Free like a bird?
According to
PR Newswire, a new Fiat ad was shot in conjunction “with Freedom, a conservation movement that supports and protects threatened birds of prey, to help create the first commercial co-directed by eagles. (…) The eagles featured in the video are currently dependent on falconer Jacques Olivier Travers, who is working to reintroduce them into their natural habitat.” Travers´ website reports that
“Jacques Olivier and his team are convinced that it is possible to reintroduce adult birds into the nature (…) and that he developed ten years ago a “flying teaching” method for eagles which opens “the way to a new method of reintroducing eagles into the nature.”
As far as is known, none of his White-tailed Eagles was released back into “the wild” in France yet. Experts say that if “young birds imprint on humans, they will identify with humans for life. Reversing the imprinting process is impossible (…).” (The Wildlife Center of Virginia). “An imprinted raptor cannot be returned to the wild because it has lost its natural fear of humans.” (The Raptor Center)
Jacques Olivier Travers provides trained eagles for TV, parties, tradeshows, fairs etc. On his Website he offers to film the animals from a paraglider, ULM or from helicopters. To
put a camera on the birds is another special service of his company; along with his business partners he produced footage which shows a bird´s-eye view of several big cities. The falconer created also the raptor park
Les Aigles du Léman in the French countryside. Here he plans to build Europe´s largest breeding centre for White-tailed Eagles.
Isn´t it somewhat paradoxical that eagles who have to live in captivity are used as a symbol for freedom?
Trappings and gear used in falconry. Drawing by Louis Agassiz Fuertes, public domain.
