Date: Sat, 25 Oct 2003 18:28:15 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Christian Kessler Subject: Re: Demise of Ivory Gull? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit your statement that you do not know the "why" of it is very important and appropriate. there is quite a literature on why some of the native people might respond in such a perverse way. in addition to the crude and intrusive [and sometimes destructive] behavior of some birders, there is the history. one especially good book [by an Athabascan Indian rather than an Inuit] is "Shadows on the Koyukuk -- An Alaskan Native's Life Along the River" by Sidney Huntington. and you did not imply this, but they are not what is driving the Ivory Gull to extinction. which is what the article in Science is about. Bob Mumford wrote: >Just for the record, and a little evidence about native "hunters," when >I was on Gamble ten or twelve years ago, the natives shot and killed at >least five ivory gulls around their dump for the pure perversity of it. >We were told that they didn't like the "invasion" of birders, so shot >rare birds to annoy them. They were not eating the gulls or the other >birds (like wood sandpiper and McKays bunting). > >I don't the truth, obviously, of the "why," but I photographed five >gunshot killed ivories in one day up there. I was tempted to send >dupes to the USF&WS until I realized nothing would come of it. > >Bob Mumford >Darnestown > >======================================================================= >To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com >with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey >======================================================================= > ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================