Martyn Stewart wrote:
>They all want to use playback in the field, now, is this responsible or not?
>How do you tell thousands of people to use playback responsibly in the
>field?
>
>
You seem to be allowing that it is possible to be responsible with
playback. If so, then is it better to keep these people out of the list
or let them in and convince them to behave responsibly? Access to
technical information about equipment (or worse, access to flashy
adverts that sell equipment) is a lot easier to find than discussions of
this kind. As you say, "There are more gadgets out there than sense."
>Habitat is becoming increasingly diminished and the birds are decreasing in
>numbers. There are more gadgets out there than sense, GPS units to locate
>what a "life lister" has seen so they can post in on a list serve to tell
>others to go out and harass, ATV's to get to the locations, the planet is
>becoming smaller, we are becoming larger than life.
>
>
But none of this demonstrates whether *playback* is right, wrong, or
moot. Granting your point that playback causes stress, it's like zoos.
Zoos take animal prisoners and treat many of them to a life of
frustration and even neurosis (I can't stand to see polar bears in zoos
any more). At the same time, zoos expose naive people to animals, and
more and more zoos are doing good work in breeding endangered species. A
lot of future voters got their first exposure to 'nature' from their
kiddy trip to the zoo, and we know how important childhood experience
can be in your world-view. Etc - it's a long argument. Perhaps on
balance having zoos is better than not having zoos, and we should all
work to make zoos as good as they can be.
Analogies are perilous, but we have to talk about the 'big picture'.
Tradeoffs. Greater good. Bottom line.
-- Chuck
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Chuck Bragg, Pacific Palisades, CA
Membership, Newsletter, Web manager
Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society
www.smbas.org
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