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Stuffed Birds should be banned (1 Viewer)

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willowa

Well-known member
I think that stuffed birds should be banned from appearing on a forum like this.
Especialy exotic typs.
 
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willowa said:
I think that stuffed birds should be banned from appearing on a forum like this.
Especialy exotic typs.
Click to expand...
A huge amount of what we know about birds comes from specimens and pretty much every field guide is painted from them. It is definately a contentious issue that has been discussed on this forum a lot and I have my own reservations about some of the indiscriminate collecting that is done, but its hard to argue against the value of using collections that have already been made. For me, they are a very useful resource.
On the second point, for an international forum such as this, no bird is really an exotic.

Tom
 
As I am new to this forum I did not know this has been aired before.

I mean the type of stuffed birds that are taken from the wild and being endangerd as a result.
As the majority of people on here are bird lovers. And care what happens to the birds It seems to me, to be in bad taste to put stuffed birds on this forum.
 
what about Christmas!


nope, can't say I'm for a ban on extant collections/skins .. for reasons already highlighted above ... though obviously encouraging it for all the family wouldn't be a good thing

edit: sorry, I see you meant on this forum ... can't see the prob myself as long as it's not gratuitous
 
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Tim Allwood said:
i presume museum specimens are excluded from 'stuffed' birds?

when was the last stuffed bird pic posted?

Tim
Click to expand...


Yeah, was getting a bit concerned too ...reckon Willowa had a look at my woodpecker picture from yesterday - it really is puffed out 'cos of the cold, honest guv!
 
I've just seen the thread willowa is referring to, and I agree 100% in this case.

A member (perhaps joining for the purpose) had ask for id of a stuffed bird-of-paradise, posting photos of the same.

I think there is a place for discussion of the topic, and acknowledgement of the role specimens have played in ornithology, but I think that kind of request under those circumstances should be outlawed.

The thread has been handled well by the respondants, including another PNG member, to be fair, but I'll send a copy of this to the mods to see if they feel any action is required.
 
So the guy bought a stuffed Bird of Paradise and he wanted to know what species it was and he even had the nerve to put it on the forum. Big deal. We told him it was illegal to own it and quite gracefully he apologized. That's decent enough for me.
I'm the greatest admirer of Birds of Paradise in the Eastern Hemisphere and I wasn't in the least offended by the photographs. I would like to see an end in the trade of these mounted specimens, but that's a different thing.
 
Hi Dave

i think there s something to be said for giving the guy an id and then discussing the problems faced by endangered birds.

I don't know the history of that specimen but engaging the guy has to be more positive than 'banning' the topic

'banning' things just delays their acceptance and wastes valuable time
 
Why did he want to know how much the bird is worth. I belive he thinks he can make some money from it.
After all that is what this it is all about.
 
Hypothetically - one day you are looking through the collection of specimens at Tring and you find a bird that you don't recognise that was collected in 1885 in, say, Madagascar. You check the lieterature and think that it might be a new species for science (not beyond the bounds of possibility by any means). You need to contact an expert from the region and other experts that are familiar with the group. I can't think of many places that are better for such things than this forum. Your discovery could have important conservation value if the species is found to still exist at the same location. To me, that is exactly the kind of thing that birdforum is here for. I know that this is probably an extreme example, but important discoveries are made all the time in old collections and the findings need to be discussed. I agree that we have to draw the line somewhere and that we shouldn't be enouraging specimen collection today, but a blanket ban on showing photos of skins would be a big mistake in my opinion.

Tom
 
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