RIFLE

On May 6, 2011 our staff sadly said good-by to one of our most beloved veteran performers, Rifle the Harris’ Hawk, who succumbed to old age after a long and eventful career.

Rifle was hatched at the World Bird Sanctuary in the spring of 1987, and was raised by our staff to help educate the public about the many problems faced by wildlife in the modern world.  She quickly learned to fly from one trainer to another and soon became a featured performer.  Rifle spent the summers of 1988-1990 at WBS’s Louisville Zoo Bird of Prey show. 

Since that time she has thrilled thousands of audiences far and wide with her low swooping performances.  Every fall she was a featured performer at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival in Bonner Springs, Kansas.  She even took part in a wedding, acting as the ring-bearer by flying the rings into the wedding ceremony of one of our staff members.

Many people had a tendency to refer to Rifle as “he”, probably because of the masculine sounding name.  However, there was no doubt among our staff that Rifle was a female, since she was one of the largest Harris’ Hawks we have ever had.  With most birds of prey there are very few, if any, outward differences between the sexes.  Short of doing a surgical procedure, the only guideline to determining sex is based on differences in weight and size.

Recently we noticed that during performances and training sessions Rifle seemed to be having trouble landing on the trainer’s glove.  We discovered that she had arthritis of the wings and that flying was becoming increasingly painful.  WBS staff respectively decided this veteran performer had earned the right to a comfortable retirement.

Rifle spent her last days on the display line just beyond the hospital, where she could be seen basking in the sun, enjoying a refreshing bath, or just people-watching. 

Rifle will be sorely missed by one and all.