Gemma is a Lanner falcon that came into the Centre on the 10 July 2020. We got a call from Toyota in Burgersfort that someone who was bringing a car in for service has hit a bird and not knowing what to do had just placed it in the back of the bakkie and left the car for service. We were contacted and went out to get the bird. We took her through to our vets in White River and xrays revealed a midshaft fracture of the radius and ulna of the right wing.

Our vets operated and pinned the radius and did external fixator of the ulna. Her wing then had to remain strapped for six weeks for the fracture to heal.

Once the vets were happy the fracture was sufficiently healed, we needed to start the long road of rehabilitation which meant fitting her with equipment and start fitness training. She showed very slow progress and the wing was definately very sore. Lanner falcons need to be very fit and need to hunt their prey at high speeds.

We decided to try coMra therapy to see if we could aid with the recovery process.

We did a three week programme every second day comprising of 2min @ 5Hz, 3min @ 50Hz and then 2min @ VHz. The results have been very pleasing.

From July before treatment was started she only was able to reach a maximum altitude of 20m and maximum speed of 55km/h with a total flying distance of 3.6km.

From the attached GPS recordings you can see how she has improved with treatments and is now attaining heights of over 1000m and speeds up to 155km/h and distances of over 33km.

Gemma, the Lanner falcon

Dullstroom Bird of Prey and Rehabilitation Centre, South Africa