The Falcon pilgrim , or Falco peregrinus (Tunstall, 1771), is a Rapace of intermediate size, famous to be the fastest bird of the world. Its preys are especially made up of birds, but certain populations can also attack small terrestrial animals. It niche primarily on Cliff S and, in a rarer way, on trees or buildings high. Its populations very strongly decreased after the Second world war, in particular because of pollution with DDT. Since their protection in the Years 1980, they are again expanding.

The peregrine falcon occupies 10  000  000 of km ² in all, on all the continents (except the the Antarctic). It counts a score of subspecies and it is one of the Oiseau X whose zone of distribution is most important in the world.

It often was domesticated within the framework of the Fauconnerie.

Description

At the nominal subspecies Falco peregrinus peregrinus , the back is gray dark, the belly is cream-coloured with black drawings. The cheeks are white, with a kind of black spot in the shape of moustache. The legs are yellow, the nozzle is black-bluish, short and bent as of the base and the eyes are black. The youthful ones are brown before taking the color of the adults. Light variations can exist within the other subspecies. For all the species, the female is taller and more door that the male, sometimes of 30% (one often speaks about the males as being tiercelet ). The nostrils of the animal are equipped with kinds of deflectors which enable him to breathe during its piqués.

The peregrine falcon is a rather quiet animal. Its most frequent cry is a “ka yak, ka yak” rather piercing and dry. In the event of alarm, the cry is a rapid “kek-kek-kek” which can be developing if an intruder continues to approach. There exists also a cry more trailing at the time of the parades of coupling. It is said that the falcon eight or that he claims. To hear a cry: 1.

Certain captive animals lived up to 25 years (recorded record), but the lifespan in nature is much shorter, about 13 years on average.

Behaviors and reproduction

This species likes the discovered territories, with few forests. It is installed on the rock faces (in mountain or seaside), to see (relatively seldom) on high buildings. It was noted that in zones without human presence and with step or few predatory, like the Arctique, the pilgrim could be installed on hillocks or slopes and not only on cliffs. Some populations, very few, can nest in trees. This behavior is found at F.p. macropus , in Australia, but also sometimes in Europe, as on the edges of the sea Baltique.

The Peregrine falcons are not gregarious animals. Even in the zones with relatively important populations, the nests generally remain to at least 1 km from/to each other and often much more. It is a question for each couple of having a sufficient feeder territory. The size of the territories varies with the availability in food. The population thus is enough dispersed and remains much less dense than that of the birds living in band.

In France, it is a sedentary animal. The same applies to the majority of the populations of planet. The attack is done by the back of the prey, in order to reduce the risk for the falcon to be located. Speed in piqué is not constant, and varies according to the phase shifts of the attacker and according to its movements of wings, necessary to adapt to the trajectory of the prey. At the end of piqué, the animal goes back more or less to the horizontal one. In practice, it can continue to go down, be really with horizontal, even to make a resource and to go up slightly. The final approach is in fact function of the reaction of the prey. This one can be directly seized with the greenhouses, or struck with those, and recovered during its fall, even on the ground. The run up against prey is generally killed by the shock more than by the greenhouses of the falcon. When the shock is very violent, the prey can even be crossed into two.

The velocity measurements at the time of the plunging phase of the attack generally vary between 130 and 184 km/h. Measured maximum speed would be of 252 km/h. According to Rene-Jean Monneret:

  • Falco peregrinus peregrinus (Tunstall, 1771), subspecies nominal (that which was used to describe the species), in the West of the Eurasia and to the river Ienisseï (center of the Siberia) and with the the Himalayas. Nonmigrating.

  • F.p. japonensis (J.F. Gmelin, 1788), sometimes called F.p. harterti , lives in Siberia, with the Kamchatka and the Japan.

  • F. p. furuitii , lives in the south of the Japan, on Volcano Island, and perhaps on the Bonin island. Sedentary. Regarded threatened and as rarest of the subspecies.

  • F.p. peregrinator (Sundevall, 1837), lives in South Asia, of the South of the China to the Pakistan, while passing by the India and the Sri-Lanka. Nonmigrating.

  • F. p. macropus (Swainson, 1838) lives in Australia, except for South-west. It is a very dark falcon, completely sedentary.

