Shedd puts on air show with birds of prey
BY KARA SPAK Staff Reporter
A horned owl held by April Keller is one of the injured animals who have found a new home at the Shedd Aquarium.
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They're the surprise stars of Shedd Aquarium shows -- a group of predator birds, wounded in the wild, now flying for tasty morsels and the adulation of the crowd.
Visitors to the Shedd expect to see just about anything wet -- beluga whales, jumping dolphins, tropical fish and penguins.
Since 2004, the aquarium has also been quietly adding birds of prey to its collection.
Four injured red-tailed hawks and two owls that couldn't survive in the wild fly in the aquarium's daily shows, which are being retooled for the holidays.
The birds help paint the fullest pictures of a water ecosystem, said Maggie Fahner, the Shedd's animal program collection manager.
"These animals naturally gravitate towards clean water sources," Fahner said. "And birds of prey like to fish."
Several of the birds came to the aquarium after being hit by cars, which caused permanent injuries to their eyes or wings. Both owls were injured at a young age when they fell out of their nests -- one in a cemetery in Champaign, the other in Florida.
The birds live off-exhibit in a specially designed "Birds of Prey" suite that includes a food preparation area for their diet of frozen rats, mice, quail and chicken necks.
The birds fly through the Oceanarium when the area is closed to visitors and during shows several times a day. The flight patterns in the shows depend on the abilities of each bird. They thrive on the attention, Fahner said.
"With the flights for these birds that's exercise, energy they get to expend," she said. "They get food reinforcement and applause reinforcement. They feed off our positive energy."
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