Would you like to know something interesting about falcons?
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Mid-century use of DDT and related pesticides caused a massive decline in wild raptor populations. They built up in the brids’ fatty tissues and caused their eggshells to become too thin, meaning many chicks did not hatch. Peregrine falcons became endangered in many parts of the world as a direct result.
Conservation efforts to save the species began in the late 1960′s, but there was one alarming problem: without parents of their own species to see, falcons raised by hand imprinted on humans. When these falcons reached sexual maturity, they had no interest in other falcons – they recognized their keepers as their mates and would not copulate with others of their own species.
So, falconers and conservation biologists did the logical thing: they developed special Falcon Sex Hats. They’re large rubber hats with a rolled brim, covered in a honeycomb of… orifices. The conservationist will wear this hat and then “court the male falcon by mimicking a female’s head bobs and vocalizations. If it works, the falcon will land on the hat and inject its genetic material into one of the honeycombs. It is then collected from the hat and used to artificially inseminate a female falcon.
It worked, and the peregrine falcon was removed from the Endangered Species list in 1999.
Here is a video of the hat in action:
Nowadays people mostly try to raise peregrine falcons using falcon puppets so that the chicks do not imprint upon human beings. Still, you can buy Falcon Sex Hats online, if you’re a falconer and wish to breed your birds that have eyes only for you.
