Humans And Stress In Breeding Gray Hawks

As any pet owner knows, animals have personalities. Though we can see this first hand in cats and dogs, these traits are harder to quantify in wild animals. Gray hawks are a tropical raptor whose northern-most range is in southeast Arizona, and Ariana LaPorte has been studying their diet and habitat quality for her Master's thesis. One of her most unexpected findings is that individuals vary in the amount they vocalize and defend their nests. Some are quiet and cryptic, and others start screaming as soon as she approaches. Through her research, Ariana hopes to uncover the reasons for this difference in vocalization patterns and aggression among individual gray hawks.