The Importance, Effects, and Ethics of Bird Collecting

[摘要] Birds elicit strong positive emotions from a wide variety of people, including collectors. Thus, there will always be some friction between those who support scientific bird collecting and those who oppose it. Collectors make cost—benefit decisions during the process of collecting. Yet they often face criticisms with little or no biological merit from opponents who may not appreciate (or may be overly dismissive of) the benefits of collections and specimen-based science in relation to the usually minimal costs to bird populations. Bird collecting should always be done legally and ethically. When these standards are followed, the scientific gains achieved by collecting and the potential benefits for bird conservation will outweigh the ecological or demographic loss of a small number of individuals in a population. Consequently, collecting should elicit minimal negative reactions from critics and the public at large. Although there are legal frameworks governing specimen collection, there is no ready checklist of actions one must undertake to ensure that collecting is always performed ethically. Situations vary tremendously, and decisions about collecting must be made on a case-by-case basis. Thus, rather than consider a series of case studies, we summarize the key factors involved in decisions on the scientific collecting of birds and consider a broader ethical landscape of the issues. We believe this focus will be useful for collectors and their institutions, for permitting agencies and institutional committees, for conservationists, and for the concerned public.

[学科分类] 动物科学