Red-tailed hawk with rare condition is surviving, in part, due to ‘love,’ biologist says [Video]

With around 2.5 million of them flying around North America, scientists know a lot about red-tailed hawks.But Angel, a red-tailed hawk in Knoxville, Tennessee, is getting the attention of scientists — and perhaps tugging at their heartstrings. “I was like oh my gosh, that’s a leucistic red-tailed hawk, that’s crazy,” Connor O’Brien, a project manager and biologist at Window to Wildlife, told WVLT of first seeing Angel.Leucistic means the partial loss of pigmentation, as opposed to albino, which refers to the absence of pigment.Those who have been monitoring Angel believe that the love of her mate may be part of the reason why she has managed to survive. Window to Wildlife, according to its website, specializes in installing wildlife cams. It’s through such a camera that scientists have been observing the hawk and gaining new insights about birds with the rare condition. “Back in the early 2000s scientific conservation biologists …