The Avian Behavior Podcast Hillary Hankey

What is a husbandry behavior and why train it? I think of it as the difference between fighting with your cohabitants over little behaviors and coming to an agreement over mutually beneficial behaviors. These behaviors are important whether we are talking to companion parrot lovers or professional animal caregivers. What's on your list of top five?

The concept of leaving your parrot flighted or clipping wings is a topic with much debate. There are opinions going both ways based on health, safety, welfare, and psychological benefits. It shouldn’t be any surprise that at Avian Behavior International, we are pro-flight when it comes to all birds. But our ethos is that of using science based methodologies to inform our decisions and suggestions. This means that rarely is there a one-size-fits-all solution. https://avian-behavior.org/podcast/22-clip/

In this far ranging conversation with Paige Davis, curator of bird training from World Bird Sanctuary, we talk about many aspects of training birds of prey, as well as training in general. We touch back upon weight management, as well as going into our mutual love of falconry. We also go into social media, why the Avian Behavior Lab began, and what made each of us change our tactics when it comes to negativity in the comments section.

In part 2, we take on a few of the prevailing ideas in raptor training that either defy science or are contradictory. From early relationship building to raptor housing, let's take a look at how nuance is lost and we open the door for uninformed, outside criticism when we take an always or never approach to raptor training.

We take on some of the common and pervasive myths in companion parrot care, what makes them attractive, and why they are harmful. We are going to talk about dominance, heavy petting, wearing gloves, diet, exercise, and more. Why do we listen to these myths, what gives them staying power, and what do we do instead?

Why is that owl grumpy? Anthropomorphism means assigning human qualities to non human things, such as animals and even our computers. We do it all of the time. Where it becomes important to assess is how it influences our relationship with animals in our homes, conservation measures, and even environmental policy. We go broad, talking about our dogs faces all the way to the California Condor Recovery Project.