to educate visitors in the interpretative center of the Zoo. The work of the volunteers is essential to accomplishing the goals of recovery, both of raptors that will be released, and those that will be kept in captivity and assigned to uses for education. Volunteers currently do not receive any remuneration for their work. Because of their hard work and passion for raptors, volunteers train the birds daily in hopes of bringing some “dignity” to their captivity or, in the best cases, returning them to the wild.