Seriously. I mean, who goes on a vacation of a lifetime through New Zealand and decides to not only illegally shoot and kill protected bird species but also posts a video of the killings on Youtube? There are some Norwegian tourists who are in some major trouble…
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
Yes, but like most idiots, they hurt more than themselves with their idiocy. Bastards!
I’m guessing that perhaps they got confused… hunting holidays here are popular as tourists can’t shoot enough introduced species.
I’m amused that the Minister for Conservation was “outraged” though, coming less than a week after Forest and Bird leaked government plans to open up more National Parks to mining (and our Prime Minister declared that the opposition to such a move was “hysteria”). Clearly these tourists should have mined the kereru to death.
Hard to believe that hunters would misbehave. I’d always got the impression from comments on this blog that hunters are stand-up guys (how many women – as a percentage of the total – actually hunt, I wonder) with a passion for conservation. And why wouldn’t they let their hunter mates see what they got up to: surely enthusiasts the world over would like a chance to see what their mates kill after a few beers and too much sun? What’s a pigeon anyway if not a feathered target – as the hunting lobbyists say, it’s just a few birds, why the fuss?
Other than that – spot on, Wren!
Duncan: And made concessions to the IWC with respect to hunting whales (eg http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/new-zealands-pm-supports-some-whaling-20100322-qos7.html)…. Shame that NZ is in danger of losing its ‘green’ reputation.
Hunters are just as capable of pulling stupid crap as anyone else. There was a case a few years back here in New Zealand where a hunting group claimed that it would release stoats and possums on vital conservation islands if certain introduced hunting species were entirely eliminated. It only takes a few of these morons to discredit a whole group. Hunters are generally well regarded here in New Zealand, and poaching of threatened native species is generally very rare.
As for the whaling thing….I’m torn personally. I’d sooner no whaling happened, but since nothing we do seems to make a dent on the Japanese, I’d sooner they hunted Minkies in their own waters than Humpies down here. Moreover, I suspect a lot of the intransigence is a reaction to being told what to do. Whaling would probably have died a natural death by now had it not been tied into a perverse nationalistic “we’ll show them” kind of thing. By allowing Japan to save face, we might actually hasten the decline of whaling in that country, and that is perhaps something worth striving for.
Hi Duncan. I’m afraid have to disagree with you on the whole ‘saving face’ thing. Sections of the Japanese fishing industry just want to kill whales regardless: they couldn’t care less about saving face, they care about profit. Once we allow whaling we’re opening the floodgates, letting the genie out of the bottle etc etc. If they kill this many whales when they can’t, imagine how many they’ll kill when the rest of world says it’s okay…
The Japanese government subsidises the whaling industry to keep it afloat, to the tune of 12 million dollars a year, allowing it to break even. They also instituted a policy of whale meat in schools so that the stuff would get eaten. Without the government support, which is motivated by a contrariness/desire to save face, there would be much less whaling, not more. The market isn’t there, thus the government has to interfere.
Now, it is possible that if they were hunting around Japan the lower costs would render the problem moot. I haven’t read about that. But the current solution isn’t working very well.
This is probably not a typical example, but I once met a hunter in New Zealand who had turned his entire hunting attention to feral cats and opossums. His motto was, “Kill a opossum, save a bird.” And he often said, “The next time you see a small rodent (or marsupial) crossing the road and get urge to swerve, don’t.” Pretty cool guy.
People swerve to hit them….