Hawk-Raising in Taiwan

"Riding on the horse is a man who appears thoughtful and profound, a man of the world. But what draws the eye even more is the hunting falcon on his arm, with the sharp and cold glint in its eye. When he lifts his arm, the creature spreads its wings in flight, and although prey like the frightened little bird may flee for their lives in panic, they rarely escape the claws . . . ."You can see scenes like this in many a movie set in medieval times. And recently there was an automobile ad on TV pitting the car against a hawk.

None more noble:

Is the relationship between man and hawk really so "generous and carefree, elegant and dashing" as it looks on the tube? In a fishing and hunting society, dogs and hawks are the helpful companions of the hunter. Hunting brings out the meanness in both bird and beast, so that the Chinese characters for "hawk" and "dog" have, in combination, become slang for hired thugs. But in fact the natures of hawks and dogs are polar opposites. The hawk stands at the very top of the food chain--plunderers--and their claws, beak, eyes, and entire body seem packed with "potential damage." Even after five or six thousand years of coexistence with humans, no matter how man may tempt or train them, falcons remain independent, undomesticated birds of prey.

It is because of this that, though 2000 years before Christ in Central Asia and today in Mongolia and Saudi Arabia, nomadic peoples have used the falcon for hunting, it has never been seen as the "most efficient" instrument. Chen Hui-sheng, the publisher of Taiwan's first magazine devoted to hawk-raising, points out that hawks are not like dogs, who tend to be highly loyal and sociable. They must be caged or tied up to prevent them from hurting people or escaping and are not at all easy to raise. In the Arabian Peninsula, falcons are often trained to capture the seasonal quail and then released when the hunting season is over.

In both Europe and China, falconry was mainly for the leisure class of high-ranking nobility. For example, the earliest record of falconry in China is of the King of Chu, an avid huntsman. He "collected together the fastest dogs and most renowned hawks under Heaven," and sat upon his horse, with a leather band over the back of his arm for the powerful creature to grip, while under him was a "trinity" of dogs, hunters, and hawks taking up the chase through the fields. In fact, there is a group of falconers in Taiwan searching for just such a "cool" experience.

A hunting scene from the Five Dynasties Period （fragment）. The painting shows a scene of Chitan people using falcons to catch rabbits. （photo courtesy of the National Palace Museum）（woodcut at left courtesy of He Hua-jen）

Bird in a cage:

According to Hawk Magazine, published by aficionados, over the last twenty years a fashion for raising exotic animals has followed in the wake of economic growth and personal wealth. Plus there's the impact of foreign TV programs and films. There are nearly 30 types of hawks, eagles, and falcons in Taiwan, and after each reproductive season the flower markets and bird markets always have some recently captured birds of prey for sale. One person who raised three common kestrels and two crested goshawks before entering college says that in order to attract customers, "hawkers" will teach a bird to fly in a circle and then return. Given the fact that, as one hawk-raiser says, it's only strange if a guy doesn't like hawks, Taiwan would seem to have all the ingredients for this activity.

But if you try to bring those stirring medieval scenes of falconers on horseback releasing their birds into the great open spaces into the present, inevitably things will be far less glamorous. Confined to modern living spaces, most domestically-raised hawks look more like homeless puppies, "sitting listlessly in a tiny room, with sparse and thin feathers, always nervous and alert and ready to strike, but finding themselves tied down and unable to fly."

Those in the know about Taiwan's accipitridae scene say that most of the birds purchased "are just tied to someone's arm, or locked in a cage, like a scientific sample that just happens not to be dead at the moment. "Falconry in traditional times was conducted under the oversight of a master falconer. For example, the Emperor Shui Wen brought together 8000 falcon masters, and China had a complete set of falconry knowledge, including what to feed them, how to breed them, how to recognize their resting places, and even prescriptions for curing them of fever, dizziness, shortness of breath, and other illnesses. The best of the masters, like the one described in Chicken Hawk, used devoted attention and gentle prodding with the birds they loved, spending all day long with them in the fields.

Falconry passed from beyond the Great Wall into the Central Plains of China proper, becoming a popular sport for the nobility. A trade in birds of prey developed, with sellers catching just maturing birds beyond the Wall and bringing them to sell in Peking. （photo courtesy of Herbert Ponting, popperfoto）

Raise a hawk? Raise a chicken!

