Saturday, April 21, 2007

More than just a background of the Northern Aplomado Falcon

This is the classification of the Northern Aplomado Falcon:
Scientific Name: Falco femoralis septentrionalis
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: Falconiformes
Family: Falconidae
Common Name: Northern Aplomado Falcon
The Northern Aplomado Falcon is a threatened species. It is usually found in Arizona, New Mexico, and western and Southern Parts of Texas. It is a larger than normal, the size of a normal American crow, Falcon. They can live to be an age of about 16 years maxes, normally around 12. It is consider as vertebrate.
I have looked at the adaptations of the Northern Aplomado Falcon and the most defining are the following:

1) Change of color over time. The Northern Aplomado Falcon was first recorded in the lower Texas area as a Brown bird with very little red tint. They have now become about 50% brown, with Red and white mixed in. This change occurred do to the swampy feel of the lower Texas and let the Falcon blend in more with its surrounding to keep prey from seeing them.
2) The NA Falcon has a tactic when defending their nest from predators. The swoop down at the predator and peck the top of the head. I watched a video of other species of Falcon’s doing this and found it very interesting. Eventually the predator gets tired of tying to get the eggs or even the Falcon is trying to get the predator away from trampling on the Nest breaking the eggs.
3) Their instincts have changed since not being around their own kind. Falcon’s usually are not seen together flying, but will live within a close range of each other. There have been reports of Falcon’s working together for food and sharing nesting grounds in close locations.

Boss Report: Boss, I think if we can take some of the Falcon that we have currently in captivity and mix them with some of the Falcon’s from the wild. We can get some of the instincts that the wild have on our captive ones. We have had these in captivity for over 30 years and I believe that they are losing their instincts and more depending on us to feed and take care of them. We have not seen great results with the Northern Aplomado Falcon because of the captivity we have kept them in. If we can find some way to put these two birds that are identical in all physical aspects back together; I think the Northern Aplomado Falcon will be brought new life again!