Hunting Forgien Species

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Tomage
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Hunting Forgien Species

Theres nowhere really to put this so I just thought id put it in here. What do you guys think about hunting of forgien birds? Such as the Common Mynah and other forgien species?

arkle
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Many of those "foreign" birds have been living in Australia for more than one hundred and fifty years. As such, I believe that they have just as much right to be here as we do. I hear people saying that introduced birds are pests because they ruin orchards and vegetable patches, yet orchards and vegetable patches were introduced as well. What will Australia do when tectonic plate movements eventually bring the continent into direct contact with a land mass bristling with fearsome small mammals and ornamental shrubs? How will the environment psychopaths deal with the catastrophic influx of non-native bird species and flowers?

My personal opinion is that nature should be left to sort things out, regardless of the history of the situation. It is also my opinion that the value of an animal is on a per individual basis, rather than on a per species basis. People say that you can justify the lifelong imprisonment of the last few remaining individuals of a threatened species, because it is the best thing "for the species", but "the species" does not exist except as a concept - the suffering is on an individual basis. I don't see any justification for causing suffering to a live animal in order to satisfy the human-only-driven desire to protect the survival of animals that are not yet born.

On the Otago Peninsula in New Zealand there is an introduced colony of Albatrosses. A visitors' centre charges visitors a substantial fee to see the birds, most of which is used "to protect the survival of the birds by controlling (read trapping in agony or poisoning with 1080) introduced species like the ferret, stoat and cat". What these people spectacularly fail to remember is that the albatross colony was not started until 1920, many decades after the introduction of the ferrets, stoats and cats.

There are supposed to be 80,000,000 possums in New Zealand and they normally live for between six and ten years, so let's say an average natural life expectancy of eight years. They reach sexual maturity after one year and each female has one baby each year. Therefore, assuming 10,000,000 possums die each year of old age and seven eighths of the remaining females each have one joey, there are 30,625,000 new possums each year. The possum population is therefore growing at a rate of 20,625,000 per year. That's 40 per minute. Just to keep the possum population at the same level New Zealand has to kill 60,000 of them every day. As an alternative to murdering tens of millions of innocent animals every year for the sake of having a national symbol so rare that you never get to see any anyway, I suggest that they go out and shoot the few remaining Kiwis, sell their beaks and feathers to tourists in souvenir shops, and make the Possum their national symbol instead.

But human bloodlust being what it is, there are many people, self-professed animal-lovers included, who will use any excuse to go out and murder animals for fun, justifying it with some smug self-serving belief.

Anyway, the my answer is no. We shouldn't hunt foreign birds.

Tomage
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Holy moley.. Ok, youve convinced me. I wont even think of hunting anything ever again. Thank you so much for that huge response and insight on the subject arkle. I really appreciate it, youve opened my eyes. Thank you.

arkle
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Heh heh =o) well that's only my opinion. I love nature and I do have strong feelings on the subject. I'm sure others will disagree. arkle

marj
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I won't disagree. Tim Flannery is an interesting read on misguided conservationists who haven't really given any thought to what it is that they are conserving.

Betty
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Can't think of the word "hunting" without thinking of snipers and people who go out planning to kill as many people as they can, like down in Tasmania, or massacres in the States. I have seen just one duck shoot and how anyone can term it sport is beyond me. Those poor birds are terrified and don't know which way to go. Barbaric if you ask me.

Betty

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