North Dakota Administrative Code
Title 30 - Game and Fish Department
Article 30-02 - Wildlife Management
Chapter 30-02-02 - Falconry
Section 30-02-02-01 - Definitions

For purposes of this chapter:

1. "Department" means the North Dakota game and fish department.

2. "Eyas raptors" means young raptors not capable of flight or a term for a young bird from time of its hatching until its normal departure from the nest. Also referred to as a nestling or chick.

3. "Falconry" means the sport of taking quarry (any species of animal) by the use of trained raptors.

4. "Hacking" is the temporary release of a raptor held for falconry to the wild so that it may learn to hunt on its own.

5. "Hunt" or "hunting" means pursuing, taking, attempting to take, or killing any game animals, rabbits, and game birds and searching for or attempting to locate or flush any game animals, rabbits, and game birds.

6. "Hybrid" means offspring of two distinct raptor species and any progeny of those birds.

7. "Imprint", for the purposes of falconry, means a bird that is hand-raised in isolation from the sight of other raptors from two weeks of age until it has fledged and has identified itself with humans rather than its own species. An imprinted bird is considered to be so for its entire lifetime.

8. "Licensee" mean a person who has been issued a valid North Dakota falconry license or a license from another state that complies with federal falconry standards.

9. "Nonindigenous" means those raptors not listed in the most current birds of North Dakota field checklist.

10. "Passage raptors" means first-year raptors capable of sustained flight.

11. "Raptor" means a migratory bird of the family accipitridae, excluding bald and golden eagles, falconidae, or strigidae.

12. "Replacement bird" means a raptor obtained to replace one which has died in captivity, has escaped, or is released to the wild.

13. "Service" means the United States fish and wildlife service.

14. "Sponsor" means resident master class licensees or resident general class licensees with at least three years of experience at the general class level. A sponsor may not have more than two apprentices at any one time.

15. "Take" or "obtain" means to trap, capture, or acquire by means of transfer a raptor for the purposes of falconry.

16. "Wild raptors" means an animal in its original natural state of existence, not domesticated nor cultivated, and is considered to be so for its entire life.

General Authority: NDCC 20.1-14-03

Law Implemented: NDCC 20.1-14-03