I know that they used sock puppet mothers to raise California Condor chicks- that way they would know what to do when they were set free and raised clutches of their own.

Ah, I do love a good puppet show....

I think those puppets are to keep the condors from imprinting on the people. I don't really mind if our chicks imprint on us --- it's better than being so skittish when a huge person shows up in their personal space! But that seems to be breed specific --- our Sussex didn't seem to be scared of us, but that meant they were too tame for our homestead. So I guess I should value the scaredy-cat nature of our current batch of chicks.