But the majesty and formidability described in literature "is a kind of dignity only achievable in free flight. If the bird is under someone's control, it might as well be a chicken, not a hawk," says a Wild Bird Society member who opposes hawk-raising. No matter how people raise them and train them in captivity, wild animals will never be the way they are in nature.

"This isn't the kind of thing where you just need a balcony and you can keep one as a pet," says Huang Wan-pao, an experienced hawk-raiser. Hawks have never been sociable creatures, and very rarely cooperate even with birds of the same species. Some hawk-raisers keep eight or ten in a small area, so they are routinely threatening or interfering with one another.

The "Big Bird Cage" at the Taipei Municipal Zoo, with several birds of prey, is typical. The crested serpent eagle is often scratched by the white-bellied sea eagle; the sparrow hawk and the goshawk are especially fierce, and there is an intense enmity between them as they threaten each other in harsh confrontations.

For hawks raised in captivity, when they are small their owner becomes their "mother," responsible for feeding them. But since they then see people as being of the same type as themselves, when they grow up people turn into competitors. For example, when feeding a Hodgson's hawk eagle, the best thing to do is to toss the food in their general direction and then scurry away, or else it will be hard to escape being injured by their lightning-quick claws. The claws of smaller birds of prey are razor sharp, able to create unbearable pain in an instant.

A gray-faced buzzard in trouble on Pakua Mountain in Changhwa. An illegal hunter of birds of prey is just pulling the ensnared creature from the tree. （photo courtesy of Huang Kuang-ying）

The price of falconry:

If you want the hawks to have glossy and healthy-looking plumage, be vigorous and formidable, fly high, and aim sure, as they do in the wild, it takes a lot of time and effort. Given modern lifestyles, it's impossible for most people to find the patience or time to take care of the "troublesome," tempestuous animals from morning to night. Chin Tseng-kuang, who has raised Japanese lesser sparrow hawks for some time, describes vividly: "Sometimes animals need to be, well, animate. " Besides giving them enough and proper food so they can look good, they must also be released for flight daily to build up their physical strength and stay healthy. Otherwise they will become chronically ill over time, with flabby muscles, soft bones, and injuries and infections, with a very high mortality rate.

Hawk-raising is apparently not as fun or fascinating as it might seem. Chin wonders frankly: "Which hawk-raiser in Taiwan hasn't had one or more die on him?" Even those who have been doing it for over a decade can kill their flock by spraying insecticide or by feeding them inappropriate food. "Taiwan's hawk-raisers learn by doing-in, " he says. Behind the exciting image of falcons released for the hunt is a cost of countless hawks' lives.

To keep the birds calm and make transport more manageable, hawk-raisers often place hoods over their charges.

The Ten Commandments for hawk-raising:

Since this is the case, today, when environmental consciousness is on the rise, how has this seemingly "inhumane" hobby persisted? Even in the US and Europe, this activity which began at roughly the same time in both West and East still carries on. In the Netherlands there is a Royal Falconry Club which goes back to the 18th and 19th centuries. A 1982 British article stated that falconry may have never been as popular as it has become today, with the UK having more than 10 training schools and the US with quite a large number of clubs. Falconers from the US, UK, Saudi Arabia, Spain, and Pakistan have even organized an association which holds annual conferences to exchange ideas and experiences.

The reason it persists is that hawk-raising is governed by extremely strict legal codes."It is the only law ever promoted and set by those who capture and use wild animals," points out the British book Birds of Prey. After ages of accumulated experience, hawk-raisers have compiled strict norms and specialized regulations. Not only do they prohibit abuse of the birds, they conform to modern environmental principles.

In the US and UK, where "people are craziest about hawk-raising," the creatures are not considered pets or poultry. There is a widespread consensus that they must be raised in conditions as similar as possible to those of their natural environment.

The Bird Rescue Station set up by the Taipei Wild Bird Society has taken so many "abandoned hawks" they had to give up the ideal of having each caretaker focus on a single bird. This volunteer has taken in four.

