Meet Horus!

Meet Horus, one of our most recent additions! Horus is a juvenile peregrine falcon, born in captivity in the spring of 2010. When an animal is born in captivity, many times it is not releasable into the wild. The animal can start to identify with humans rather than its own kind, which is called “imprinting.” Although they may still have some wild instincts, they lack basic survival skills, which they would normally learn from imitating their wild parents.

Horus is an imprint and needed a permanent place where he could stay and live a great life. In the late spring/early summer of 2010, Horus arrived at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Currently, Horus is being trained as an education bird. He will travel to schools, events and classes in and around the museum, in order to teach people the remarkable story of the peregrine falcon.



Before WWII, the estimated number of breeding pairs of peregrines was between 350 and 400 in the eastern United States. However, due to predators, human disturbance and pesticides their populations began to decline. After WWII, the peregrine population was thought to be extinct in the eastern US. Populations still remained in the west but were declining quickly. In the 1970s, DDT, an insecticide and large culprit in peregrine decline, was banned in the US. With the banning of this chemical, along with a Peregrine Recovery Plan established by the government, peregrine numbers were soon on the rise.

Today we have 39 peregrine nesting sites just in the state of Ohio alone!

Melissa Terwilliger, Wildlife Specialist