Kitten bites from Velociraptor chicks

[JW Fallen Kingdom spoilers]

Today's raptor thought is that I just realized something further indicating that baby Delta's terrible, horrible, vicious (/sarcasm) attack when Owen pretended to be hurt to test her reaction was 100% play and not meant to cause harm.

I mentioned before that Delta likely knew Owen had something protecting his forearm that the raptor chicks can't bite through, because she specifically only attacks that forearm. Well, it is something protecting Owen from the sharpness of the raptors' teeth and claws, leveling the field where he doesn't naturally have tough scales that would make such play behavior safe with a raptor parent, but I'm not sure how effective it is against pressure added to the sharpness. The arm guard looks like it's made of leather, which would be a material that, though protective, is not exactly impenetrable, but is also safe for the raptors to bite or claw into without risking damaging those teeth and claws. And that reminds me of equipment used when handling raptors of the avian kind.

A bird of prey trained for falconry will often perch on a leather glove worn by the falconer when out hunting. And while the thick leather protects the falconer's fragile human skin from accidental nicks and scratches from the raptor's talons, I've found it interesting to learn that the glove is actually mostly for the raptor's comfort, to make the hand a steadier perch. The raptor being steady and comfortable does also mean less chance of accidental injury, as the bird doesn't need to struggle and stumble to balance on the glove, but the most important thing keeping the falconer from being severely injured is how well they've trained the bird to trust them. Avian raptors hunt by grabbing prey with their powerful feet and driving their talons through flesh, and larger raptors can, with practically no effort, apply enough pressure by locking their talons onto something that it would easily break the bones of a human hand. Even smaller raptors would have no trouble stabbing their talons through a leather glove if they wanted to. The idea is to have the bird not want to.

Delta is a dromaeosaurid, which hunt somewhat differently than their flighted avian namesakes, and she is still a baby, but I'm questioning whether she couldn't have pierced the leather arm guard if she really wanted to. The raptorlets probably have sometimes done so by accident, which has taught them to be more careful with their squishy human parents. Maybe it hasn't been anything severe, more on the level of an accidental cat scratch (which, don't get me wrong, can still be pretty unpleasant - I have scars from those) while they were even littler, but they've taken note of that biting human hurts human more than biting raptor would hurt raptor, and that there's protective gear the humans they don't want to hurt wear that's safer to play-attack than the rest of them is, but that even that doesn't protect them completely.

Owen is a lot bigger than Delta at this point, and even if Delta wanted to kill him, he could probably win that fight. But Delta doesn't need to even want to hurt him; she just needs to not care whether she hurts him, and Owen would have a pretty considerable chance of needing bandages after that interaction.

Again, Blue is remarkable for approaching the situation as a conversation and wanting to confirm what's going on by asking, but Delta is taking at least two levels of precaution not to injure her dad when taking part in the play-hunting that he initiates by assuming the role of practice prey, like a raptor parent normally might as part of teaching their young.