COLORADO SPRINGS — The U.S. Air Force Academy introduced its new mascot Tuesday on social media.
The academy said the female gyrfalcon will be named later this year after a vote from the Cadet Wing.
This newest mascot is a successor to the Academy's oldest falcon that passed away in October 2019.
The Academy announced that 23-year-old Aurora, a White Phase Gyrfalcon, passed away. She was roughly twice the age of falcons in the wild.
Aurora was quite rare, as only three percent of all falcons are Gyrfalcons and only one percent of Gyrfalcons are white.
The unique falcon was not one of the Academy's performance falcons but she did often make public appearances and was known across the cadet wing for her lively spirit, according to the Academy.
