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Spark Bird: Maya Higa and Bean
Using Twitch streams to educate people about wildlife conservation
© Jerry McFarland
When Maya Higa started interning at a zoo, she wasn't especially into birds — until she began rehabilitating a Red-tailed Hawk named Bean. Meanwhile, Maya was doing live-streams of herself singing and playing guitar on the website Twitch, just for fun, to a pretty small audience. The video went viral, and Maya's audience grew from there. Thousands of viewers watched Bean's rehabilitation on her streams, forming a bond with the bird. And this reminded Maya of her education work at the zoo. She has since founded the Alveus Sanctuary, a nonprofit animal sanctuary and virtual conservation education center.
BirdNote®
Spark Bird - Maya Higa and Bean
Written by Mark Bramhill
Tenijah Hamilton: This is BirdNote.
[Red-tailed Hawk call]
When Maya Higa started interning at a zoo, she wasn't especially into birds — until she began rehabilitating a Red-tailed Hawk named Bean.
Maya Higa: I tube fed him for the first few nights and got him to hunt on his own again, and then did this big release thing. And it was [a] pretty wild experience, but really, really, special.
[Red-tailed Hawk call]
Tenijah Hamilton: Meanwhile, Maya was doing live-streams of herself singing and playing guitar on the website Twitch, just for fun, to a pretty small audience.
Maya Higa: I told people that I had a bird. And they were like, you don't have a hawk in your backyard. And I was like, I do. So I brought him out.
Tenijah Hamilton: The video went viral, and Maya's audience grew from there. Thousands of viewers watched Bean's rehabilitation on her streams, forming a bond with the bird. And this reminded Maya of her education work at the zoo:
Maya Higa: It was a similar feeling to when I was going to classrooms and teaching kids and they were all really excited and they really liked this particular animal that they met. And so I realized that Twitch was a way for me to teach people and do conservation outreach without having to load animals up in a van and take them places.
Tenijah Hamilton: Maya then founded Alveus, a nonprofit animal sanctuary and virtual conservation education center. She livestreams animal care, and does presentations about the conservation challenges the animals face — to around 7 or 8,000 people at a time.
You can learn all about Alveus on our podcast, Bring Birds Back. Find it in your favorite podcast app, or on our website, BirdNote.org. I'm Tenijah Hamilton.
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Senior Producer: John Kessler
Content Director: Allison Wilson
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Red-tailed Hawk ML 166694 recorded by Jay McGowan.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2022 BirdNote November 2022
Narrator: Tenijah Hamilton
ID# PodBBB-20-2022-11-25 PodBBB-20
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