Rocko is an absolute cutie, isn’t he? Hard to believe he will one day be a ferocious hunter, large enough to hunt elephants and rhinos.

For now, he is clearly a baby. He’s one of the youngest students but is delighted to join in and fly. Because of his youth, we don’t encourage too tricky a manoeuvre until he knows his growing body better, but it doesn’t stop him. Thankfully he sees his quick tumbles into the lake as part of the game, and laughs it off with his squeaky little bird giggles.

We hope to teach him all we can in these softer baby years, for these great birds go through a terribly moody adolescence, with gawky limbs, multiple moults, aches and pains as their muscles grow… We’d rather he did that back home around his sympathetic family than here at the school.