Birds
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1995:
“The only good great horned owl is a dead
one,” says Minnesota state senator Charles Berg, who has
introduced a bill to allow free range turkey farmers to catch
the owls with padded leghold traps––which can easily
crush an owl’s foot––as well as a bill to allow mourning
dove hunting. Letters asking that either bill be vetoed if
passed may be sent to Governor Arne Carlson, 130
Capitol, St. Paul, MN 55155.
“Small nature preserves, which work fine for
preserving plants, don’t work for migratory birds,”
Illinois Natural History Survey scientist Scott Robinson
says, after an extensive study of the relationship between
vanishing songbirds and cowbirds, who lay their faster-
hatching eggs ino other birds’ nests. While cowbirds are a
short-term cause of species decline, the longterm cause is
shrinking habitat, as deep forests where the songbirds are
safe give way to the edge habitat that cowbirds prefer.
The Hudson Valley Raptor Center, of
Stanfordville, New York, has received $32,000 in grants
from the New York Natural Heritage Trust, the Simpson
Charitable Trust, and the Norcross Wildlife Foundation,
enabling major expansion. Releasing about 60% of the
birds it treats, the center nonetheless houses more than 130
birds of prey, representing 20 species, who for various
reasons require permanent care.
At deadline the fate of Florida’s e n d a n g e r e d
species program appeared to depend on negotiations
between the state House and Senate budget commitees.
Once common, white ibises declined 64% statewide and
90% in southern Florida during the 20 years before 1993,
when the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission
moved to protect the wading bird’s habitat. That outraged
farmers and developers, on whose behalf Florida Senate
Republicans Charles Bronson of Satellite Beach and
Robert Harden of Fort Walton Beach introduced legislation
withholding $2 million in nongame wildlife research fund-
ing from the GFWFC until and unless the white ibis protec-
tions are dropped.
The arrival of humans in Polynesia,
Micronesia, the Hawaiian Islands, the Galapagos
Islands, New Zealand, and on Easter Island, bringing
with them pigs, rats, and dogs, caused the extinction of as
many as 1,600 bird species, New York State Museum
paleontologist David Steadman reported recently in
Science. Just three bird species died out in the Galapagos
before humans came, but two dozen have gone extinct in
the 460 years since, Steadman said. Deforestation caused
by humans wiped out 29 of the 30 bird species native to
Easter Island, along with 44 species in New Zealand.
