That's good to hear, Adrian. Have you had any feedback about whether the
hunters prefer the existing arrangements to the old ones?
I'm thinking of a good use we could put our duck shooters to.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Adrian Boyle
> Sent: Friday, 5 August 2011 1:06 PM
> To: Peter Shute
> Cc: Heather Gibbs;
> Subject: Re question of hunters in China
>
> Hi Peter
>
> Yes you were correct in your interpretation. Hunters that
> once caught birds to sell in the markets now conduct research
> on a local reserve.
>
> In the late 80,s early 90's there was little research
> conducted in parts of Asia in regards to banding of
> Shorebirds. Hence the starting of leg flagging in the 90's
> meaning that researchers like myself could go into areas and
> look for these colour flags and get an insight into what
> populations use particular areas at certain times of the
> year, identify important areas and also obtain turn over
> rates for the birds.
>
> In the 90's Chongming Dao (Island) off Shanghai was thought
> to be a very important area for migratory birds as thats
> where we were getting lots of band recoveries from. These
> were from birds at the markets that had been captured by the
> hunters on the mudflats.
> Numbers of hunters and birds caught varied from year to year
> but during March and April in 1991 it was estimated that
> between 23,800 and 37,900 birds were caught and sold. The 2
> common species were Great Knot and Bar-tailed Godwits.
>
> Once the reserve was set up due to researchers providing
> pressure on the government and statistics of how important
> this area is for migratory birds the catching was banned.
>
> Thanks to counts, and being able to identify individuals in
> the area we learnt that Chongming is a very important area
> for birds in bad weather eg when there is a head wind or thick fog.
> If the weather is clear or birds are getting a tail wind then
> they keep flying further north to their main feeding areas.
> Birds would land and stay for only a few days until the
> weather had cleared and then move onto better feeding grounds
> such as Bohai Bay and Yalu Jiang near the North Korean Border.
> To obtain this data ex hunters were employed by the reserve
> to use traditional methods for catching the birds. The birds
> were then handed over to the researchers.
>
> I was working at the reserve in 2006 and we were keen to get
> weight data on the arrivals of the shorebirds. We employed 2
> ex hunters and back then the hunters were actually paid by
> the weight of the birds. This was inline with what they would
> have been paid a few years before at the markets.
> After the hunting season (March and April) the hunters would
> go back to the farms and mainly grow rice and water melons.
>
> Now days the hunters are employed full time by the reserve
> and are given a wage. Their time is also spent fixing board
> walks, erecting signs for the thousands of tourists that now
> visit (It is very popular for weddings), weed eradication,
> and enforcing the law.
>
> In 2006 a hunter was caught with 20 dead Great Knot . I asked
> what would happen to him and they told me that because he had
> taken more than 12 birds that he would be given 6 months in jail.
> I said six months!!!!!!!!!!!!! They replied YOU THINK NOT
> HARSH ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!! I then said no no that should be fine.
>
> So Peter I hope that does answer you question.
> It really is a great example of what conservation in some
> areas can achieve and I like Heather am reminded of this when
> I see the Black and White flags on Shorebirds and think if
> bands were not put on in the first place and researchers had
> not put in the effort to study the hunting pressure leading
> to a reserve being created we could easily now be seeing
> nearly 38,000 Shorebirds vanishing into a pot.
>
> Cheers Adrian Boyle
>
>
>
>
>
> On 05/08/2011, at 8:10 AM, Peter Shute wrote:
>
> > Heather, can you please expand on the paragraph I've quoted
> below. I'm interpreting this as possibly meaning that it's
> the same people who were hunting them before who are now
> flagging them, or helping to flag them? Is that correct, or
> am I being too optimistic?
> >
> > Peter Shute
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From:
> >> On Behalf Of
> >> Heather Gibbs
> >> Sent: Friday, 5 August 2011 9:40 AM
> >> To:
> >> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Results of the First Large-scale
> >> Study into Mist Netting
> >
> >> On a much brighter note, some wader-flagging study projects
> >> in this flyway
> >> have been implemented in place of shorebird hunting. So, for
> >> example, every
> >> time I see a bird with black and white flags (indicating that
> >> it came from
> >> Chongming Dao, an island near Shanghai in China) it is a
> >> tangible reminder
> >> that these birds, which would once have been sold at local
> >> markets for food,
> >> are now being released alive with colour flags instead.
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