From the archives of the Fifth Avenue hawks

Happier times -- April, 2002, Lola's first chicks, two weeks old
Photo by Lincoln Karim


The geriatric theory

In June, 2006, when Pale Male and Lola’s three eggs were scooped from the nest after the second year of failure, they were found to be intact. When Ward Stone, the DEC wildlife pathologist, examined the contents he found no signs of fetal development within. The geriatric theory immediately moved into first place on the list of suspects. Here’s how the argument went:

Pale Male is now 15 years old. He’s a geriatric hawk, too old to fertilize Lola's eggs. The eggs didn't hatch because they were not fertilized.

I hated this theory. Why should an older hawk be a too-old hawk, I thought, taking it a bit personally. Pale Male didn’t act like a geriatric hawk at all. What about those magnificent performances on rooftops, chimneys and TV antennas last February and March, witnessed by hundreds of passers-by at the Model-boat Pond?

This brings up a linguistic bone of contention. The hawkwatchers kept using the word “mating” for the sex act, though John Blakeman, the Ohio hawk expert, objected to that usage. Mating only means renewing the pair bond, he reminded the hawkwatchers in letters I dutifully made public. Blakeman urged us to use the proper, scientific word for the sex act – “copulation”—just as he hoped we would substitute the falconers’ term “eyass” for chick or baby hawk. Much more scientific, he said, sounding like a high school biology teacher, which of course he had been for many years. The hawkwatchers longed to be scientific. But most of us didn’t like the word eyass, too close to jackass, somehow. As for the “C” word, we just couldn’t say it. It sounded dirty.

But whatever it was that our hawk hero was doing up there with Lola, everyone agreed that he hadn’t shown a jot of diminished vigor while doing it. Pale Male a geriatric hawk? Baloney.

Shortly after the first post-removal-crisis nest failure I started getting letters advancing the geriatric theory. The next year when the nest failed again I received twice as many. I sent them on to John Blakeman for comment and received a response blasting the geriatric theory:

Marie:

Aging males of most vertebrates produce sperm of reduced viability. But I doubt that this is presently a factor here. First, the pair was seen to copulate profusely before eggs were laid. There is every reason to believe that the eggs were fertile and viable. They have been in the past, and there is no evidence that Pale Male's spermatozoa failed to successfully wiggle their ways to Lola's awaiting oocytes.

A 14- or 15-year old red-tail is merely mature, not geriatric. Pale Male continued to hunt, feed, nest-build, and conduct all of the other functions of his life with full alacrity. I see no evidence to suggest that our man doesn't have it any more. I believe there are a number of reports of birds of Pale Male's age reproducing successfully in the wild. I personally knew of one…

When Pale Male begins to age out, I think other things will first become evident. He's likely to be less active in hormone-driven nesting behaviors in January and February. He's likely to spend most of his reduced energies merely hunting, not in breaking off twigs and carrying them to the nest. He's less likely to ascend and engage in courtship dives.

It's possible that some January Pale Male will just disappear, with a new young male in his place. Our patriarch might even elect then to remain in Central Park, but take no role in mating, copulation, nesting, or brood-raising. He may retire from the duties of fatherhood and while away his remaining days merely hunting for himself.

But I wouldn't count on any of this happening soon. Our man has another three or four years, at least, I think, before age starts to slow him down. Right now, he's the High Patriarch of Central Park red-tails, with no observed diminution of his earned high repute. His spermatozoa still swim with vigor, I'm sure. Nothing else of his has diminished.

Blakeman’s argument seemed unassailable, but I needed more ammunition I wondered if Ward Stone might have an opinion about Pale Male’s fertility, and decided to call him up. It turns out the DEC wildlife pathologist did not buy the geriatric theory either:

"Here's my guess. With humans we worry a lot about when sexual activity is in decline, as you can see with Viagra and that sort of thing.

My experience with wildlife over all these years is that they really remain capable of reproduction for a very long period of time. If you look at bird records you don't see a big fall-off in fertility. You find a lot of birds, a lot of raptors able to reproduce until they're quite old..

Pale Male is somewhere around 15. Now that's not real old. I have a record of a 27-year-old redtail female who was hit by a car right near where I grew up in Columbia County. Her ovaries were in great shape and it was clear that she had laid eggs that same season. And I've got a male who was 17 or so whose organs were moderately enlarged -- everything looked good

There's no reason to believe that Pale Male is ancient, no reason to conclude there's a reproductive problem . I'd call him a regular middle-aged male.