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Elementary students at Hills-Beaver Creek learned about raptors Monday.
The birds, not the dinosaurs.
Max Borge with the Gabbert Raptor Center on the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine, said many people ask him if he has dinosaurs in the blue plastic kennels emblazened with “The Raptor Center” stickers on each side.
“No,” is his polite answer.
Instead, he often travels with a falcon, an owl, an eagle and a hawk, all of which he brought to Beaver Creek so the elementary students could learn about the non-extinct raptors.
Each bird is an ambassador at the Raptor Center and each has injuries that prevented survival in the wild. Each raptor posed on Borge’s arm as he talked about it, except for the eagle, who was hesitant to leave the darkness of the plastic kennel.
Borge left students with a message.
“Each raptor is very important to the environment,” he said. “If you see raptors, the environment is healthy.”
Borge slipped each raptor raw meat as a reward for sitting patiently on his left arm. Each gobbled the treat as students watched.
The Raptor Center treats about 1,000 eagles, hawks, owls, falcons and vultures in a year, with 60 percent successfully returned to the wild.
Those who survive and are not rehabilitated back into nature become ambassadors at the center or become exhibit birds for nature centers across the U.S.
The Raptor Center’s visit was sponsored by the H-BC Elementary PTO.