Folks,

The thread about preyed-upon creatures shrieking reminded me of an
incident many years ago when I was a beginning birder and undergraduate
student at Carson-Newman College in northeastern Tennessee.

Our campus had the usual open lawns like many colleges do; I discovered a
fledgling, not quite able to fly, eastern meadowlark. I was bound and
determined to "rescue" it by catching it and putting it on a tree
branch! It took some doing as the little thing could scuttle pretty fast
and it was shrieking up a storm. I was able to catch it, relatively gently,
and as it lay in my hand exhausted and still cheeping, it DIED.

So, I don't chase fledgling critters anymore; they mis-interpret our good
intentions, and our efforts may frighten them to death. Enough said.

Maureen E. Ellis (Univ of WA, Seattle, WA; me2 at u.washington.edu)
*********************************************************************



On Thu, 21 Dec 1995, Lisa M. Smith wrote:

> Aaaaaccckkk! You guys! This talk about distressed animals is beginning
> to make me uncomfortable. Call me an AR-extremist sympathizer if you
> will, but no "innocent anchors" on the Tweeters page, please! ;-)
>
> Joking aside, I do have some comments about the scenario in which the
> mammalogist Sandy "harassed" the baby rabbit by gently poking its belly
> while Chris taped its screams. I don't know the exact circumstances of
> that particular scenario, but it sounds rather cruel to me. It sounds to
> me as though there are enough tapes available of terrorized rabbits
> without having to scare another animal half to death. (I wonder if those
> commercial tapes were made under similar circumstances.) I don't see the
> point of "harassing" animals in this way, especially for what sounds to
> me like human amusement.
>
> Would someone please tell me more about such tapes? I'd not known before
> these latest posts that such things exist.
>
> ---Lisa
>
> ____________________________________________________
> Lisa M. Smith, Seattle WA <subplot at u.washington.edu>
>
>