Even birds that are kept in captivity don't trust everyone. Also, not everyone is allowed. The process is lengthy and even when you complete the process, you can still be denied. The idea is to help the bird at the vulnerable age survive. Natural selection is great an all, but sometimes that doesn't cut it. human interference is a kind of natural selection.
I'd rather help out animals I love survive, than do nothing and possibly watch their numbers dwindle.
The requirements for the bird you're allowed to trap are strict. Doing otherwise is a HUGE crime. Felony level. And you're constantly checked on.
Im not sure which level you have worked with captive managed animals or studied conservation biology. Though I have worked with wildlife and have a degree in Behavioural ecology and conservation (though I still believe my experience after the degree has taught me more).
But the danger isnt in them not trusting most people, its in them just trusting one wrong person, or being more comfortable around human buildings and thus risking more chances of flying into something deadly.
Also even with the highest trained people I still doubt you are likly to be able to teach them all the essential behaviours they will need to learn to become a succesful breeder. Aka courtship, social bonding, parental care etc, sure you may believe that they arent learning these in relativly solitary first years. But many/most falcons will breen after 1-3 years depending on conditions and even if in the wild they will often lose thier first batch of chicks this is a important stage where they learn to become succesful parents in thier second year. Delaying this by just one year could potentially affect thier ability to court and raise young throughout thier life. So even if hand rasing a chick may give it a greater chance of reaching adulthood it can potentially limit its reproductive success for life.
Human interferance is by definition artifical selection, and we have learnt a lot from many failed mistakes of conservational breeding programs over the last century. Aka hands on programs almost always hinder more than the help when it comes to releasing wildlife. (hense why most successful conservational breeding programs are completly hands off (Besides when specific medical care is needed, and will often come after tranqing so the animal dosent really know).
Of course there are times where direct human interference is needed but for any animal under 1000 left in the wild I dont really see it. (And under 10,000 left not at all).
Can you show me any literature where catching of wild animals and taming them increases thier wild survival or reproductive success post release? Or is it mostly anticdotal?
We have learnt in so many cases the hands on approach does more harm than not, which is why http://rewilding.org/rewildit/ rewilding is starting to show so much promise. Because we used to think that removing competition, predators, and such helped species. We have now learnt that these pressures actually are needed and increase Fecundity (ability and time to reproduce). Conservation biology is often a lot more complicated than we know, which is why I love it
Im not trying to lecture you, but more trying to understand where your beliefs come from, in terms of conservation in this sense. Also Im giving you a chance to teach me something, and I am always looking to learn.
Of course outside of conservation biology I believe falconry is definitly really useful in several areas such as a certain level of management of pest/invasive small mammals. Or one case I love is where airports are using falcons to chase off other birds from thier grounds thus decreasing the number of native birds which are killed by being sucked into engines (which not only is good for biology, but decreases engineering costs).
It would for the letter T ^_^, but since the species is technically taurus and the genus is Bos it wouldnt count. I updated the first post for clarification against genus (Since genus is not species specific).
Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2014 8:29 pm
Ok so I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before... but I have a minor in Entomology and kind of love insects a lot, so I'm going to attempt to make all of my entries insects! Though admittedly, this may fail miserably and I may draw from a pool of all arthropods rather than simply insects...
So for letter A/ April 1:
Diapheromera arizonensis, the Arizona Walking Stick
B... Bed Bug (Cimex lecularis) This is a picture that I took because I had bed bugs last year! YAY (for them being gone that is) so these aren't just any bed bugs... these are MY bed bugs!
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2014 6:05 pm
Eviesee645
but I have a minor in Entomology and kind of love insects a lot, so I'm going to attempt to make all of my entries insects! Though admittedly, this may fail miserably and I may draw from a pool of all arthropods rather than simply insects...
Shouldnt be too hard really? With over 90,000 species of insects named/described in the US alone you could probally do insects from just there if you wanted to XD.
but I have a minor in Entomology and kind of love insects a lot, so I'm going to attempt to make all of my entries insects! Though admittedly, this may fail miserably and I may draw from a pool of all arthropods rather than simply insects...
Shouldnt be too hard really? With over 90,000 species of insects named/described in the US alone you could probally do insects from just there if you wanted to XD.
Nahhh I think I can manage... I just don't know a ton of the scientific species names off the top of my head (though if you want order names or family names I'm pretty good there). I can probably do common names without cheating at least!
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2014 6:57 pm
Eviesee645
Sagebomb
Eviesee645
but I have a minor in Entomology and kind of love insects a lot, so I'm going to attempt to make all of my entries insects! Though admittedly, this may fail miserably and I may draw from a pool of all arthropods rather than simply insects...
Shouldnt be too hard really? With over 90,000 species of insects named/described in the US alone you could probally do insects from just there if you wanted to XD.
Nahhh I think I can manage... I just don't know a ton of the scientific species names off the top of my head (though if you want order names or family names I'm pretty good there). I can probably do common names without cheating at least!
Yeah there are several species that I dont even know common names of, because when I learn about them I only learnt thier scientific names. But I encourage cheating, because cheating....mean you are researching and learning. And to me that is a good thing.
I have been aliterating my spiders, today I cannot because today is
evarcha culicivora
The only spider which FEEDS ON HUMAN BLOOD
By preferentially feeding on mosquito, which have recently feed on mammals. Its part of where they get thier awesome red colour which helps in mate choice.
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2014 7:10 pm
Eviesee645
these are MY bed bugs!
That does suck, the place I stayed at in jan I found some. I checked everywhere in the room I was in, and did a relative search of the common living area. It was near when I was due to leave, so basically I bombed the areas I knew they were with high level propal alcohol and basically checked and monitored my stuff after I moved, luckily havent seen them since.
But getting getting bed bugs sucks.
Thier method of traumatic insemination is pretty epic though.
That does suck, the place I stayed at in jan I found some. I checked everywhere in the room I was in, and did a relative search of the common living area. It was near when I was due to leave, so basically I bombed the areas I knew they were with high level propal alcohol and basically checked and monitored my stuff after I moved, luckily havent seen them since.
But getting getting bed bugs sucks.
Thier method of traumatic insemination is pretty epic though.
XD yes traumatic insemination I would say is second best in insect sex only to the endophallus of bees (but I'm a little biased and love bees most of all)
Yeah they're not so hard to avoid if you know you've been exposed, but pretty easy to get if you're not paying attention. Honestly I got really lucky because I found one of the bed bugs before the infestation had gotten too too bad
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