I initially posted this privately, but since this might be construed
as a conspiracy - here it is on the net...
I remember reading the Wingspan story. It concerned someone making a
special expedition to locate the Paradise Parrots, which they did and
got excellent sightings of them only a couple of metres away!!!!
But, surprise, surprise, this expedition came back with not a shread of
evidence. Not even a photo taken with a disposable $10 camera - at 2m
the image should have been quite good enough for an id.
In the "old days" they would have collected (ie shot) the bird which would
have proved the id beyond doubt. I certainly wouldn't advocate that now,
but surely if you mount a special expedition to look for a rare bird you
would take along some photographic equipment to document your finds unless,
of course, you were counting on being able to tweak out a tail feather.
Personally, I don't believe it until there is some better evidence and I'm
surprised that Wingspan published the article, given my doubts raised above.
Living in hope of evidence of a paradise (parrot)
Peter
Dr Peter Woodall email =
Division of Pathobiology
School of Veterinary Science Phone = +61 7 3365 2300
The University of Queensland Fax = +61 7 3365 1355
Brisbane, Qld, Australia 4072 WWW = http://www.uq.edu.au/~anpwooda
"hamba phezulu" (= "go higher" in isiZulu)
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