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Craft Idea - Plush Animal Raptor

What equipment can you make from household items to pretend your stuffed animals are raptors? Maybe a oven mitt for a glove, string for jesses, and rope for a leash? See what you can create for your plush animals and how easy they are to get on and off your animal. 

Activity Idea - Raptor Flight Toss

To play, you'll need a buddy and a pretend raptor (like a plush animal or ball), it'sjust like an egg toss game, excpet without the mess. When we flight train birds, we start with short hops and work our way up to longer flights. Stand about 3 feet away from your buddy and fly (aka toss) your raptor (aka plush animal or ball) to eachother. When you succeed, take a step back and fly your bird again to the now longer distance. As you continue flying your bird and succeeding (aka tossing and catching) then keep taking a step back and see how far you can fly your raptor!  

Read This - Adventures of a ZooKeeper

This zookeeper page from the Vermont Institute of Natural Science talks a bit more about training raptors for flights and falconry. 

External Links to Check Out - 

We like getting some of our supplies, like gloves, from Mike's falconry. 

The Modern Apprentice has a lot of great info for those interested more in falconry, gloves and other equipment we use with raptors. 

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