Mon, 10/12/2015 - 10:59am
Seth Augenstein, Digital Reporter
Researchers were traveling through the dense forest of the Pacific island of Guadalcanal. They heard a familiar call, and they saw a bird with a blue and gold plumage. It was a bird Chris Filardi and his team had been searching for, for 20 years.
The scientists set up a net, trapping the Moustached Kingfisher – a “gorgeous, strong and raucous male.” They photographed it. Then they killed it – to “collect” it as a specimen.
In the days since the announcement of the discovery of the bird – the first-ever sighting of a male variety of the bird – there has been an outcry about the euthanizing of the bird. The response has been so intense that Filardi has responded at length to justify his collection of the “specimen,” through an Audubon Society publication.
“This was not a ‘trophy hunt,’” wrote Filardi, director of Pacific Programs for the American Museum of Natural History’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation. “Collecting the kingfisher and other biological specimens were team decisions made in the broader context of this work. Nonetheless, I feel it is important for me to personally articulate why I collected this particular specimen.”
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