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Acclimatisation Societies of New Zealand

10,000 Birds

New Zealand has a very odd biota these days. There are the endemics, which are odd in their own way, and then there introduced species, which are so varied in their type and origin that you get the feeling you’ve arrived at the aftermath of a small zoo that escaped. First of all they wanted useful species.

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Mana from Heaven

10,000 Birds

One of only two species in the plover genus Thinornis , the other being Australia’s Hooded Plover , this species is another New Zealand endemic. Until recently the species certainly only hung on to existence on two small islands in that group, but this distribution is an artefact of a long decline.

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Lost Animals: Extinction and the Photographic Record: A Book Review

10,000 Birds

The idea of Lost Animals was conceived after the publication of Extinct Birds (2001), a 400-page, four-pound book on 75 extinct species. Lost Birds looks at photographic representations of 28 species, 21 of which are birds. Some were taken of birds and mammals in zoos or aviaries, others were taken in the wild, often in remote places.

Animal 270
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Do introduced species count?

10,000 Birds

Even the most free-wheeling of birders don’t usually consider going to a zoo or a chicken farm a form of birding, but just because they choose to distinguish doesn’t mean they keep a list. As for introduced or reintroduced species it would only count if it was third generation reintroduced. Counts for what, exactly?

Species 183
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When conservation and animal rights collide

10,000 Birds

Wildlife conservation is concerned with protecting wildlife at the level of species or perhaps population. With the exception of species that number in the hundreds, conservation biologists are not as concerned with the fates of individual animals, it is only when such fates of many individuals are added up do they begin to worry.

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Collaborative List – July 2019

10,000 Birds

During July, 11 beats birded 11 countries (USA, UK, Australia, Spain, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Japan, UAE, Mexico, China and Saudi Arabia) and submitted 82 checklists. They accounted for 562 species at this sluggish time of year. Durand-Eastman Park–Zoo Rd. Durand-Eastman Park–Zoo Rd. 09 Jul 2019.

2019 121
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Greater Rheas: Germany’s new Big Bird

10,000 Birds

Greater Rheas, a species the Germans call Nandu, are very popular in Germany and frequently kept in zoos as well as private enclosures. They know where New Zealand is, have heard of Emeral Ash Borers and are aware who is wreaking havoc on island sea bird colonies and elsewhere. Now, German ecologists aren’t stupid.

Germany 255