The Peregrine Fund 50th Anniversary Commemorative Report

Page 27

Dax Roman

Eladio Fernandez

Rather than attempt to breed hawks in captivity, Peregrine Fund biologists tried something new: relocating nestlings hatched from wild nests to a site that promised better habitat and protection, a resort in Punta Cana on the eastern coast of the Dominican Republic. At the same time, Marta Curti applied her outreach experience from the Harpy Eagle project, persuading the local community to protect, rather than shoot, the birds. The effort was so successful that on

Christine Hayes

25 May 2014, the country celebrated its first annual Ridgway’s Hawk Day in honor of the first wild hawk to hatch in the new Punta Cana population a year earlier. As local school children (opposite) gain familiarity and affection for the hawks, biologists like Thomas Hayes (above, right) and Martin Quiroga work throughout the breeding season to manage the health of Ridgway’s Hawks.

Conserving Birds of Prey Worldwide

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