Inside a chilly enclosure, a 7-year-old peregrine falcon named Breland plucked at a frozen rat carcass with her beak, tearing off patches of fur and flesh with little head jerks until finally snatching up the complete pink tail.
“Rodents are a big part of their natural diet,” said Chandelle Cotter, the education and behavior curator at Anchorage’s Bird Treatment and Learning Center.
Breland gobbled up the rat tail, like a gummy worm.
Bird TLC takes in injured and orphaned birds from all around Alaska at its Anchorage facility on a hill above Potter Marsh, and does its best to rehabilitate them before releasing them back into nature. This month, for the second time, the organization is holding a fundraiser called “Love Hurts.” If you donate $10, staff at Bird TLC will name a mealworm after a scorned former lover, then feed it to a crow or magpie.
“Or they can donate a hundred dollars and we’ll name a rat after their ex and feed it to any of our raptors,” said Laura Atwood, the organization’s director.
As part of the deal, staff will take video of an owl or falcon desecrating and devouring the ex’s namesake rodent, which can be shared on social media. Or simply watched in private, again and again.
Bird TLC isn’t the first animal rescue organization to hold this kind of fundraiser. Jonathan’s Reptiles, a Wasilla nonprofit, is soliciting donations for a veterinary student scholarship by feeding spitefully named cockroaches to lizards.
According Atwood, the campaign is not a huge money-maker for Bird TLC, which receives no government funding and relies on donor contributions and a handful of grants.
“But it takes very little effort on our part. We’re going to feed the birds anyway. This is really more community engagement, giving people a way to have some fun,” Atwood said.
Last year, in its inaugural run, the Love Hurts campaign raised around $2,300 from 47 contributors, Atwood said.
Love Hurts: A fundraiser for those hurt by loveHere's the grand finale of the Love Hurts fundraiser! Eighteen rats named after ex-partners are fed to Ghost, our Snowy Owl, and Scarlet, our Red-tailed Hawk. They were happy to help people who had been hurt by love find closure after a difficult relationship. Rodents are part of the natural diet for both of these birds of prey, but you may want to skip this video if you're squeamish. Thank you to everyone who donated. You helped us raise $2,300 for Alaska's wild birds. #lovehurts #getbackatyourex
Posted by Bird Treatment & Learning Center on Friday, February 16, 2024
Each year, hundreds of birds arrive at the organization from all over Alaska, in wildly variable conditions. It takes in not just charismatic raptors, but all manner or corvids, migratory fowl and even tiny songbirds.
Breland, the falcon, came to Bird TLC six years ago, discovered on a porch in King Salmon without enough flight skills to survive in the wilderness and an abnormal level of comfort around humans, Cotter said. In the neighboring enclosure lives Ghost, a snowy owl found on the side of the road in Soldotna with an injured wing in 2005. Though the vast majority of birds that come through Bird TLC are released, these two are permanent residents.
“He’s gonna take a nap,” Cotter laughed as Ghost, half sitting a on a rat clutched in his talons, began to slowly blink, fluff his feathers and close his eyes. “This is what they do in the wild ... that’s how they will warm their food up, they’ll tuck it under.”
This particular rat was not named for any specific ex-lover, just part of the normal feeding regime for the birds.
The fundraiser will run through Valentine’s Day.
