The headline you just read could be the life motto of Scott Mason, the inventor of parahawking, which is nothing more than paragliding practiced in the company of a trained bird of prey.
This sport combines the ancient art of falconry with modern paragliding techniques. The birds are trained to interact in harmony with the pilot and contribute their natural ability to find thermal currents (hot air that rises), which allow them to gain height and fly long distances without the need to flap their wings.
The paraglider pilot follows them to save energy on their flight. During the glide, the birds must be rewarded to reinforce their behavior: the pilot or his passenger deposit small pieces of meat in their gloved hands in a perfect human-animal symbiosis.
What began in 2001 as a solitary Mason activity now has hundreds of practitioners, and is listed as one of the main tourist attractions in Pokhara, Nepal, where it began.
Parahawking has a conservation aspect: in addition to offering the experience of interacting with birds of prey in their own environment, Mason's project donates an amount of around ten euros for each tandem flight that is contracted.
The objective is to contribute to the different projects to save the Asian vulture, a species on the verge of extinction after seeing its population decrease by 99% during the last fifteen years. The cause, diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory drug that is administered to livestock and is poisonous to these raptors.