Which kind of person raises which kind of hawk?:

"It's not the case that all you need is money, and you can raise any kind of bird you want," says Huang Kuang-ying, of the Yangming Mountain National Park Conservation Committee, and who participated in the work of saving the bald eagle in the US. Taking the States as an example, he notes that those who wish to get involved in hawk-raising must respect a vast number of rules. For example, one can only begin by raising the common kestrel, the most populous breed. There are stipulations for everything from how long they must be released for activity each day to what to feed them to how to care for them during molting season. One can only be accepted by the association governing hawk-raising if the bird is not only alive after 3-5 years, but still has glossy feathers, is highly spirited, and has not been in any way "maltreated." Only then is one considered qualified to get permission to raise other varieties which are larger or harder to handle. This is simply control over the quality of the raisers. There are many additional considerations for the raising per se, such as how large the coop should be, and even that one must have a large hunting area, and raise pheasants oneself to provide for the hawk each day. In this way, there will be no side-effects on other wild animals in the area.

Training falcons and hunting are different things. Hawks are not like rifles, that can be stored away when not in use. Thus, "the more strict the rules, the more raising a hunting hawk will cost, and the farther out of reach it becomes for the average person. Besides a suitable residence, supplementary equipment required includes a wireless transmitter to track the bird's movements, proper transportation equipment, trained hunting dogs .... It is even necessary to rent a hunting ground and every year spend more than 1,000 hours looking after them," notes Birds of Prey.

The US has invested countless dollars and man hours over the past decade to save the national symbol, the bald eagle, improving its lot slightly from being an endangered species to being a precious rare one. （photo courtesy of Huang Kuang-ying）

Cry like an eagle:

Unfortunately falconry doesn't have much of a history in Taiwan, and there are no norms, while inexperienced bird-raisers can't raise standards. It's even gone so far that it's impossible to estimate the "consumption volume" of hawk-raisers.

To prevent hawk-raising from reducing the number of wild birds of prey, the West has set out the types of birds which can be raised, with each qualified individual having a quota of one that they can capture from the wild. Because they are considered a public asset, they cannot be bought or sold, and one's license must be affixed to the bird's leg to prove that it is a hawk being legally raised by a licensed falconer.

Four years ago, before Taiwan's "Wildlife Conservation Law" had been passed, "during the reproductive season, birds of prey were shipped up to Taipei virtually every day," says raiser Huang Wan-pao. At that time, because of promotion by bird dealers, it would be no exaggeration to say that there were thousands of people buying and raising birds of prey. Later the Council of Agriculture began a licensing system for hawk-raisers, with a total of 400 birds registered. However, this figure is less than 20% of the number of hawks in captivity.

One environmental scholar who has done a survey of bird stores says that he once met a" hawker" who claimed to have sold more than 300 crested goshawks in a single season. Since each goshawk nest averages two eggs, that means the invasion of almost 200 nests.

（Below）The photo was taken by Huang Kuang-ying this April when doing a survey on Chungcheng Mountain. Freedom for birds means that man has achieved a true freedom as well.（photo courtesy of HuangKuang-ying）

Selective breeding:

The status of hawks in the ecology is not to provide entertainment for man. Huang Kuang-ying explains that the reproductive rate of predators in the food chain is usually low. For example, the crested serpent eagle produces only one or two eggs each year virtually without exception. And the growing process is far more dangerous and challenging than for a human, between shortages of food, intense competition, learning to fly and hunt, and having to find a nesting place (so as not to overlap with one's own parents). And nature is unforgiving. Though adults may exhaust themselves trying to feed the chicks, it often happens that not one is alive by the time it comes to leaving the nest.

Studies show that the survival rate for the first year for ospreys is only one-half. Even for those lucky enough to get past the first hurdle, the mortality rate in the second year is near 20%. You could say that the Creator is very selective about who gets to breed.

Thus in Western countries, though it is for the present impossible to completely ban the activities of a group of avid practitioners of this traditional sport, no governments take an encouraging attitude. In a few countries like Australia and Sweden, as in Taiwan, citizens are completely forbidden to raise hawks or engage in falconry hunting activities.

