Airport fauna management: Assessing Harris’ Hawks (Parabuteo unicinctus) health state through hematological evaluation

Abstract

The Harris’ Hawk is commonly used by falconers in falconry as a plan to avoid collisions between birds and aircraft, being trained to capture vultures, herons, Southern caracara, Southern lapwing, and pigeons. The aim of this work was to evaluate the hematological parameters in Harris’ Hawks used in airport fauna management in order to assess the health of these birds, compare the results of hawks from similar characteristics and differentiate parameters of trained and not trained hawks. This study has federal authorization under number 57551-1 (Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (ICMBio/Ministério do Meio Ambiente, Brazil) on 08/30/2017. In this study, six females and three males of Harris’ Hawks (Parabuteo unicinctus), trained with falconry techniques, were used to control of fauna at the Antônio Carlos Jobim-Galeão International Airport, from Centro de Preservação de Aves de Rapina - CePAR, located in Rio de Janeiro - RJ. All birds were over six months of age, clinically healthy and in good body condition. The following analysis were performed: weight, erythrocyte counts, hemoglobin dosage, hematocrit, quantification of the mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, count of leukocytes, basophils, eosinophils, heterophils, lymphocytes and monocytes, processed by microscopy. Compared to other studies of Harris’ Hawks hematological parameters, this study presented decreased values for erythrocytes, hemoglobin, hematocrit, mean corpuscular volume and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, while indicators such as leucocyte, heterophils and lymphocytes were increased. In conclusion, trained birds of prey are more susceptible to stressful factors, which can cause alterations in hematological parameters.