G'day Rosemary,
This is one post too many for me, nothing to do with you personally though
as I am absolutely certain your heart is in the right place when it comes to
birds and birding. I have been observing this issue of ticking exotics for a
while now and can't stay silent any longer. I feel that allowing any self
sustaining population of alien species a foothold is playing with fire.
Is there also a committee to watch these populations for signs of success at
adapting to their exotic location and determining when it's too risky to
leave them there. Note that it may take decades for them to adapt till
breakout point, that's a long time to keep watching without losing interest.
In my opinion relevant Government Departments are somewhat lacking when it
comes to this issue, not through lack of understanding of the situation and
good intent but lack of resources. It costs a lot of money and effort to
remove a species when the decision is made which is probably why the
decision never happens. Birding groups that care about their endemic species
should be red hot on this issue and lobby furiously for action in the early
stages, not rejoice in an extra tick, how revolting.
Sorry, I had to say something here, you caught me at a bad moment, we
already have Barbary Doves in Adelaide learning how to be wild birds and
Laughing Doves in Perth continuing to extend their distribution, etc etc,
and now it seems Peafowl at various locations, and you did qualify your
email with " However, you will be pleased to know that this does not really
reduce the levels of discussion and controversy at all !!" How many exotic
species can a country contain before we decide it's too many. Hawaii and New
Zealand spring to mind.
I'm happy to be controversial in this instance and state that giving these
exotic populations a reason to be there is not a good thing. Mainly because
I haven't read a single post in the negative, so here it is. I look forward
to all of the contrary mail this post will generate.
Cheers Jeff.
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Rosemary Royle
Sent: Saturday, 28 November 2009 9:30 PM
To: Birding Aus
Subject: Feral peafowl
Regarding the issue of ticking "self sustaining feral populations", in the
UK we have an organisation - BOURC - which essentially decides which
species, which populations and indeed which individual birds are tickable
(this latter applies particularly to ducks which are often escapes from
collections).
And the official British List does have several categories which are used to
distinguish the different kinds of populations.
However, you will be pleased to know that this does not really reduce the
levels of discussion and controversy at all !!
Rosemary Royle
Wales, UK
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