Many hawk-raisers don't like to hear people say that the only reason they raise birds of prey is to have something exotic to show off with. "But there are very few among those who raise hawks who have no vanity about it," says a hawk-raiser who has since joined the Wild Bird Society. It cannot be denied that many people still find great pride in collecting things that are rare and unusual, and the rarer the species the higher the price. For instance, as the numbers of the Hodgsons's hawk eagle and Indian black eagle dwindled, the price for one shot up to anywhere between NT$50-80,000(US$2000-3200). Of course there were still those willing to buy.

Disposable birds:

The more that get bought, the more that get taken home, the more that get injured or ill, and, in the end, the more that get discarded. Those who oppose hawk-raising point to the Wild Bird Rescue Station recently set up by the Wild Bird Society. In the year since its establishment, it has taken in many injured birds of prey, most of which were brought home and then thrown out by "bird lovers" who found out they couldn't raise them properly. Originally the society planned to allow volunteers to take the birds, at a limit of one per person, until the birds had recovered, but the number of birds overwhelmed the places to house them.

It is true that there are many experienced hawk-raisers who are dedicated to proper care of the birds, who learn from the West, collecting information and videotapes, who follow the regulations carefully, and who moreover draw a clear line being themselves and amateurs or those who are just playing around. Still, many environmental scholars point out that Taiwan is densely populated, with few resources and very little hinterland, and it is very arguable whether or not this place is suitable for hawk-raising at any level.

Chen Hui-sheng says that there are some people raising huge eagles or vultures smuggled in from abroad. Yet Taiwan's suburbs lack rabbits or foxes or other larger types of prey. "It's like bombing a chicken with napalm," says the well-informed Chen. Wide-wingspread falcons are extremely fast, and require a huge amount of space, and are completely unsuitable for mountainous Taiwan.

What worries the Wild Bird Society even more is that many local hawk-raisers have no access to hunting grounds, and mostly just take their birds for exercise out to the mountains in the suburbs. Often, drawn by the "call of the wild," released birds never look back, and most hawk-raisers in Taiwan have had the experience of watching a big investment fly away without a trace.

Call of the wild:

"Hunting with hawks undoubtedly has a negative impact," says a British environmentalist in Birds of Prey. Even in the West, where training is more rigorous, surveys done in the US and UK show that more than 40% of hawks raised in captivity are lost in the wilderness, and another 30% are deliberately released. Escaped birds could come into conflict with the wild birds in a given area, or affect the local wildlife. But environmental scholars are even more concerned that they will mate with those of their species still in the wild and ruin the gene pool.

Because of rapid development and the loss of wilderness, there are fewer and fewer birds of prey, and of Taiwan's six native species, the two biggest--the Hodgson's hawk eagle and the Indian black eagle - are only appearing, and less and less frequently at that, in the lenses of birdwatchers. Most people know that at one time eagles could frequently be seen in the daily living environment. Today they can be seen in only a few areas. For various reasons, the Council of Agriculture, which is in charge of wildlife conservation, had no choice but to temporarily declare birds of prey protected species when the Wildlife Conservation Law was passed in 1989, thus in theory banning their capture or sale.

But since implementation of the Wildlife Conservation Law, many bird shops surreptitiously accept orders for such birds (though they don't dare to do so openly), and old customers can always get the type of bird they want. "Every year during reproductive season, a great number of chicks are still bought and sold. I'm afraid nearly 100 can't escape this fate,'' estimates one hawk-raiser.

How much do you know about birds of prey?:

In fact, even if today Taiwan were to permit hawk-raising, even basic hawk-raising norms would have to be drawn up from scratch. Except for a few short-term population surveys, there has been virtually no biological research done on Taiwan's more than 30 varieties of local or migratory birds of prey. "How high is their rate of reproduction? What's the infant mortality rate, and the succession rate? What about the ratio of adults to chicks? Do they constitute an 'elderly society'? If there is no quantified basis, how can we decide which and how many birds people can use? How many birds can be captured without constituting a threat to the group?'' Chen Hui-sheng says the data to answer these questions simply doesn't exist.

"Facts and a system are key," says Chen, who had over ten years of hawk-raising experience but today does habitat research instead. If a complete survey can be done to understand the situation with regard to birds of prey in Taiwan, only then can management be arranged in line with conservation objectives. If there really are very few accipitridae, then only observation activities which do not actually remove the birds from the wild can be condoned. After they have recovered and numbers increase, then it can be decided how to use them.

