A short time ago, my former apprentice, Foxfeather (I just advanced her to General this last Spring) achieved a life-long dream, that of acquiring a vulture. She is an advocate for all things vulture and has wanted to acquire one to begin being able to educate people about the value of these very misunderstood birds.
In mid July she was informed by a person who breeds these birds, Lesser Yellow-Headed Vulture, a species found in South America, that a chick was available if she wanted it. She has been on the waiting list for a long time. She jumped into her car and drove to Alabama to bring home her new bundle of fluff.
Because this bird is destined to be an education ambassador, it is very important that it becomes human imprinted, as well as very comfortable being around human environments. Fox is raising him loose in her livingroom (vultures do not have strong legs so cannot be tethered like raptors), and is taking him to many education opportunities already for him to get used to what his life is going to look like.
I say "him" because she has now gotten a DNA test to determine his sex. He's a boy! She has named him Sev (short for Severus from Harry Potter).
I try to get over to her home and interact with the baby so he is familiar with me. He is still fairly shy, as most vultures are, and sometimes runs away when I come in and lay down on the floor and talk to him. Sometimes I bring tasty vulture snax (live mouse or rat pinkies or fuzzies), at which point he's my buddy. Like any good Godmother, I don't have to really do anything to take care of the baby, just come and dote on him some, spoil him, although his mamma does a very good job at that.
Sev will most likely learn some tricks to add in his appeal as an education ambassador. Vultures are rather intelligent, curious and social animals. They just have a bad rap because of what they do . . . which is to provide a valuable service in the wild. Where would we all be without the garbage man?
Fox has established the Vulture Conservancy. With time she hopes / plans to acquire other vultures, but Sev is going to be the first. Her site will become more active with time. You can link to her to read up more about this endeavor, or even schedule her to come and give a presentation. She can also be found on Patreon if you would like to support her work and get access to more backstories.
Vulture Conservancy
Patreon - Foxfeather
