Presentation at Falconry Meet

I made these notes on the PDA during the presentation on Friday night. Unfortunately, I couldn’t successfully post with my connection.

George Allen of the US Fish and Wildlife Service presented on falconry take. He gave the results of population modeling for eight species with good data, showing species specific differences in maximum sustainable yield. This primarily is due to different ratios of breeding adults to ‘floaters’.

He illustrated this with the past problem with peregrines and pesticides. For years, the decline in population was masked because floaters became breeders. Once the floater population is exhausted, the population is in danger of crashing.

There will be a draft EA published soon that will have a 90 day comment period.

Falconers need to work with environmental groups in order to educate them about falconry and its relation to conservation, especially with peregrine recovery.