Raptor center volunteers head north to Alaska

Contributed Auburn Villager Pictured (l-r) are Cori Gaskill, Jessica Larson and Eva Mathews.

Auburn University and eagles have come to be linked in the public mind, and that connection has led to the trip of a lifetime for two current AU students and one recent graduate. They are in Alaska this summer interning with the American Bald Eagle Foundation, and their work at AU's Southeastern Raptor Rehabilitation Center led to the opportunity.

Eva Mathews and Jessica Larson are current AU students, and Cori Gaskill is a recent graduate. All three are former volunteers at the raptor center, and now they are training and presenting birds to the public in the tiny community of Haines, located in the shadow of the Takshanuk Mountains in southern Alaska.

Haines is near the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, where bald eagles congregate between October and February. At that time, the area has the largest population of bald eagles in the world. The nearby American Bald Eagle Foundation is an interpretative wildlife display that houses four non-releasable birds.

"The three interns from Auburn are the best we've ever had," said Dan Hart, raptor curator at the American Bald Eagle Foundation. "We decided to have all three interns be from Auburn this year."

Hart, an Alabama graduate, spent time at Auburn's raptor rehab center to gain the necessary number of hours to fly eagles, and he said his experience was so great the foundation opened the three internship spots to Auburn students.

The positions will be open to all applicants again next summer and provide interns with travel costs, a living space and a food stipend.

"These interns have done some pretty special things so far," Hart said. "They've even remodeled the visitor's workshop. They work well with handling the birds and treating their injuries."

The three girls' responsibilities include training owls and falcons and educating visitors about birds of prey.

"Places like this are important because they help people better understand birds of prey," said Gaskill, a 2009 animal sciences graduate. "A lot of people don't get to see these kinds of birds up close, so we can show and educate them."

Mathews, a zoology major, not only works with the birds, but for the past two years has designed and created the leather jesses that Auburn's most famous eagle, Tiger VI, wears at football games. The thin leather straps are used to keep a raptor under control while it is on the glove or in training.

Tiger VI is the latest in a line of golden eagles owned by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service but cared for by the Southern Raptor Rehabilitation Center. The eagle is famous for her flights at AU home games.

Hart said Mathews has been especially vital to the foundation because she has also made the visitor's shop more profitable since she's been interning.

And Mathews is equally complimentary. She said she couldn't ask for a better internship, and when she graduates in December she wants to move permanently to Alaska to work for the foundation.

"I absolutely love it here," Mathews said. "I get to work with the eagles and meet people from all over the world. I get to brighten everyone's day, from kids to the old people. I've been to a lot of places, but none as exciting and unique as this."

Larson, the third intern, is also a zoology major. While she doesn't have quite as much experience as the other two, she said she is quickly learning the ropes.

Larson is in charge of Villa, the only raptor at the Alaskan center that is capable of flying. She gives public presentations about Villa.

"I could not ask for a better way to spend my summer," Larson said. "I look out my window and see mountains and the ocean."

Like the American Bald Eagle Foundation, Auburn's raptor center is an educational facility, with birds used in outreach to the community. School groups often visit the amphitheatre on the site off Shug Jordan Parkway.

In addition, however, AU's raptor center—part of the College of Veterinary Medicine—is also a hospital for injured raptors, birds of prey that feed primarily on meat. Their number includes not only eagles but also hawks, falcons, owls, buzzards and other species. The red-tailed hawk is the most common bird the center sees.

When they are found injured in the Southeast, they usually end up at AU's center. The hospital offers critical care, isolation for infectious diseases, an aviary and intermediate care, which offers access to radiography, CT scans, blood testing, specialized surgery and other services.

"Most of the birds here have been injured by manmade objects, mostly cars," said Liz Crandall, raptor rehabilitation specialist. "A lot of them are found by the public and game wardens."

Crandall said the center takes in some 275 birds a year, a number that is rising annually. Some of them can't be released back into the wild for various reasons. Sometimes, they have been "imprinted"—they have spent so much time around humans they think they are human themselves.

Some 30 to 40 birds are released back into the wild every year, Crandall said, with those that are healthy but not suitable for release being used in education.

She said birds of prey are an important biological indicator of what is going on in the ecosystem. Because they are high up the food chain, disturbances in their population may indicate problems further down the chain, Crandall said.

Roy Crowe, an eagle consultant and raptor education specialist, trains volunteers to work with and fly the birds. He is the one who flies eagles at football games. He said it could take up to a year to train an eagle to fly at the games.

"I'm still learning and I've been training birds for 30 years," he said.

Before going to work at the center, Crowe was a falconer who practiced the art of hunting with birds of prey for 35 years.

He has had his moments of mishap with birds taking off during flight training and never coming back.

"Anyone who hasn't had a bird fly away has never flown a bird," he said." But we really try to be conservative with them, especially the eagles."

The center has birds ranging from barn owls to the lanner falcon to the screech owl to the kestrel (the smallest falcon in the United States) and the peregrine falcon (the fastest animal in the world).

The raptors live off daily servings of dead rat, chicken and sometimes quail, all delivered by mail to the center.

"This center is good for Auburn in that it's great public relations," Crowe said. "An eagle at the game is good for the Auburn spirit. It is good for the community in that it gives us the experience to give back to the community. It's good for the birds in that people respect them and we are able to protect them. It's good for everyone."