Members of the Canadian Peregrine Foundation are worried about a rare bird that was stolen from her cage at an isolated building north of Toronto over the weekend.

		Tarah is missing
			VIDEO:
			Signe Katz reports (runs 02:04) RP   WP  QT

They say Tarah, a Peale's peregrine used in educational programs to teach children about species at risk, is unlikely to survive if the thief or thieves set her free because she won't know how to hunt in the wild.

The young falcon's more likely fate is being sold to a breeder or collector, however.

The head of the non-profit foundation, Mark Nash, said that whoever took the bird from the Kortright Conservation Centre knew exactly what they were doing.

"Someone had to come in here in the dark, in the very dark, and identify which pen this bird was in," he said. "They had to cut two different padlocks to gain access to an inside walkway, to gain access to the pen Tarah was in."

• External Link: Canadian Peregrine Foundation

Tracy Simpson, co-ordinator of the raptor centre near Woodbridge, was the first person to realize the bird was missing on Sunday.

"I left the facility on Saturday night at approximately 11:30 p.m. and all birds were safe and sound and all was well," she said. "I came back the following day to feed the birds, and as I arrived, I realized that something did not look right. I could not find her in her pen."

York Regional Police are investigating the theft.

"Unfortunately it would be very easy to get the bird out of the province," said Nash. "We've already had the thought expressed to us by two law enforcement agencies that the likelihood is that the bird is already out of the province."

Tarah is not yet two years old. She is about the size of a small pigeon, and her colouring is a mixture of blue-grey, brown and white.

The foundation is offering a reward for information leading to her safe return. Its phone number is 416-481-1233, or 1-888-709-3944 for long-distance callers.