Four-year-old left bleeding after raptor show

2008-09-04

Mary Frances Hill, Vancouver Sun

The Greater Vancouver Zoo has stopped all public participation in its educational Radical Raptors show after a four-year-old boy who volunteered to take part was left scratched and bleeding after a hawk landed on his head.

During the 4 p.m. raptor show flying demonstration on Aug. 31, veteran trainer Gary Worley asked a volunteer -- the four-year-old boy -- to grab a rope with a lure resembling a stuffed rabbit attached to the opposite end.

The boy was then instructed to run with the rope behind him, a move that prompted a Harris hawk to swoop down on the rabbit as if it was prey, according to Kimberlee Malins, a Coquitlam resident who sat in the audience with her six-year-old daughter.

"The trainer asked the little boy to drag the rabbit with the bird on top of it towards him.

"At that point ... the bird jumped off the rabbit and landed on the little boy's head.

"You couldn't see much of the kid's head under the bird. There was blood coming down his face. I was trying to shield my child from this, and I was about to throw up," she said.

When the boy was being carried away by his parents, the boy was bleeding, screaming, and yelling that he couldn't see, said Malins.

"I didn't sleep that night. I had nightmares about this poor kid."

Greater Vancouver Zoo representative Jody Henderson confirmed that the hawk, which is named Morgan and has been a feature of the raptor show for six years, landed on the boy's head just as he would on a perch, and caused no long-term damage.

Zoo employees stopped the show, applied first aid before an ambulance arrived, and followed up on the boy's condition with his parents, who have assured them he was fine, Henderson said.

The zoo won't release the name of the boy, she said. The incident has also led zoo staff to remove the public participation segment and all Harris hawks from the raptor shows, although other birds of prey still feature. "We're re-evaluating the whole process of the free-flying show," Henderson said.

"It's always been a great thing to get the public to be part of the experience. We're trying to educate people, but safety is number one, and on the top of our minds, so you won't see any public in the show."

The average male Harris hawk, named after naturalist James Audubon's friend Edward Harris, ranges in length between 46 to 76 centimetres. They weigh about 710 grams on average, and have a wingspan of about one metre.

Harris hawks are trained by hand for falconry purposes, though their wild instincts always remain intact, according to Sara Dubois, manager of wildlife services for the B.C. SPCA.

"It doesn't matter how much the bird weighs -- the force is all in their talons. If it landed on a child's head, that would hurt significantly," she said.

"... there's always a risk, and that's something that someone has to realize when they're participating in an entertainment activity with a wild animal."

Gillian Radcliffe, a wildlife biologist with Pacific Northwest Raptors, a Duncan conservation and education centre that conducts flying demonstrations with birds of prey, said it's rare for a raptor to purposefully attack a child.

Radcliffe said a trained, non-aggressive hawk would rarely miss its mark unless it were shunted off-course by a distraction.

"A gust of wind can blow a bird off-course, and if they're looking for a landing and they landed on someone, they would be scared," Radcliffe said.

Henderson said this was the first incident between a raptor and a member of the public in the six years the zoo has run the twice-daily June-September show.

"Unfortunately, sometimes things change, and we have to take a second look at things. That's what we're doing."

In June, an eagle in the show was killed after it landed in the lion enclosure.

Just a month earlier, zoo staff had to deal with the loss of Jocko, a resident spider monkey who was killed by intruders, and the theft of his mate, Mia.