Greetings from Milwaukee all you loyal readers! A new season of educational bird shows produced by WBS Trainers has opened at the Milwaukee County Zoo, which means a lot of new things. Including new people, new behaviors, a new location, a new script to learn and of course a new batch of rookies including Tsavo.
Tsavo perched in a tree
Tsavo is a nine year old, male Bateleur Eagle. He made his show debut for the World Bird Sanctuary as a bird that just sat on the glove in the Grant’s Farm show last year. This year we are a little more ambitious and he’s flying from glove to glove. Before we could fly him though, he had to pass a series of tests. First we attached him to a creance line ( a long spool of heavy string tied to his jesses). This allowed him the freedom of flight, but should he make an unexpected detour we would be able to stop him. Next in the series was placing him in various trees ( which we found out he’s scared of) and on rooftops ( also not a fan) and calling him back into the theater. Finally we had him do some very long flights in an area where he couldn’t see the theater and had to come straight to our glove. I’m happy to say that he passed all of his tests with flying colors!
Telemetry equipment needed to monitor some of our free flying birds
Now, I’m sure you’re wondering “what’s with all the tests and trials?”. The simple answer is that Tsavo is a bateleur eagle, which in the wild will travel anywhere from 300-500 miles in a day in search of food. Since Tsavo is meant to travel such long distances we want to make sure he has a good recall to his home base, the theater. As an added precaution we also attach a transmitter to his leg before the show starts. That way if he gets frightened by something, or blown off course by a freak gust of wind, we can easily find him.
Close-up of Tsavo showing his unique facial area
He’s also a very unique looking bird, with a bright red face and feet. Bateleur eagles can actually change the color of these two areas depending on their mood. The blood vessels are very close to the surface and they can control blood flow to these vessels. A bateleur’s face can be anywhere from an orange-yellow when they are calm and relaxed to a brilliant red when excited ( like say during breeding season). These red feet are also unique because they have shorter toes and thicker scales on the tops of their feet than other birds of prey. These adaptations help to protect them from the bites of venomous snakes, their favorite tasty treat in the wild.
In the wild those red scaly feet would protect him from the bites of his favorite prey
Tsavo does some beautiful flights in the show, flying to the speaker and then right over audience members. His species is capable of some truly gorgeous spins, tumbles, and barrel rolls during courtship, due in part to their short tail (only about 3 inches long) and their very long wings. In fact Bateleur actually means acrobat or tumbler in French. Tsavo may not perform any courtship flights in the show, but we still encourage you to come out to Milwaukee to see him. His excited bawking noises before he takes off are worth the trip. Besides, where else other than Africa is a Bateleur Eagle going to fly over your head?
Submitted by Leah Tyndall, World Bird Sanctuary Naturalist
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