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8-The Canadian Champion, Tuesday, August 7, 2001 & 487 Lauier Ame. 44 87888 'Bartlett. keeps busy with her feathered friends By FANNIE SUNSHINE The Champion When she was younger, polar bears were in Michelle Bartlett's future. Nowadays, the raptor program instructor at Mountsberg Wildlife Centre can be found tend- ing to injured irds of prey. "I tbought 1 would be involved with polar bears when I was younger," she explained. "I always wanted to work with animais. We teach outdoor education programs (at the Wildlife Centre) but I'm mostly involved with the Raptor Centre's rehabilitation program." Ms Bartlett, who studied zoology in universi- ty, is responsible for the care, treatment and assessment of injured birds of prey. "We look after predatory birds such as hawks, eagles, vultures, owls and falcons," she said, adding the Raptor Centre usually sees about 100 birds a year. "Usually someone will find an injured bird and cai the Humane Society. They'll come and pick up the bird and bring it to us. We'll examine the bird and fix it up and even- tually set it back into the wild." The Raptor Centre also looks after orpbaned birds. "With the orphans, we try to avoid human imprinting," Ms Bartlett said, explaining the bird wil eventually think it's a human being and won't be able to eamn basic survival skills, such as hunting. Throughout the school year, Ms Bartlett trav- els to different schools to teach students about birds of prey. During the summer months and weekends, presentations are done at the Wildlife Centre. "I talk about the rehabilitation work we do, the natural history of the birds and 1 explain what types of birds are birds of prey and how they live." Ms Bartlett wiII show the audience different birds throughout the presentations. "We bave two sets of birds at the centre," she explained. "We have the ones that are rehabili- tated and then released. The public won't see these birds. The ones that are permanently injured and can't be released into the wild are the ones we use in the presentations." The majority of the birds brought into the cen- tre were injured by cars, she added. "The firat thing we do when an injured bird is brought in is assess it. If there's no way we can save it we have to put it to sleep. If the injury isn't too serious we'1I put the bird in a hospital cage and observe it. If the bird bas a broken wing and requires long term care, we'Il bandage up the wing and give it cage rest. Then we'Il let it into an outdoor flight pen for exercîse and even- tually release it" Fortunately, she hasn't be seriously injured in the 18 years sbe's been caring for wild birds. Ms Bartlett bas taken her knowledge of birds around the world and bas been part of bird shows in Sweden and British Columbia. She has also appeared on varlous TV shows and commer- cials. And only once did a presentation almost tumn ugly. "I brought out a red tailed hawk during a pres- entation," she recalled. "Unbeknownst to me, a women in the audience had brought her cat along and had it hidden in her sweater. 1 could see the hawk was glaring at something in the audience but I didn't know what. " Just as I was about to let the hawk fly, the cat's head popped out of the sweater. I told the womnan she shouldn't have brought a cat along and she said flot to worry, her cat doesn't hunt bir ds. 1 said yes, but my bird hunts cats." N~11s ECGCOGECO 14 Programming Schedule - Aug. 7th - Aug. l3th, 2001. hg Ia1611u, Nmu.PhiIml! - EaWk 98C410804I.l&% Mm PI!EW l a*kM 9819, 100,18% NM rdeFIa! EuleWain $MRl, 1m IU,1UMm Oui il!*L akuM E.5Ma 6M & 7JOiu PkldIlu! EtW..k EMm Sni 5 ua,<g.?.3Og i !Iiak EiIUu5M p IIpU m *h&tEu ,wa~ 5% 6M & 7:P PodF- LO Wa S fflp. QdcUEayWutaHh*y 530p. Th mm k. lmQÉhIaqWPbNa* I Edu. tN 6p. Mum k f 530a. Gêrail CM 6i. 3pu Wr W1ibTUM lSpu Oirlaaumai. tibu OMNM5ak www.cogeco.ca 6p I*C fWebý A icinICUR& l. 1Ibm NORTH HALTON STUDIO 21 Main Street North, Acton, ON L7J 1V9 (519) 853-4700 Fealure 1h15 week:, Local Council Moeflngs - W.d & hurs 8 pm