Biologist Chris Filardi had been waiting for more than twenty years to catch sighting of the elusive moustached kingfisher, a bird species that, while not rare, has only been glimpsed a handful of times in the last hundred years. It has never been photographed, until now.
Filardi and his team were on a survey mission in the jungles of Guadalcanal, the largest island in the Soloman Islands Chain, when they heard the distinctive call of the kingfisher. They caught a flash of bright blue and the briefest glimpse of the shy bird and were certain it was a moustached kingfisher. The bird sports distinctive and vibrant blue feathers and facial markings. The team kept a watchful eye and ear out for their target, and were rewarded a few days later when they captured a healthy male specimen, photographing the species for the very first time. These birds are not endangered or threatened but they are very difficult to find. They nest in holes in the ground and are only active at dawn and dusk, flitting in and out of sight so quickly that they are nicknamed the ghost kingfisher.
But what started as a triumph of scientific discovery quickly became awash in backlash. With permission from the local community, Filardi euthanized the bird to bring the specimen back home for further study. The scientific community was now divided. Rather than applauding the discovery, there was derision over the idea of “killing for conservation” versus the value of the information to be gathered from a specimen. To defray public outcry, Filardi released an editorial piece defending his decision.
“This was not a trophy hunt,” the scientist stresses. “Though sightings and information about the bird are rare in the ornithological community, the bird itself is not. Elders of the local land-owning tribe (now living at lower elevations) relate stories of eating Mbarikuku, the local name for the bird; our local partners knew it as unremarkably common. With a remote range so difficult to access, there has been a perception of rarity because so few outside people or scientists have seen or otherwise recorded the bird. As I wrote from the field, this is a bird that is poorly known and elusive to western science—not rare or in imminent danger of extinction.”
Despite this line of logic, this event has again called to the forefront the long raging debate over killing animals for research purposes, whether or not its status is endangered.
Image via Wikipedia
