Subject: Re: Spotted Owl reaction
Date: Nov 21 14:31:06 1998
From: Don Baccus - dhogaza at pacifier.com


At 12:43 PM 11/21/98 -0800, Nigel Ball wrote:
>Russell (and others) are right, of course. However, if that was the reason,
>then the statement that the capture was to check the bird's health was less
>than honest.

Well, not necessarily. There are two parts to the question:

1) do you capture it to assess it's health? Personally, I think this was a
reasonable thing to do, as we have little data, perhaps no data (anyone no?)
on the health of spotted owl kids that wander far, far from the beaten path,
and given its endangered status, if the owl were ill giving it care seems
justifiable.

Would the public have been happy if the owl had been left alone, then found
starved a week later? Seattle's peregrines are healthy and raise young, a
dead spotty would hardly be a public mascot to brag about in comparison with
the pride of Seattle bird life.

2) once captured, where do you release it? With most species, you might just
do a quick check on the bird - weight will tell you if the bird's been hunting
successfully, you can look for parasites, etc - then just toss the bird.

But ... I can understand why, once the decision was made to check on the
bird's health and to give it vetinary care if necessary, WDF&W would choose
to relocate it elsewhere. The reasons tossed around here, i.e. the likelihood
that some bozo might shoot it, it might get hit by a car, etc are strong
arguments
for releasing it in more reasonable habitat once question #1 is answered in
the affirmative.

So their statement that "we took it in to check its health" can be entirely
honest and the true reason why they brought the bird in, while common sense
does
make me, at least, think that after having decided to do so it made no sense
to re-release it next to a busy road. Doesn't refute their statement as to
why they brought it in at all.



- Don Baccus, Portland OR <dhogaza at pacifier.com>
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