Raptors might not pay their medical bills, but they do leave us with a parting gift. During every step of a raptor’s rehabilitation journey, from the time it is admitted to the time it is discharged, it provides many invaluable data points. This information is recorded throughout medical records and in overall statistics, fueling impactful research.
Across the globe, raptor medical care, rehabilitation, and release techniques are severely understudied, and scientific publications are few. This is why a major focus of The Raptor Center (TRC) hospital is research and sharing our data. Due to the high volume of patients we receive, we are uniquely positioned to collect vast amounts of data on the health of raptors and the natural spaces we share with them. In addition to TRC’s research projects, through collaborations, this data helps support scientific studies throughout the field to protect these vital birds and their ecosystems.
How does this data benefit everyone, from wildlife rehabilitators and environmental scientists to eager students and the average citizen? Raptors, in their role as apex predators, provide a lens into what is happening down through the food chain and across our shared environments and the natural resources within.
We can harness this information to continue working toward a future where the raptor mortality rate as a result of negative human interaction is greatly reduced. Key data TRC collects on raptor health focuses on lead and rodenticide poisoning, infection and disease, and growing numbers of traumatic injuries due to car and window collisions and net entanglements. In continuing to research the leading causes of patient admissions and how to stop them at the source, people can start designing human spaces that coexist in harmony with the wild world.
As we get better at telling raptors’ stories through data, people become more aware of issues raptors are facing and can become better stewards of raptors and ecosystems. This new level of public understanding is fueling more reports of injured birds to TRC and growing the knowledge we can gain from treating them.
In this issue, “The Gift of Data,” you will explore how data is integral at TRC. The core pillars of our work today—raptor medicine, professional teaching, public outreach, and conservation—are all built on a foundation of more than 50 years of data. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being part of our team this year, and we look forward to soaring even higher in the years to come.
– Lori Arent, M.S.
Interim Director of The Raptor Center