[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Message: 3
> Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2007 14:10:20 -1000
> From: "Bill Bergstrom" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: [OGD] Norris
>
> <snip> Use good sense,,,When I collected Phrags in Peru they were so
> prevalent that no one could ever own them all..I collected a few..the rest
> would easily maintain the rest...and so it goes..good thinking goes a long
> way.. <snip>
'Good thinking goes a long way' ... This is what the 17th century
Portuguese and Dutch sailormen may probably have thought when they first
landed on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius and saw the flightless
Mauritius Dodo (Raphus cucullatus), a member of the pigeon family.
Because of its fearlessness of people, the Dodo was an easy prey, and
although the Dutch called the bird 'Walghvogel' ('loathsome bird')
because of its bad taste and hardly palatable meat, they killed it by
the score, enjoying this break from their frugal daily meals during
their long travels back and forth between 'Holland' and what then was
called the 'East Indies', the former Dutch colony which in 1949 became
formally independent as Indonesia. Dodo stocks lasted less than a
century and reportedly in 1689 the last bird of its species was killed
by most likely a Dutch sailor.
Another example of good thinking may be found in what happened to the
Great Auk (Alca impennis). This, again flightless, large penguin-like
sea-bird must have occurred by the millions in the lower-Arctic and
Boreal regions of Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Ireland and Great
Britain. Although this bird already attracted attention of human hunters
for its skin, down, fat, meat and eggs at least as early as 2,000 BCE,
large-scale and industrial exploitation of the natural populations of
this species first led to its disappearance from Norway in about the
year 1300, and finally in 1844 the last pair was beaten to death on the
Icelandic island of Eldey. Because of their high fat content, Great Auks
made a great source of lamp oil and they made fine torches too, which
must have been especially handy for European fishermen and whalers
during their long travels at sea.
A last example of what good thinking may cause comes from the faith of
the Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius). This native North
American species was a highly social and migratory bird that lived and
bred in huge and extensive colonies. It is estimated that prior to the
European colonisation of North America, 25 to 40 per cent of the total
bird population of what is now the the United States consisted of this
species, and the entire natural population of the Passenger Pigeon is
thought to have comprised 3 to 5 billion (yes, that's right, 3 to 5 000
000 000) birds. During migration single flocks have been recorded that
took more than 14 hours to pass and which were estimated to consist of
more than one billion (1 000 000 000) birds. While Native Americans must
already have caught birds of this species to some extent for their meat
or feathers, this harvesting obviously did the natural population no
harm. Passenger Pigeon's destiny was sealed, however, when professional
colonial hunters began slaughtering them for their meat at an industrial
scale around the year 1800. In 1860 it was noticed that numbers began to
decline, but still in 1878 more than 50,000 birds were killed per day in
Petoskey, Michigan, in what must have been one of the last large
nestings of Passenger Pigeons. 'No one could ever own them all', but
none the less it took little over a century for European immigrants in
North America to fully drive this species into the abyss. The last
Passenger Pigeon on earth, called Martha, died 1 p.m., September 1st
1914, in the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden at an age of 29 years old.
'Collecting a few' is probably not the problem, but a problem is that
there are simply too many who want to collect a 'few' and make a couple
of bucks. When it comes to orchids, and to Phragmipediums, for that
matter, we all know what has happened to Phragmipedium kovachii. I am
sure other members of the list, such as Professor Guido Braem, Peter
Croezen or Peter O'Byrne, are able to fill you in with some more details
as to what has happened to other orchid species. I am sorry Bill, but
man has shown a poor record when it comes to 'good thinking' with
respect to the utilisation of natural resources.
Simon M. Wellinga
Heerenveen, The Netherlands / EU
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