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From: geleynse@hppad.HP.COM (Martin Geleynse)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Are you asking ME whether it's the hawk or the gun who is cruel?
Message-ID: <2120004@hppad.HP.COM>
Date: 27 Nov 90 16:06:29 GMT
References: <25889@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Organization: HP Panacom Automation Div Waterloo, Ont.
Lines: 30

Dick St.Peters (stpeters@dawn.crd.ge.com (Dick St.Peters) writes:

>I've never had the opportunity, which is why I asked whether it was
>really true that a falcon immediately kills what it catches.  Because
>my news server went out to lunch, I didn't get to see any responses,
...
>Anyway, I still don't know if falcons kill their prey immediately as
>was asserted in the posting that prompted my question. 

I also missed most of the discussion. Though I haven't been able to watch
very many wild falcons kill things close enough to really see what they were
doing, I have flown falcons for a number of years. In my experience the time
it takes a falcon to kill something it has captured depends to a large
extent on 2 things: how big the quarry is, and how experienced the falcon is.
When my 4 year old tiercel (male) peregrine grabs a gray partridge 
(fairly large compared to typical quarry for a wild peregrine), and brings 
it down, the partridge is invariably dead or very close to it by the time 
I get to him in 30 seconds or so. I would guess that most passerine quarry 
would be killed almost instantly.

In his first year my bird did not kill nearly as cleanly. In fact during
the early part of the season, the quarry would occasionally break free and
escape. I imagine this happens to young falcons
in the wild as well. They soon learn that "it ain't over till its over".

As to "cruelty": Falcons are guiltless killers. I'm sure they don't care 
if the quarry is dead or merely incapacitated - just so long as it can't get 
away!. I think the reason they have developed the "toothed" upper mandible and
usually kill quickly is that they don't have very strong feet compared to 
hawks, and they cannot count on being able to hold on indefinitely.