Missing Hawk Returns After Nine Years

A HAWK reported lost nine years ago has been reunited with his Stratford owner.

Jarvis, a Harris hawk went missing in Great Alne in 1997 while Stratford falconer Steve Wright was hunting with him.

http://www.stratford-herald.co.uk/mainstory.php?ID=844

How can one of God's wild creatures, living in the wild, be "missing" from a human? People assume wild animals want to be pets, even when they run (fly) away from their captors and live well for nine years....?

Rle7 said:

A HAWK reported lost nine years ago has been reunited with his Stratford owner.

Jarvis, a Harris hawk went missing in Great Alne in 1997 while Stratford falconer Steve Wright was hunting with him.

http://www.stratford-herald.co.uk/mainstory.php?ID=844

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GlitchWizard said:

How can one of God's wild creatures, living in the wild, be "missing" from a human? People assume wild animals want to be pets, even when they run (fly) away from their captors and live well for nine years....?

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In the UK, falconers develop close relationships with their raptors. The system is very different than it is here. There are captive-bred raptors made available to falconers who raise them as working animals. Falconers are important in many parts of the UK for control of rodents and to keep crows from pecking the eyes out of newborn lambs. It is something that we don't see here. They aren't really pets but they aren't entirely wild. You have to see it to understand it.

luthersmama said:

In the UK, falconers develop close relationships with their raptors. The system is very different than it is here. There are captive-bred raptors made available to falconers who raise them as working animals. Falconers are important in many parts of the UK for control of rodents and to keep crows from pecking the eyes out of newborn lambs. It is something that we don't see here. They aren't really pets but they aren't entirely wild. You have to see it to understand it.

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I've seen television shows and can understand that some animals develop relationships with some humans. I just thought when the title said it "returned" that it "returned" on it's own. Not that someone plucked it out of the wild after 9 years of it getting to live free, and took it back to the guy it flew away from. If it was such a close relationship IN THIS CASE, WITH THIS MAN, perhaps the bird wouldn't have left in the first place. That's all.