At 09:41 PM 10/6/97 -0700, Don wrote:
>At 09:15 PM 10/6/97 -0700, you wrote:
>
>Though I don't have Gene's specific info, it has always been my
>understanding that they aren't native. Peggi, can you provide more
details? Since you have
>one foot in rehab and another here in tweeters, hopefully you won't be
offended by
>my observation that I've seen arguments that certain species (not turkeys,
others) are
>native offered by AR folks (who are common in the rehab world) without any
real evidence
>(mountain goats in Oly NP are a good example), but with the real intent of
getting them
>treated as native species regardless.

Ah, Don, you've opened a major can of worms! In fact, this has been a big
source of debate between myself (and other rehabbers in the states) and (for
me personally) Oregon Fish & Wildlife. You see, they consider species like
pheasants, turkeys, Bobwhites and other game animals to be "indigenous" for
purposes of maintaining population size and,hence, hunting. Nevermind that
the pheasant came from China, the turkey from the east coast (unless the
info in my previous post proves out) etc. However, if you go to release
oppossums (no anti-possum threads, please - this is by way of example) they
tell you these are not native animals so cannot be released on public land.
Hummmmm.

So, because I was in charge of locating release sites on public lands, I
asked them what made one introduced species indigenous and the other not?
Obviously they had no answer.

I do, though. Money.

Peg
Ben & Peggi Rodgers
Aptos, CA (near Santa Cruz 122 W, 37 N)
USA
woodduck at cruzio.com
http://www2.cruzio.com/~woodduck/


"A bird does not sing because it has an answer,
It sings because it has a song"