Picture taken from the Cal Falcons YouTube video of a peregrine falcon named Lou at UC Berkeley’s Campanile tower. (Cal Falcons/Youtube)
BERKELEY — He’s already made himself at dwelling in a perch subsequent to Annie, the beloved peregrine falcon that has roosted atop UC Berkeley’s Campanile tower since 2016.
Now, the girl’s latest love has a reputation: Lou. Which doesn’t appear in the slightest degree uncommon for a male falcon — till you discover out it’s brief for Louise.
“Lou” is a nod to Louise Kellogg, the companion of Annie’s human namesake, Annie Alexander, who based the Cal’s Museum of Paleontology and the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.
The moniker was chosen from seven finalists in a naming contest sponsored by Cal Falcons, a fan group for the birds. After every week’s value of ballots had been counted, Lou got here out on high, incomes 28% of the 4,728 votes forged. The highest three runners-up? Marshawn, Archie and Morgan.
Lou began wooing UC Berkeley’s cherished feminine falcon with prey deliveries in January, dropping off small animals and birds on the tower’s perch searching on the Bay.
The male falcon is Annie’s third companion in a 12 months. Her longtime mate Grinnell died in downtown Berkeley final March, after that they had been collectively for six years. Alden, who swooped into the empty nest inside hours, disappeared in November.
After a 2022 chock filled with loss, will the third time be the appeal for long-lasting falcon love? It might be becoming, contemplating the human counterparts to Annie and Lou have a storied previous of their very own.
Kellogg and Alexander spent a lot of the first half of the twentieth century in a dedicated relationship, based on an internet archive of UC Berkeley’s LGBTQ historical past. After beginning as journey companions on a 1908 journey to Alaska to gather plant, animal and paleontological specimens, the 2 ended up spending 42 years collectively in partnership.
Sean Peterson, an environmental biologist with Cal Falcons who voted for the title “Lou,” pointed to the truth that the real-life couple was in a position to carve out a profitable life collectively, regardless of not residing in probably the most queer-friendly period.
“I feel the story of Annie and Louise actually resonated with folks,” Peterson mentioned in a launch from UC Berkeley. “It’s a basic love-triumphing-over-adversity story.”
Since arriving in Berkeley seven years in the past, the birds have amassed a flock of followers each on campus and on-line; some have offered shirts that includes the falcons’ likenesses. Falcon memes and artwork initiatives abound. It is a phenomenon that some have dubbed “chook pleasure,” based on Glenn Phillips, govt director of the Golden Gate Audubon Society.
Whereas a whole lot of chook lovers truly don’t approve of naming wild animals — fearing that extra hurt will come from anthropomorphizing their pure behaviors and wishes — Phillips appreciates how the apply can improve the compassion folks really feel in the direction of different creatures.
“Birds, typically, are simply actually charismatic. They interact us, they’re lovely, they’re attention-grabbing, they’re majestic they usually simply seize our creativeness,” Phillips mentioned. “When you could have the chance to see birds up shut and private, you may’t assist however be drawn in and kind of begin to establish with them as people — there’s one thing form of magical about it. There’s nothing extra wild than a falcon, and right here they’re nesting on buildings and trying to find meals proper in our yard.”
As falcon populations had been as soon as at risk of being worn out, he mentioned, dwell webcams and social media posts could also be a few of the most secure methods for folks to understand them.
“There’s simply one thing soothing about watching a chook preening herself as she sits on the nest, kind of like the whole lot’s okay on the earth,” Phillips mentioned. “The quiet moments of nature may also help decrease our blood stress, enhance the standard of our lives and improve our happiness. It’s a very neat factor that we will share.”