  • F. p. submelanogenys (Mathews, 1912), lives in the South-west of the Australia. Sedentary.

  • F.p. minor (Bonaparte, 1850) lives in sub-Saharan Africa, of the south of the Morocco in the Southern Africa (South Africa, Zimbabwe…). Nonmigrating.

  • F.p. anatum (Bonaparte, 1838) is especially found in the Rocky Mountains and is North America, Alaska with the Mexico. Only the most Scandinavian birds are migrating. A compilation of studies of the end of the year 1990 gives 1.700 to 1.800 reproductive couples. This subspecies presents a back grisâtre, a chest of color salmon finely striated and broad favorites.

  • F. p. brookei (Sharpe, 1873) lives in Europe of the South, the Crimea and in the the Caucasus, like in the north of the the Maghreb. It is smaller than the nominal variety.

  • F. p. calidus (Latham, 1790) reproduces in the tundras of the north of the Eurasia, and is completely migrating. It winters in the south of Europe, in China and until sub-Saharan Africa. It is larger and more clearly than the nominal subspecies. Quinn and Kokorev estimated in 2000 the total population between 2.300 and 5.000 reproductive couples.

  • F. p. tundrius (C. Mr. White, 1968) reproduces in the tundras of the north of the continent of North America, of Alaska to the Greenland. It is completely migrating. It winters in the south, sometimes until in South America. Some consider that calidus and tundrius is in fact only one and even subspecies. There would be from 1.000 to 2 0000 reproductive couples in Greenland (Mattox 1993), and a few hundreds more on the continent. This subspecies presents a rather brown coloring, a striated chest and narrow favorites.

  • F. p. madens (Ripley and Watson, 1964), lives in the islands of the Cape Verde (Africa). Nonmigrating.

  • F. p. radama , lives with Madagascar and the the Comoros. Nonmigrating.

  • F.p. pealei (Ridgeway, 1874) on the peaceful coast, in the North-West of North America (islands of the Queen-Charlotte, Aleutian Islands, American coast, of the State of Washington to the Alaska). It is not migrating. Enough rare, this subspecies is also largest since one finds there sometimes females being able to exceed 1,5 kg. It presents broad scratches on the chest (without salmon color) and of fine scratches on the pale beach bordering each favorite. According to rather old estimates (Ambrose and Al 1988 - Munro 1988), there would be 700 reproductive couples.

  • It can also exist hybrids of two subspecies, where those meet. It is thus Peregrine falcon " atlantis" , crossing of Falco peregrinus minor X F.p. brookei .

Falco peregrinus pelegrinoides , (or F. pelegrinoides , according to the authors) the “falcon of Cruelty”, was traditionally regarded as a subspecies of the peregrine falcon, but is regarded more and more as a species with whole share. F.p. babylonicus , living is Iran with the Mongolia, is regarded by certain as a subspecies of the “falcon of Cruelty”.

In France

In France, the sedentary peregrine falcon is especially present on the mountainous reliefs: the Vosges, the Alps, the Pyrenees and Massif Central. One more punctually finds it on cliffs of the Brittany, the Picardy and the Normandy. The Scandinavian peregrine falcons wintering in France are dispersed on the territory, but their number is less important. One finds also sometimes the peregrine falcon in urban areas: “For a few years, of the cases of reproduction in particular to Strasbourg, Nancy, Lunéville, Albi or of wintering with Brest, Turns, Troyes, Toulouse, Chartres, Nantes… have been announced. Others could follow soon, and especially in Île-de-France, where the species is not nicheuse any more since the Second world war, but where it was observed, including in period of reproduction, signs that the raptor sees in the city a potential place to reproduce” (but the falcons nesting in the turns of Notre-Dame are kestrels).

Demography

If it really threatened forever on a world level, the peregrine falcon passed very close to disappearance in many developed countries, but its manpower are currently in growth in Europe and North America. On the other continents, the evolutions can be contrasted (stable, positive or negative).

