In a situation like this, I would normally strongly believe that an apology to Richard Klim, Bird Forum staff, and Bird Forum members was in order. Had I conducted a more expanded search, chances are such that I would not have even commented, would have just sadly gulped and moved on; let alone daring to start a whole new thread on the matter.
Be that as it may, Richard entitled his thread very matter-of-factly, in the Taxonomy and Nomenclature section, whereas the title I used, in the Bird News section, reflected the emotion of outrage. Therein lies the difference. Therein lies the reason why I must stand by my thread and how I introduced it.
I honestly didn’t.., …I honestly couldn’t… …totally believe that the account of the killing of the Moustached Kingfisher, by scientists, was true. I suspected it to be a hoax to turn bird lovers against science or to make some fool look stupid for posting it. Nevertheless, I was very much afraid of looking like a fool for believing a prank, and never even considered looking like a fool for being outraged at the possibility of story to being true.
I have spent much of my life trying to keep birds alive, and another substantial part of it trying to aid them in proliferation. In fact, I tried to keep an unfortunate common species nestling alive this spring for five hectic, sleepless, one-track-minded days and nights, and the sixth morning was met with sheer heartbreak and grief. I am not ashamed about how I feel about this killing.
The following comment, linked to in Richard’s thread, reflects my feelings about the killing.
“2.derekjmatthews
30 Sep 2015 19:10
I am appalled too both as an avian researcher and conservationist! There can be no justification in killing this bird ESPECIALLY once it was captured - photographic evidence was obviously collected and DNA could be collected through a blood sample. What chance does any conservation of a critically endangered species have if the so-called conservationists themselves have so little regard for an individual of the species. What possible justification can there be for killing this bird? There should be an outcry and demand for an explanation from the research and birding community!! Derek Matthews - Vancouver Avian Research Centre, Vancouver, BC, Canada”
http://www.birdwatch.co.uk/channel/newsitem.asp?c=11&cate=__16088
To be fair, I endeavored to really see the other side.., the other point of view.., the for-science thing; and I do understand and appreciate what Mysticete relayed to us in Richard’s thread:
“While I don't work on birds, I can say pretty much all of my research would be impossible without good collections of museum specimens. This in the past has included sampling bone and teeth for stable isotope analysis, coding of qualitative characters of the morphology, and measurements of bones.
This research has focused marine mammals, new specimens of which largely come from local strandings. However I have made use of important collections that were gathered as part of other scientific projects. The series of Caspian, Baikal, and Ringed Seals available in the Tokyo Museum of Nature and Science were critical to my dissertation research, and were all collected in the 1960s as part of research on radiation levels in marine mammals (or something like that). Had the researcher just collected tissue, it's likely my own research results would have been significantly affected, especially since those specimens had complete life history data which is often absent in older museum specimens or stuff that is dead on the beach.”
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=312128
Although I do believe that there is much value in Mysticete’s point of view, I must ask, how often is one man’s dissertation so a great benefit to the world that harmless, beautiful, and rare living things must be killed for that dissertation to be presented? One may disagree, but I say never: not in this day and age.
Further, during my day of searching for information concerning this matter, my eyes were momentarily blinded by the glaring possibility of money motivations, personal achievement motivations, and motivations of elevated status. The mental conception appeared as though my camera and I had tracked the flight of a soaring, gliding Turkey Vulture directly across a northern hemisphere mid-day July sun:
https://eeb.ku.edu/robert-g-moyle . Just scroll down the list, and consider how one could.., …how one might… …become oblivious to the reasons why something became one’s life’s work in the first place. Possibly, compared to one more line on that resume, that bird’s life may not have compared..., …that bird’s life maybe just didn’t matter.
