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Hello Birding-Ausers,
On the subject of revealing the locations of rare and endangered bird
species please consider the following questions:
1/ Who owns Australia's wild birds?
2/ Who decides that a location will be kept secret?
3/ By what right and authority do they make that decision?
4/ Would anyone agree to the location of a species they have not yet seen
being kept secret from themselves?
5/ Which action is destroying more bird species: trapping or
'development'?
6/ How long is a location going to remain secret?
7/ How can a location be monitored effectively if only one or two people
know about it?
I in no way condone bird trapping; such people should be drugged, stuffed
into plastic tubes and stored in the cargo hold of a Jumbo jet for a day or
two!
(Then again, perhaps that's a bit harsh; maybe they shouldn't be
drugged.)
However, I believe that the major damage is being done to our bird
populations through the activities of 'land developers'!
These people depend on the general population not knowing about any rare or
endangered species (birds or other) in the area they have targeted for
'development'. Or the damage to the bird population their 'development' will
do.
Keeping secret the locations of rare and endangered birds simply plays into
the hands of these 'developers'.
It also plays into the hands of the trappers; they depend on the lack
of an audience to carry out their activities.
A lot of our bird species have become rare and endangered (locally or
nationally) through land development.
Most of us live in an area where, not so long ago, there were many more
bird species than there are now.
This reduction in species and numbers is more likely to have been caused by
'land development' and forest clearing than by trapping.
I believe that all locations of all species, rare or not, should be made
public knowledge.
Even keeping nest sites secret seems somewhat futile to me. A lot of our
birds are sedentary and will therefore nest in the same areas where they are
normally seen. The trappers know this and are prepared to spend the time and
effort to search these areas.
I believe that if I have found a location containing a rare species then it
is more than likely other people will have found them too.
It is also probable that if there is a commercial value on the particular
species then the expert trappers have found this location long before I
did.
Is there anything more exciting in the world of the 'Birdo' than the sight
of a colony of a species that was thought to be extinct?!
Should any of us be denied this pleasure?
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