Hey Kinderchicklets,
Great question about imprinting. Imprinting happens to everything when they are very very young - even little kinderchicklets. Just like the peregrine chicks, when you all were very little babies you couldn't see very well right after you were born. After a little while, just like the peregrine chicks, your eyes got stronger and you could see things and at the same time you started to recognize sounds and smells. And even though you were very very young, all those things - sight, sound and smell - helped you to figure out who was your Mummy and who was your Daddy. Baby human and baby peregrine brains are very smart even when you are very very young. So after just a little while even though you couldn't talk or understand what your parents were saying to you, you knew that they were "special" and that they were different from other people. If you had a dog or a cat when you were a baby, they would be "special" to you too. For peregrine babies its the same thing, that is why we don't go to visit them often when they are very young, we don't want them to think that we are "special" to them - we just want them to think of their parents and their brothers and sisters are "special". Being "special" is another name for "imprinting". So when you were babies you imprinted on your Mummy and Daddy (and maybe your cat or dog) and that is how you become you with a Mummy and a Daddy. If you have a younger brother or sister, they imprint on your Mummy and Daddy and you too. The peregrine babies imprint on their parents and their siblings and that they are peregrines.
Now Tao, when she was a baby, she didn't have her Mummy and Daddy to imprint on - instead she had people to imprint on. If she had her Mummy and Daddy to imprint on, she would be a little owl right now doing little owl stuff, but because she has humans, she sort of thinks she's a short human with feathers and though she can't do human things (like do arithmetic) she can't do owl things like hunting and nesting either. And because she can't do these things, she needs to stay with Jen and Lisa at PWRC.
So if you find a baby bird or a baby squirrel or a baby any other kind of animal what are you going to do? You don't want it to think its a human when it should be a bird or a squirrel or a whatever do you? I'll give you a hint: if Jen and Lisa know how to help Tao and Perry, do you think they could help a baby bird or squirrel learn how to be a bird or a squirrel?
Tracy
The Peregrine Chick
