MERRY & PIPPIN: turkey vultures
These two young raptors were brought to the California Raptor Center in May 2019 as 18-day-old nestlings. The details of their original “rescue” are hazy, but it seems their finder intended to illegally keep both siblings as pets until talked out of it by an acquaintance. The nestlings then passed through the hands of several other wildlife centers before finally coming to the Raptor Center.
Because of the way they were handled and the time spent in human care before reaching our nursery, both birds were already imprinted on humans when they arrived. They were placed with our adult female turkey vulture, Juliet, as a final effort to try to “wild them up.” However, release was not a safe option as the siblings remained too human-imprinted, despite Juliet’s modeling appropriate behavior and the best efforts of staff.
Merry and Pippen are named after the mischievous hobbit duo in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.