Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Youth RaptorCorp Serves Up Enrichment and Supper for Nero the Turkey Vulture

Dan Hnilicka, TRC Interpretive Naturalist, talks to YRC.

It's October, and that means two things at The Raptor Center; the start of our youth service program, Youth RaptorCorp, and locally sourced pumpkins!  What do they have to do with one another?

Youth RaptorCorps is our long-standing program where young naturalists (grade 5-8) learn about raptor natural history, the environment we share, and how we can impact them.  They also complete service learning projects.

Pumpkins, which are now easy to find, are great for enrichment for our education raptors.  They can be carved, with strategic openings, and the raptors' food can be placed inside.  This encourages Nero's natural behavior to put his head inside "cavities" (carrion) to find his food. 

Last night was our first meeting of the 2016/2017 Youth RaptorCorp.  They carved pumpkins for Nero and other education raptors, and watched as Nero then obtained his supper from inside.  Thank you to YRC, and to Nickie M for the photos.


Nero approaches the pumpkin.



Nero has to pull his supper out of one of the
"cavities" created in the pumpkin.



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