It was pretty common in Gould's time (and even til quite recently) for birds and other animals to be killed to sell to museums, who would pay big bucks for it. I remember seeing a display at Otago Museum, which stated a main cause of a particular birds extinction (I forget which) was due to bounty hunting on behalf of museums.
arthur wrote:
And then there was the 'examine bower bird brains' research into dementia
So the "slaughter for science" mindset may still be 'alive and well'
Of course it is. A lot less common in regards to killing wildife, but many experimental animals are culled for studies or when they outlive their usefulness. I guess it begs the question, why shouldn't we use animals and humans for research?
Just a bit of useless trivia but back in the day before welfare handouts any "legal" job was a good job .
My crazy great Uncle made his living trapping birds around the Riverina . They just didnt know back then .
No excuse now though .
Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue.
David Brent
Hi all,
my two cents worth, allow legalised trapping to the top up of genetic diversity, same for opening up occaisonal imports , but as Myzo said trapping as a commodity is very old school. Surely we have advanced enough in our husbandary to ensure good supply of most birds, the only reason certain ones have dropped beyond repair is that as an industry the $ means they were not viable aka peters twin spot. I have seen two adds recently on petlnk for red brows and plumies for sale and ordered some form these sellers and then asked for a movement authority - surprising you never get another call, the add is removed etc etc. Twas only a few nights ago a dealer from melbourne asked me for trapped chestnuts and when I told him they were avairy bred he was no longer intersted. The governement departments you all talk about are being stripped of much funding under "efficiency dividend" cuts so most of the authorities will not have the time nor the resoucres to follow through with any form of investigation unless they have good facts (surveilence etc) . Notwithstanding this the way the legal system is geared means that the authorities have to prove beyound reasonal doubt that a person has trapped them. If they system was such that the the trapper had to prove he/she didnt trap them then there would lkely to be more regulation like it or love it. It is up to the individual to ensure to make the decison as to what they think is right or wrong and hopefully as a collective entity most of the $ chasers will be weeded out and the avicultural realm will get a bit better reputation within the community. Having said that many a species almost exteinct in the wild have been resuced by making it worth $ eg Foxtail palm, wollemi pine, crocs etc. As for the rainbow lorikeets, I would only be too willing to send a few hundred down to the seller to save me $ in lost fruit production (just jokes).
Once again reading this post with interest, when I first had finches (late 60's early 70's) the only reliable breeders in the native kind were zebs. It was so hard in those days to breed any other of the natives. Plumheads, Chestnuts, Stars, Red Heads, Longtails, Diggles were a dime a dozen. Frank Schultz, Premier St, Kogarah had millions (literally). If one died just go and get another, cheap as chips. Still, I was a kid then, didn't have all the info about sprouted/green seed and live food requirements etc. My back yard was full of bird/lizard/snake cages, like a little zoo. Had better results breeding tortoises, blue tongues, geckoes (in the bedroom) Only results were from Zebs, Mannakins, or Bengalese as they are called now and Javas. All of the natives (bar the Zebs) were so flighty, obviously, in hindsight they were trapped birds. Prices for things like Goulds and even Orange Breast were way out of my league (OB's $36) a pair. Compare until now. Anyhow lets move the clock forward 30 yrs, all of the native birds I have mentioned are now available as "avairy bred". I now breed painteds, stars and goulds. Yay! In all reality they are fairly easy breeders, now. The question I ask is this, would anyone on this forum accept wild caught birds considering the stress they would go through during the catching and transport stage? I agree that we need new stock for imported breeds that have declined since the importation laws were invoked years ago to strengthen the stock here in Australia. How can we do it? I have no idea, but what peeves me is you can import racing pigeons and chooks from overseas. Any chance of a couple of Pekin Robins from a reputable breeder? No way, or if you could they would probably die in quarantine of old age. Then we have the annual migration of millions of birds from the northern hemisphere and South East Asia. Classics are the Common Koel and even the poor little Silvereye which can range to New Guinea and beyond. I know this post is off track from the original but from my way of thinking and observations, we and our feathered friends we have in our custody are endangered species because of the political correctness which is invading our society by those that know no better. That's it for me on this subject,(until next time) and please they are just my views, if I have made any mistakes in what I said, so be it.
On the other hand, what happened to the rainbows which started this post off. Anyone know?
Consider that when my dad was a kid (1940s & early 1950s) he and most boys his age where he lived (Hunter Valley) trapped redbrows, doublebars, etc. in their hundreds/thousands and sold to bird dealers for pocket money - it was simply what young boys did to earn an honest few bob at that time. I'm sure across the country literally thousands of kids did exactly the same and for many years prior to and since then. Yet these species remain relatively common through most of their range. Also consider the Longtails in the Kimberley with 75000 odd documented birds trapped in a decade or so plus many thousands of others not documented and those trapped before records were kept. This huge number of one species from one region and yet they remain one of the more common birds in that region to the point of being blamed for a significant part of the Gouldian decline via nest competition. These things indicate that even very large-scale trapping of wild birds can be dwarfed by other factors as major threats to wild bird populations.
