WELCOME TO THE BIRD OF PREY MANAGEMENT SERIES!

• Interested in keeping a bird of prey?
• Don’t know where to start?
• Can’t find anyone who really knows what they are talking about?

This series is the first and only international distance learning course available. It is for falconers, breeders, re-habilitators, veterinarians and for further education. We have enthusiastic students all over the world and the course is in English and Spanish. It is made up of a series of modular films with accompanying tutorial booklets. The series makes up a complete course covering all aspects of raptor management. It is designed by proven and qualified experts in their own fields with additional material from specialist advisors.

However experienced you may be, we GUARANTEE that you will learn something new!

Content: Each module consists of a film between 60 and 90 minutes long, broken into chapters for easy reference.  Each film is accompanied by a Handbook in English giving additional technical details.

Formats: DVDs are available from the on-line shop in PAL format only, tutorial booklets in hard copy (English only). DVD in NTSC format are only available from our agents in the USA.

Languages: English and Spanish.

The first six modules form a FOUNDATION COURSE for anyone wanting to get started in keeping birds of prey, breeding them, re-habilitating them or flying them in falconry.

FOUNDATION COURSE

1. Nutrition
2. Anatomy
3. Health Care
4. Basic Training
5. Fitness Training
6. Behaviour and Learning

CAPTIVE BREEDING

1. Preparations for breeding
2. Imprints and inseminations
3. Incubation and hatching
4. Rearing

CERTIFICATES AND QUALIFICATIONS

We are working with the UK Hawk Board, and with LANTRA (a UK government accredited eduactional body), to establish a recognised qualification in bird of prey management. We hope that our course would then become part of the tutorial material for the certificate.  Your real life tutor – whether a college teacher, a Club Sponsor, or an experienced friend, would provide the practical hands-on guidance that you need, and when you think you are ready for it, you could attend a one day assessment for your certificate. This is in the final stages of launch in 2006.

Can I really learn from a distance course?

Yes you can! Many people have difficulties puzzling out the diagrams and explanations in books. But on film we are able to systematically show you, and you can re-play it any time to refresh your memory, and take it at your own pace. Also, we are able to illustrate the points by showing real situations, both in the wild or in captivity. It would be nice to have your own tutor always at your elbow, never getting impatient – that’s seldom possible, but this is the next best thing.

Our aim is to get the information circulated as widely as possible so that the birds benefit. The series derives from the book Understanding the Bird of Prey by Dr Nick Fox. This is now a recommended text for some of the major falconry clubs and some university courses and is printed in English and Spanish. We are also targeting some of the titles on disease to university vet courses to promote a better knowledge of raptors among veterinarians. In those countries where apprenticeship schemes operate, or where hands-on tuition courses are available, we are happy to make agreements to allow the series to be used as an integral part of the syllabus.

TUTORS

Your tutors and editorial panel are all long-serving professional biologists, veterinarians and teachers, assisted by additional specialists from some of the world’s top institutions. From the falconry side, the team has expertise in all branches of falconry, and has practised falconry in all the major falconry countries of the world. For sheer enjoyment of the falconry, try watching The Northumberland Crow Falcons in action, hawking from horseback in northern England.

Available Titles: 

1. Nutrition
2. Basic training
3. Anatomy
4. Health care
5. Captive Breeding 1: Preparations for Breeding
6. Captive Breeding 2 : Imprinting and Insemination
7. Captive Breeding 3 : Incubation and Hatching
8. Captive Breeding 4 : Rearing
9. Fitness training
10. Behaviour and Learning

As well as our regular in-house staff (see the Team), our films feature imput from colleagues such as:

Dr Tom Bailey BSc, BVSc, MRCVS, Cert Zoo Med, MSc (Wild Animal Health), PhD did his PhD on the medical management of houbara bustards at the National Avian Research Center, Abu Dhabi and at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology. He has worked on raptors in the UK and in falcon hospitals in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. He is an Editor of Falco, the journal of the Middle East Falcon Research Group and currently works as falcon and wildlife veterinarian for the Dubai Falcon Hospital.

Dr Nigel Barton, BSc, PhD. Nigel did his PhD on digestion rate in raptors at the University of Glasgow. He worked for us for many years between 1986-2003. In between, he has worked at falcon hospitals in the United Arab Emirates and in Saudi Arabia. Currently he is running ecological survey training courses in Mongolia under the Darwin initiative with his wife Kate.