Regression

The European and American populations of this species knew a catastrophic fall in the post-war period, because of the accumulation of DDT, a Pesticide Organochloré in fabrics of the falcons. Indeed, the preys of the Faucon pilgrim consumed DDT. As often, the toxic products not metabolized by the organization are concentrated in certain fabrics, and accumulate throughout the food chain to find itself with particularly strong concentrations at the predatory ones which are at the end of this chain. The falcons thus poisoned laid eggs with the extremely fine shell, and thus quickly broken by the incubation.

These problems were amplified by the voluntary destruction of the populations, considered as vermin because of their hunting for small game.

The populations disappeared from certain European countries, like the Belgium, and strongly regressed elsewhere, as in France. They almost disappeared from the east of the the United States as of the years 1960. In the southernmost Quebec, there was no more no birth about 1970.

Expansion

The DDT was prohibited or strongly regulated in the countries developed with the beginning of the year 1970 (in Canada in 1969, France and with the the United States in 1972), and the peregrine falcons placed on the list of protected spaces. In the European Union, it is thus in appendix I (maximum protection) of the Directive birds.

In fact, a big raise of the species is noted in the countries developed since the years 1980, and especially since the beginning of the years 1990. The bird returned thus naturally in Belgium, in 1997, and would count between 650 and 1.500 reproductive couples in France. In the southernmost Quebec, there were 17 births in freedom into 1990,39 in 2000 and 83 in 2005. There would be in 2005 surroundings 1.200 couples in the British Isles, including 365 in Ireland. The European commission estimates in 2005 the population of the European Union between 4.700 and 6.000 couples.

In certain areas, as in North America, of the breedings of falcons as of the lâchers were used to restore the populations in the zones where they completely or had almost completely disappeared. “More than 1.650 peregrine falcons were high in installations of the Canadian Service of fauna with Wainwright, in Alberta, in installations of certain universities in Saskatchewan and with the Quebec, and in installations deprived in Alberta. The Service of fauna and the nongovernmental organizations slackened falcons raised in captivity top of high buildings and natural cliffs with more than 60 places, starting from the South of Alberta to bay of Fundy One estimates that there is more than 7.000 couples of pilgrims nesting in North America”. Concerning the Quebec only: “a program of repopulation allowed, of 1976 to 1994, the release along the Fleuve the St. Lawrence of 256 gibs raised in captivity. ”

In Belgium, to reinforce the shy person return of the pilgrim, “the Funds of Intervention for the Raptors (FIR) launched in 1995 a program of protection of the Peregrine falcon with the assistance, in particular, of the royal Institut of the Natural science of Belgium. Adapted nesting boxes were installed on the raised buildings, the posts with high voltage and the lathes of cooling of the Belgian nuclear plants. Since the birth of the project, nearly 200 young people were born in these nesting boxes! Today, the species recolonisé natural sites, as with Walk-the-Ladies. In 2004,55 young peregrine falcons took their take-off”.

Threats

The principal current threats are hunting (in the countries where it is not regulated, as in certain African countries), the poaching (where hunting is regulated, one regularly finds falcons killed by hunters) and the disturbance of his zones of reproduction by the modern cliff leisures (Escalade, Parapente, Deltaplane…). The too disturbed couples do not reproduce.

The destruction of the habitats, that it is that of the predator or its preys, constitutes also a serious threat for the future of the species.

World situation

The Convention on the international business of the species of fauna and flora savages threatened of extinction classified the animal in appendix I (maximum protection). But according to the International union for the nature conservation, the peregrine falcons occupy today 10 million km ² on planet, and their population (to the maximum 100.000 individuals) stable and would be not threatened overall. It can go from there differently for certain subspecies or certain zones. Example of these difficult zones, the the Crimea would count nothing any more but one about fifteen couple of F. p. Brokei , for which it is necessary to add some couples of migrating calidus .

Fauconnery

See also: Fauconnerie

Relatively easy to draw up, the peregrine falcon was used with other species cousins by several civilizations, in Europe, North Africa and Asia for hunting for the flight of small game birds. It is thought that the first domestications would go back to several millenia and would be originating in Central Asia. The oldest documentation which we had on the Fauconnerie date 35 centuries. The fauconnery is then not unknown in Western antiquity, since a plate of belt Gallo-Roman evokes hunting for the flight, but it is practiced little. It is only about the 7th century that the Arab world discovers the fauconnery of Central Asia, and it is undoubtedly by its intermediary that with the Moyen-âge the fauconnery is really established in occident. Little by little, to 17th and 18th centuries, the fauconnery will pass from mode with the development of the firearms. It will not disappear completely, but became restricted today with small groups of impassioned. In spite of these old raisings, the bird forever given rise to a fully domesticated specific variety.