Each year the list of protected animals under the Wildlife Conservation Law is reexamined and amended. If in the future there is sufficient research and the laws and systems are all in place, and people in Taiwan have a conservationist outlook, and hawk-raisers are willing to respect norms, it wouldn't be impossible to permit people to raise certain species.

One is just right:

From the point of view of hawk-raisers, they are just like people who like fishing - it's not necessarily a bad thing. Many hawk-raisers point out that falconry has a long history, and that in Japan falcon masters have even been elevated to the rank of national treasures, and today many people just want to extend this activity while taking precautions not to affect nature. "Just as researchers often make use of the experiences of hunters, the experiences of hawk-raisers could also be drawn upon. Overseas, very often the hawk-raising associations are the biggest help to scientific researchers," says one. Recently the military has thought about using birds of prey to replace hunting rifles in keeping birds away from airfields, but they haven't been able to come to any conclusions because they lack trained personnel.

Wang Chi-hsin, a former director of the Taipei City Bird Society, also argues that under-the-table trade is very severe, and there is still a lot of illegal trading in crested goshawks and crested serpent eagles, so that a complete ban is not the solution to the problem. Most environmentalists and senior hawk-raisers point out that a typical large bird of prey has a life span of ten to twenty years. If hawk-raisers can take good care of the birds in hand, and devote full attention to raising one exquisite bird, the consumption of birds in the wild will naturally fall, and collectors can preempt criticism that they misuse the animals.

The world is your prison:

And from the hawk's point of view?

Perhaps the attitude of high school teacher Shen Chen-chung, who videotaped the habitat of the black kite around Keelung, can provide food for thought. Shen, who calls himself "protector of eagles," wrote in the book Story of the Eagle: "Although I've seen reports in the newspaper showing photos of a bird's nest, and even information about the weight and length of the chicks, I think that I don't need and shouldn't use this method. Allowing them to be born, learn to fly, participate in nature, and become one of the new players in the great outdoors, all without the slightest interference, is far more important than any sense of satisfaction one could get from releasing some firsthand data from Taiwan. "

Thus, to raise hawks today, perhaps the problem is not so much that a system exists abroad but not here, but rather: How should a person who truly loves hawks treat a healthy bird? Even though the two main characters in Lu Chiao's Chicken Hawk-- the most outstanding falconer and the most outstanding chicken hawk--rely on each other, he knows that for it to be a true hawk it must have its own piece of the sky, and have free will. So in the end the master gives the bird its freedom, because the freedom of the bird represents the true liberation of man as well.

"Ee-yo!" "Ee-yo!" A barely audible hawk call drifts down from somewhere in the sky. Perhaps it isn't a cry of despair, as described in Chicken Hawk, but rather is the joyful sound of a new beginning.

[Picture Caption]

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A hunting scene from the Five Dynasties Period (fragment). The painting shows a scene of Chitan people using falcons to catch rabbits. (photo courtesy of the National Palace Museum)(woodcut at left courtesy of He Hua-jen)

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Falconry passed from beyond the Great Wall into the Central Plains of China proper, becoming a popular sport for the nobility. A trade in birds of prey developed, with sellers catching just maturing birds beyond the Wall and bringing them to sell in Peking. (photo courtesy of Herbert Ponting, Popperfoto)

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A gray-faced buzzard in trouble on Pakua Mountain in Changhwa. An illegal hunter of birds of prey is just pulling the ensnared creature from the tree. (photo courtesy of Huang Kuang-ying)

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To keep the birds calm and make transport more manageable, hawk-raisers often place hoods over their charges.

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The Bird Rescue Station set up by the Taipei Wild Bird Society has taken so many "abandoned hawks" they had to give up the ideal of having each caretaker focus on a single bird. This volunteer has taken in four.

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The US has invested countless dollars and manhours over the past decade to save the national symbol, the bald eagle, improving its lot slightly from being an endangered species to being a precious rare one. (photo courtesy of Huang Kuang-ying)

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(Below)The photo was taken by Huang Kuang-ying this April when doing a survey on Chungcheng Mountain. Freedom for birds means that man has achieved a true freedom as well.(photo courtesy of Huang Kuang-ying)