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Meet Wimbledon’s real star, a tweeting hawk named Rufus

This is the real star of Wimbledon. 

Photo of Ned Donovan

Ned Donovan

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Meet Rufus. Rufus works in security at Wimbledon, the most prestigious tennis tournament in existence. However, the fact is, Rufus is a bird. A Harris Hawk to be exact, charged with removing the pigeons that plagued the South London courts till 2000.

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The hawk, which is used non-lethally to remove the pigeons by simply frightening them away, has learned his skills from trainer, Imogen. The fabulous bird, which has its own Twitter account, has come into a newfound celebrity: Rufus is the star of a Stella Artois beer advertisement.

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The spot coincided with an AMA (Ask Me Anything) that Rufus conducted on Reddit, where his trainer answered questions about the hawk.

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Rufus’ Twitter account is predictably puntastic.

I’m rather exceptional at my job. Some might say I’m *clears throat* enormously talon’ted (oh come on).

— Rufus The Hawk (@RufusTheHawk) June 24, 2014

He also gets to meet celebrities.

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@andy_murray with Rufus the hawk at @Wimbledon today j pic.twitter.com/0u95r9T1Z1

— Bill Murray (@BillSNSPix) June 21, 2014

Basically Rufus has the best job in the world.

Screenshot via Stella Artois U.K./YouTube

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