Scientist Takes First-Ever Photo of Rare Bird, Then Kills It in the Name of Science

HarleyK

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When Chris Filardi, director of Pacific Programs at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, was finally holding the elusive Guadalcanal moustached kingfisher, he told Slate writer Rachel Gross, it was like finding a unicorn.

Filardi had been searching for the orange, white, and brilliant-blue bird for more than 20 years, when on a field study in the high forests of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, he finally heard the “ko-ko-ko-ko-kiew” sound of what he described as the unmistakable call of a large kingfisher.

After days of tracking, he and his colleagues captured a male moustached kingfisher in a mist net.

“When I came upon the netted bird in the cool shadowy light of the forest I gasped aloud, ‘Oh my god, the kingfisher,’ one of the most poorly known birds in the world was there, in front of me, like a creature of myth come to life.” Filardi wrote in a Sept. 23 blog post.

The team snapped the first-ever photos of the remarkably photogenic bird and made the first-ever recordings of a male variety of the species (a female was described back in the 1920s).

Then the team killed it.
 

krichardson

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He should have released this one and waited another twenty years until he found another bird to photograph and kill.
 

FMA4ME

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Yeah I was wondering about this being one of the last ones too. He says the call of the bird is unmistakable, makes me think there has to be a few left, either way really stupid to kill it. I wonder if that's common procedure?
 

Chub_by

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It's common to kill the animal and preserve it so there is a holotype for science. I would have left it alone though, or at a push put it in captivity.
 

ExoticGREEN

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freaking photogenic and yet they kill it..... Why not keep it alive and learn of it characteristics.... I guess it is easy to kill then to take care..
 

Warborg

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Funny, I play a farming game that introduces a new animal every month or two and they just recently introduced this bird.
 

HumphreyBear

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I wonder if this is more about the ego of the scientist. He wanted the prestige more than he valued the rare bird being alive.

Compare this to Dr Richard Pyle who captured the rare (or rarely caught) Peppermint Angelfish, then struck a deal where the fish would live out its life at the Waikiki Aquarium, and upon its death would go to the collection of the Smithsonian for study. The fish was valued at up to $30,000 on the open market which makes it an even more remarkable decision from Pyle.

For shame, Chris Filardi...
 
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