I have a wildlife zoo

He Yifei asked with bewilderment, "Director, what exactly is the situation with this Eurasian eagle-owl? Is there something wrong with its physical condition?"

Fang Ye watched the Eurasian eagle-owl, which was not afraid of him at all but instead making "woo woo" sounds that somehow seemed like begging for food, his brows gradually knitting together, somewhat unsure, he hesitantly said, "Could it be imprinting behavior?"

He Yifei was greatly shocked, his mouth wide open, his eyes revealing a look of disbelief, "Imprinting? You can't be serious?"

He hadn't considered that possibility at first, but upon hearing Fang Ye's words and looking again at the Eurasian eagle-owl's behavior, it really seemed like it!

Imprinting is a special type of learning behavior in animal behavior, where certain stimuli from the outside world can have a lifelong effect on some organisms shortly after birth or hatching.

For example, some newly hatched nestlings or newly born mammals will learn to recognize and follow the first creature they see after opening their eyes.

The Austrian ethologist Lorenz once conducted such an experiment, dividing the eggs of the graylag goose into two groups for hatching, one group incubated by the mother goose and the other by an incubator. The goslings that hatched from the incubator came to see Lorenz as their mother, following him wherever he went.

If you placed both groups of goslings under a box, when you lifted the box, the goslings would split into two directions—one group would run to the mother goose, and the other toward Lorenz.

Once these freshly hatched goslings had imprinted on Lorenz, even when they reached adulthood, they would still follow him, and while he was swimming, the geese would closely follow behind him, showing their dependence on him.

Imprinting behavior usually happens in the juvenile stage of an animal's life, and certain special skills can also only be learned during this time. For example, the easiest time for fledglings to learn to fly is just a few months after birth. If they missed this period, they might never fly for the rest of their lives.

Scientists have not yet understood the reasons behind this, speculating that just after birth, the nervous system is in a unique state. As animals grow older, the nervous system gradually changes and is no longer capable of imprinting learning.

Moreover, imprinting can influence an animal's behavior for a lifetime, possibly leading them to see humans as their own kind, to depend on humans, and even to court humans once they reach sexual maturity.

In the giant panda breeding base, animal keepers wear panda suits when caring for newborn red pandas, not for the sake of being cute, but to minimize the potential for imprinting behavior.

Therefore, when raising animals, although being carefully looked after by animal keepers during their youth can greatly increase survival rates and establish a trust relationship which facilitates future daily management and training cooperation,

even so, it is still important to let the young spend more time with their mother and siblings. If normal nursing and rearing are possible, it is best to let the mother raise her young, allowing them to learn more survival skills and to exhibit more natural behavior as they grow up.

The impact of imprinting behavior varies among animals, with birds exhibiting the most pronounced effects!

Therefore, when rescuing birds, especially nestlings, great care must be taken to avoid letting them see humans.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The staff of bird rescue centers, when feeding nestlings, usually wear bird-mimicking headgear on their heads and dress in black feathered garments to disguise themselves as oversized birds.

Or, they simply use a board to cover their faces, with two holes poked in it, so when the nestlings are young, they will remember that a board or a post fed them, but as they grow older, they will no longer be able to find such a post.

Even the hands used by staff to feed the nestlings are covered with bird puppets or use blunt-ended forceps disguised as bird beaks, and they do not speak during feeding.

Some people don't know about birds' imprinting behavior, and when they see a fledgling falling to the ground while learning to fly, hopping about, they think it's an abnormal situation. In fact, the parent bird might be watching over it nearby.

As a result, they pick up the bird and take it home to raise, thinking they're doing a good deed by saving a bird. Actually, the bird's life is more or less ruined—it might not die in their care, but it will be unable to leave humans.

At first, Fang Ye didn't think about imprinting behavior, mainly because the Eurasian eagle-owl was already an adult! Logically, an adult bird past the fledgling stage shouldn't imprint anymore. Your next read awaits at empire

There are exceptions among adults, like the cinereous vulture!

Birds are prone to imprinting, and among them, the cinereous vulture is especially susceptible. Thus, even in adulthood, if fed by humans, it may become dependent on them.

Once, a police station in Inner Mongolia rescued and released a cinereous vulture, but it followed the patrol car back on its patrol, ending up hanging around the police station and refusing to leave. The officers had to feed it 6 jin of meat daily, costing 150 yuan for its meals, which even made the hot search.

But Fang Ye never knew that adult Eurasian eagle-owls were so prone to imprinting either—no book ever mentioned this!

Since rescuing the Eurasian eagle-owl, his interactions had always been brief. The few minutes he spent feeding and changing water each day, although he wanted to touch the owl, he never actually did. The Eurasian eagle-owl usually stayed in the nursery, undisturbed by anyone.

He wasn't as cautious as he would be with a fledgling, but he still maintained enough distance.

When he first started the release into the wild, although he noticed something was off about the Eurasian eagle-owl, he had never thought of imprinting. Even today, when He Yifei called to say the Eurasian eagle-owl was still in the same spot, he still didn't think of it.

Looking at the Eurasian eagle-owl, who was craning its head toward him with an eager expression and hooting plaintively, he felt incredibly frustrated.

You're already a mature Eurasian eagle-owl, you should learn to find food for yourself, not be a Big Treasure baby waiting to be fed!

What in the world is going on? Is it that adult Eurasian eagle-owls are indeed easy to imprint, or does it have to do with my Heart of Nature skill? Or is it because I gave the Eurasian eagle-owl something comforting that made it feel it could trust?

As Fang Ye pondered, his annoyance grew, and he couldn't help but raise his arm and "slap" himself across the face!

He Yifei was baffled—what in the world was going on with the director? Why did he suddenly go mad out of nowhere?

Seeing that Fang Ye was about to hit himself again, He Yifei hurriedly grabbed his hand tightly and pleaded urgently, "Director! Director! Don't do this, it's not that serious!"

Grinding his teeth and tilting his head back, Fang Ye wore an expression of woeful anger, his eyes shimmering with unshed tears: "I'm so angry, it's all because of my unbearable handsomeness, my devilish charm that knows no bounds and doesn't differentiate between humans and animals! Why do I have to be this handsome!"

He Yifei had thought Fang Ye was distressed and blaming himself for some problem with caring for the Eurasian eagle-owl. But upon hearing Fang Ye's words, his face fell, and he really wanted to retort. The hand he held back from slapping Fang Ye's face almost wanted to let go and give up.

My gosh!

Director, have you no shame? Who praises themselves like that?