MOVE TO PROTECT BIRDS

Southland Times, Issue 23987, 30 November 1939, Page 4

MOVE TO PROTECT BIRDS

AMERICAN INVESTIGATION New Zealand is only one of many countries where there is a growing movement to safeguard the rights of the general public in the enjoyment of bird-life. This subject is thoughtfully reviewed in 4 ‘Bird Lore,” published by the American National Association of Audubon Societies (says a statement issued by the Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand). . “Fishermen have had it in for fisheating birds from time immemorial,” states the director of the American Association, which has made a helpful investigation. “The association’s field work on killing of fish-eating birds involved a survey of fish hatcheries all through the north-eastern states. Practically every government and private hatchery received a visit—2o6 establishments in all. “Except at a few ponds, the killing of birds was freely admitted, and the results are in some cases almost unbelievable. One hatcheryman reports 135 great blue herons killed in a single year, another 300 kingfishers. A single hatchery accounted for the deaths of between 500 and 1000 birds annually. Of all the sufferers, the grand old osprey appears to be the greatest. When one hatchery reports having killed as high as 16 ospreys a day, it is not surprising that this stately creature had declined 75 per cent, in numbers in the last 15 years along its inland migration route.

“The answer, of course, is screened ponds and raceways. This is the procedure that the association has been advocating all along. Screening with chicken wire or parallel single strands of galvanized iron wire was found to be entirely practicable for all but a very few of the fish-rearing ponds now in use. In the hatcheries where such screening has been installed, it has, of course, not been necessary to kill a single bird. More, the saving in fish, in

time of men waiting to shoot the birds, and in costs of ammunition and guns, has amounted in most cases to enough and more than the maintenance and depreciation on screening to justify the investment as a distinct economy.” Similar killing of kingfishers—a “protected” bird —occurred some years ago at the trout hatcheries in the Masterton district. Instead of screening the ponds —an easy process—employees of the local Acclimatization Society shot the beautiful birds.