The wildlife smugglers today are turning more to eggs instead of live
birds according to various fact sheets you can find on the Web - better
survival rate = bigger profits. There have been a number of successful
prosecutions (resulting in very substantial fines and even jail
sentences) in the last few years for people trying to smuggle eggs out
(and in) in specially designed vests and underwear - if eggs are kept
close to the body and warm the survival rate is better. As with the live
bird smuggling, parrots are a favourite target, and it must be easier to
smuggle a few eggs than a few large cockies! DNA analysis is being
used in some cases to identify the eggs, in other cases the eggs are
incubated so species can be determined.
Sandra Henderson
Email:
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Tony Russell
Sent: Tuesday, 30 October 2007 1:55 PM
To: 'Tony Russell'; 'Evan Beaver'; 'Birding-aus'
Subject: Egg Collectors?
Er, display the empty shells, not the contents.
-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Russell
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 1:21 PM
To: 'Evan Beaver'; 'Birding-aus'
Subject: Egg Collectors?
Evan, many many (now sane) birders started off in life as mad egg
collectors - I was one myself until aged about twelve. The trick was to
get the contents out without breaking the shell and then display them to
your friends - those with the best and biggest collections held the most
status. Seems barbaric to me now but that's how it was before I took a
different approach to birds and conservation. Maybe some people are
still back there in the dark ages and we need to guard against their
activities. No doubt there are still others out there prepared to run
the gauntlet of our laws, collecting eggs of desirable species for
commercial sale, and they need to be stopped too. Others collect for
museums, but I won't go there.
Tony the ex Pom.
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Evan Beaver
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 11:19 AM
To: Birding-aus
Subject: Egg Collectors?
Birders,
Now I'm treading carefully here, in an effort to better understand a
contraversial subject. Recently there was talk of a Painted HE nest and
the potential problems of disclosing this due to egg collectors. Now, my
question is this: What are egg collectors up to? Collecting for export
to hatch somewhere else? I would have thought this pretty unreliable,
keeping the egg alive. Do they actually collect the eggs and catalogue
them in some sort of collection? Either way it sounds very dodgy and not
at all to be encouraged. Unless of course they have a penchant for
Indian Mynah eggs.
EB
--
Evan Beaver
Lapstone, Blue Mountains, NSW
lat=-33.77, lon=150.64
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