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)