On 8/3 David Geering wrote:
"I have, however, yet to see anyone argue for any real positive outcomes
arising from the harvesting of bird species, such as Red-tailed Black
Cockatoos."
Steve Murphy replied
"There is an argument that if we harvest and sell species which prone to
illegal harvesting (like Red-tailed Blacks), then we will swamp the market,
thereby reducing the incentive for illegal poaching."
I'm not sure all that much large-scale poaching occurs of Red-tailed Black
Cockatoos. Please correct me if I'm wrong. In any case, I think that the
market would be swamped fairly quickly thus also reducing the cost of the
birds on the open market and reducing the incentive to conserve the
"resource". One could argue that these large cockatoos are not generally
readily bred in captivity thus ensuring a steady, if small, demand for wild
caught birds. There are, however, specialist breeders (one very large
concern in Singapore - article in Geo last year) that intensively breed and
hand raise rare parrots and cockatoos on a mail order basis. Using their
multi-brooding techniques several pairs in this establishment would
probably satisfy the market resulting in only short term gains to
collectors in Australia.
Are there any real long term benefits in this sort of trade?
David Geering
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