The Raptor Rehabilitation Project was founded in 1972 by MU students to educate themselves and the public about birds of prey, educate veterinary medical students about the husbandry and medicine of these wild birds, and, most importantly, to treat injured raptors and return them to the wild. The Raptor Rehabilitation Project is a service and education organization of the MU College of Veterinary Medicine and supported in part by the Missouri Department of Conservation.

The group must employ unique medical skills to heal and rehabilitate these lightweight and specialized animals. Often, the group has to help birds regain their flying skills in specially constructed flight cages and perches.

Raptors are birds that hunt. They include eagles, hawks, and owls. They will most likely die of their injuries because they cannot catch food or elude predators. The Raptor group gets the injured birds from state and local police and governmental agencies that find them.

Some birds cannot be released because their injuries will never heal. They are kept by the project and some are used, through presentations, to help educate the public. Group members bring these often one-winged birds to venues like elementary schools. School kids stare at the birds that fearlessly stare back. Occasionally, a bird will let out a wild screech, bringing a part of the wild into an urban classroom.

Chipper is mature barred owl brought in last winter with a right ulnar fracture in his wing. After orthopedic pin placement, Chipper had an uneventful recovery and demonstrated that he could fly and hunt flawlessly, allowing him to be released.

Erol, also a mature barred owl, was presented at the MU College of Veterinary Medicine with a tibiotarsal fracture and severe trauma to both eyes after being hit by a car. In association with MU veterinarians, the group administered eye drops—not an easy thing with a wild and talon-equipped creature—so that the retinas partially reattached. This allowed him vision enough to successfully land on perches and hunt live prey.

London, a one-year-old red-tailed hawk was brought to the group in July 2005 with a spiral fracture of his left humerus. Like Chipper, he underwent orthopedic surgery. After healing, group members provided him simple flying maneuvers to rebuild his atrophied muscles

After being hit by a car in November 2005, the mature barred owl Willow was brought to the Raptor group with right clavicular and coracoid fractures and severe trauma to the right eye, including partial retinal detachment. Many months of cage rest and countless eye drops drops later, Willow’s retina reattached sufficiently for successful hunting and flying.

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