According to the periods and the areas, it is largely practiced by all the social layers, or is on the contrary the expression jealous of the nobility, even a royal privilege. Thus, in 1530, the emperor Charles Quint concedes Malta with the Order of Hospital of Saint-Jean-of-Jerusalem (or Ordre of Malta) against the handing-over symbolic system, each year, of a falcon. With the the Middle East, and in particular in the Persian Gulf, the fauconnery remains particularly appraisal of the leading layers, and a culture of the rich and prestigious fauconnery always exists there.

Social representations of the peregrine falcon

The peregrine falcon is at the same time a predator and an pet, two types of animals which always drew the attention of the human cultures. There exist however several tens of species of Faucon S, and it is sometimes difficult to make the share between the influence of the peregrine falcon and that of his cousins.

Mythology and religion

The falcon has a place in mythology and religion. At old the Egyptian, it is the Horus god, one of the most powerful gods and most often represented of the Egyptian Pantheon. Its prototype is undoubtedly a Falco biarmicus or a Falco peregrinus. the two species could besides play an equivalent part in the birth of the myth. In connection with the statute of predator of the falcon, the god Horus is also a god of being able, since the crown of Egypt is allotted to him by the gods. For this reason, the former Egyptians momifié many falcons.

In Scandinavian mythology, several gods take the shapes of falcon, like Freya. Loki, from the occasion, borrows this aspect from Freya, to disguise itself in falcon. Yggdrasil is also associated with this bird.

In Celtic mythology, the druid Fintan transforms himself into falcon.

In Slavic mythology, Svarog, god of the Sun, sky, fire and metallurgy has as crowned animals ox with gilded horns, the horse, wild boar and the falcon called Varagna. According to Jakobson, Svarog is one of the names taboo of the crowned falcon.

For much of Fiji ens, Ganivatu (the peregrine falcon nesiotes) has one will have mystical powerful and arrogant. This will have perhaps comes to him from a legend, mainly forgotten today, of fabulous Ganivatu of the Yasawa islands.

Into heraldic

Symbol of hunting, the falcon is present in European Héraldique, even if its place is appreciably less important than that of his/her cousin the eagle. When it is without ornaments or accessories, the falcon is known as “with the naturalness”. It “is perched” when it is posed on a branch or its block, and is represented sometimes encroaching or drying. The falcon “is chaperonné” when it is plugged by a cap on the head, “skirted” when it carries to the legs its vervelles (or bonds), “grilleté” when it carries its bells to the legs or the neck. One notes that the heraldic one especially referred to the falcon domesticated for the Fauconnerie, which confirms the popularity of this one within the European nobility.

In policy

Ancient Egyptian civilization was not the only one to make falcon a symbol of being able. At the time modern, a certain number of political organizations or soldiers named themselves according to him. One of the groups armed with the Palestinian organization Fatah names thus “the Faucons of Fatah”. One finds also an youth organization socialist who is called the “red Faucons”.

As regards international relations, the partisans of the policies of forces are often called “falcons”, and this in several languages, including French and English. It acts there, again, of an explicit reference to the statute of predator of the falcon.

Lastly, one of the most known fighters, F-16, has as a complete name General Dynamics F-16 Falcon.

Stamps

In spite of its ambiguous reputation (many countries classified it like vermin until in the years 1970), the peregrine falcon inspired by rather many stamps throughout the world, of Canada in the Fiji islands while passing by the Japan.

The cinema

One finds finally rather many references cinematographic to the falcon, mythical film of Humphrey Bogart, the Maltese Falcon , with the spaceship of the Star Wars , the Faucon Millenium. In the Battle of Jedi , fiction of Timothy Zahn which is held after the Star Wars , the Peregrine falcon is the name of the vessel-admiral of the senator Bel Iblis.

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