Philippine Eagles are critically endangered, and every chick is precious. When necessary, the Philippine Eagle Foundation uses a puppet to hand-feed captive bred chicks. They needed a new puppet and I’m honored that they asked me to make it! Video demo: https://youtu.be/YwB0mdNMvDU
Hand-feeding with puppets is not ideal, but aims to imprint the baby chick onto its own species, instead of humans. I am so thankful to organizations like the PEF that work hard to save wildlife via thoughtful cooperation and respect, with habitat restoration and stewardship. I crafted this puppet for ease of use and cleaning as it will be used to feed an eagle chick raw meat. To this end it’s not finished the same way my masks are. Built from scratch using a wire armature, foam, worbla, faux fur, and a food safe waterproof finish on the beak so that it can be washed.