Birds That Prey!

Food Chain Radio Podcast with Michael Olson

Zeka Glucs, Ph.D., Director, Predatory Bird Research Group, University of California, Santa Cruz

Should we foster the existence of birds that prey within our civilization?

There are 557 species of birds that prey in our world. Each of these species has found a unique way to get along in nature.

Carl Linnaeus, who went about organizing just about everything in nature, organized all the birds into orders, genera, and species. He then placed all the birds that prey into a single order, which he called Accipitres, and then subdivided this group into four genera: vultures; eagles, hawks and falcons; owls; and shrikes.

And then, of course, there are the different species of birds that prey, like the golden and bald eagles, of which there are a reported 60 flying about the world.

These birds that prey also go by the name raptor, which if you think about it, always comes with an edge. “Raptor!”

Raptors are birds that hunt, kill and eat vertebrate animals that are comparatively large relative to the birds themselves. Maybe that’s why the name “raptor” comes with an edge to it! Or maybe it was that Jurassic Park movie, or the military’s new fighter jet?

Of late, people seem to have taken a liking to raptors, as they have to wolves, lions and bears. Perhaps it is because raptors are wild and free, and people are not. But that raptors are wild and free leads us to ask the essential question of the day, which is: