This discussion has been had before (or was it on Birding-aus). There are many (maybe most) animal emblems of political jurisdictions that are not endemic (or
sometimes even not native) to the countries they are chosen to represent. Think most obviously of the lion and unicorn for Britain.
Philip
From: Virginia Abernathy [
Sent: Friday, 9 December, 2016 6:15 PM
To: Martin Butterfield; ; Kevin and Gwenyth Bray
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Oh Canada
But Loons also breed in the northern US. I studied them one year in Wisconsin. :)
From: Kevin and Gwenyth Bray <>
Sent: 09 December 2016 18:07
To: Martin Butterfield;
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Oh Canada
I’m a bit puzzled by the purported rationale for Canada choosing the beaver as opposed to a bird, since the beaver is also to be found in the USA!
If it were up to me – having lived in Canada for 4 years in the 1960s and 70s – I’d have chosen the Loon, a beautiful bird with a haunting call which we saw and heard on many
trips into the Canadian wilderness.
Kevin and Gwenyth Bray
02 6251 2087
0406 376 878 (Mob, Kevin)
0409 584 342 (Mob, Gwenyth)
Sent: Thursday, December 8, 2016 5:16
PM
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Oh Canada
An interesting read, especially about naming conventions!
I was also interested to see the comment
“We have an animal symbol, which is the beaver,” he said by way of analogy. “I would say that most Canadians don’t see a beaver in a given year. "
Presumably that's because the people in Toronto don't see them. We lived in Ottawa for a year, and beavers were common there, to the extent that City workers used dynamite to clear
beaver dams built across suburban creeks so that they didn't cause floods in the Spring thaw.
I wondered why they didn't select an endemic bird, to which the simple answer is they don't really have one. Dr Google offered a list of three species:
-
Labrador Duck (extinct)
-
Ross's Goose (overwinters in US so IMHO not really endemic); and
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Harris's Sparrow(ibid).
On 8 December 2016 at 16:12, Bill Hall <> wrote:
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