Unni: Dear Ajay and friends, Well presented text indeed! While agreeing to many of your thoughts, I have a few points to put forward.
"Thank you for responding on this serious issue in conservation studies today. Let us make this an opportunity to critically understand the ecological and ethical problems involved in practices like rearing and playing the calls to attract birds and frogs in the field." Unni: Welcome, and need of the times. "Rearing is a direct human intervention in the natural reproductive process. A lot of eggs and larvae are lost and damaged in the handling, plucking and transportation and re-rooting to and in the studios/human homes. There is also a drastic change in the natural environment for the egg which may cause genetic variations or mutations. In this lesser perceived perspective it is an aggression and violence on a living thing and its fundamental right to take birth and develop in this world unhindered by the encroachments of another species." Unni: The often-forgotten truth is that, in nature's best of conditions, more than 80% of eggs, larvae and pupae are lost due to many factors like predation, food deprivation, or habitat loss. In the hands of a least careful entomologist / photographer, the loss is never more than 30% in my experience. That means the egg to adult conversion rate is more in the artificial environment. "By exposing to or keeping away from sun light or artificial light the 'expert' may even change the time and cycle of rearing which again is a direct manipulation and alteration of the organic rhythm and poise of nature. Such intervention may cause serious ecological impacts about which we do not have sufficient knowledge at present. Forcing for premature hatching or delaying it is an unethical and sadistic practice anyway." Unni: I have personally reared many species of butterflies with high success rate, and ALL adults have found their way back to their natural habitat. None of them showed any countable degree of variation in pupation and hatching. I have never done forceful premature hatching, and I do not think anyone would do it, because fatality or handicaps are very high, and no one would like to get a handicapped adult from his painful work of several weeks. "The rearing enthusiasts use a lot of artificial paraphernalia like special glass containers, sugar solution, artificial plants or stands or reflectors or background setters to get the ideal image. Their eye is in the capturing of the perfect image rather than in providing the conducive rearing atmosphere for the little being. In short it is actually a fetish or perversion of the occult sort. There is an erotic desire and pleasure principle in the close watch and shoot. Imagine birders trying to hatch the eggs of birds at home." Unni: You are right. Many use artificial materials. But I do not think that this materials could harm the adult or the immature to any degree more than what it would get exposed to in its unprotected natural environs. I know of any one who kills the adult/immature after photographs are made. In fact I was, like many of us, drawn to Nature and conservation activities only on seeing the breathtaking beauty of butterflies and birds through the magnificent photographs made by masters in the field. Photography has only helped, though indirectly, any species of organism in nature by providing an opportunity to know, appreciate and get overwhelmed by its life, and science, from a much closer point of vision. It is not perversion, but a desire for perfection. "The most unethical trend is the race to break records in rearing. The hatching maniacs boast about the numbers and species they have successfully reared. There is game like craving to hit the records and break the figures in the lethal game. In this mad race they are not even providing adequate and apt food plants or optimum atmosphere for the larvae and eggs. That is why it ceases to be science and becomes a bio-crime." Unni: Yet to find a 'hatching maniac' who is trying to break records, really. We must remember that we came to know the plant-butterfly interaction or interdependence primarily from the rearing activities in the past. Now we know which butterfly depends on which plants, critically helping conservation planning, especially in the case of endangered species. I request to you look at things more positively. We HAVE TO do more work to find out life-stages and host plants of many more species!! "Regarding emotion in conservation I could only say that we are in conservation not for its own sake but for the sustenance and survival of our own species as we are precariously depended on the survival of many other little beings and even lifeless things. We cherish conservation because we are sensitive rather than insensitive and emotional rather than un-emotional to the problems of our environment. We do conservation because we are emotionally and ethically committed to our posterity and all living beings at large. This close affiliation to life and ecology is basically an emotional and organic bond that connects all living and even inanimate objects in the universe. We talk about care, love, conservation, ethics and politics because we are human and emotional basically. Our emotions arouse thoughts and control our intelligence. Thinking and intelligence that lack human warmth and sense of justice that are basically emotional degrades into something like rearing the plucked eggs in a studio to break records or playing the calls from a hi-fi handset to conjure birds in vein for a handful of dollars." Unni: Well said. I do not know, and cannot comment on "playing the calls from a hi-fi handset to conjure birds in vein for a handful of dollars." I have no experience in this field. Let us make our conservation efforts more ethical, compassionate, organic and humane with due respects to the web of life and the pulsations and autonomy of nature. Unni: SURE. WE HAVE TO. THE PASSION SHOULD IGNITE MORE FIRE INSIDE. Again, I loved your text. Happiness to you! unni www.imagery.in ................................................. Dr.Unni Krishnan Pulikkal ARPS Pady P.O., Kodaly, Thrissur Dt., Kerala, India PIN.680699 Cell: 9446508102 Res: +91 480 2740735 ................................................. The Butterfly Art Foundation, India www.bafindia.org ................................................. On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 11:47 PM, Kishen Das <[email protected]>wrote: > > > He might have got influenced by what people talk in his group. > In general there are few groups in Kerala that doesn't appreciate any work > done outside their group and they tend to spread rumours and talk crap about > others. > So, I think we should simply ignore such groups or people from such > groups !!! > > Even after being in the company of humble person like Balakrishnan Valapil, > who himself rears lot of butterflies, I cannot under this kind of reaction > to "Butterfly rearing". > > People in US are becoming concerned about increased rearing of > Monarch butterflies and its influence on Wild Monarchs. > But over here(US) there are thousands of people who rear them, unlike 5 - > 10 people spread across various Southern states in India. > > Kishen > > On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 9:35 AM, satyendra tiwari <[email protected]>wrote: > >> >> >> >> Unni ji, >> thanks for sending the link. >> I will say people still need to learn the basics. His negative comments >> are probably the negative work he saw in the past. >> Satyendra >> Satyendra K.Tiwari >> Wildlife Photographer, Naturalist & Tour Leader >> H.No 129, P.O.Tala. Distt Umaria M.P. India >> Pin code 484-661 >> Tel. No. 07627-265309 day time phone only >> >> --- On *Mon, 28/2/11, Unni Pulikkal <[email protected]>* wrote: >> >> >> From: Unni Pulikkal <[email protected]> >> Subject: [ButterflyIndia] Criticism about rearing of butterflies >> To: [email protected] >> Date: Monday, 28 February, 2011, 10:43 PM >> >> >> >> Dear friends, >> I found this link in the Yahoo group "Kerala Birder" >> There is an interesting section, rather silly, on rearing of butterflies. >> >> http://ajaysekher.net/2011/02/27/mysterious-migration-local-exodus-common-albatross-aralam/ >> >> I have expressed my views in the group: >> >> *"Dear Ajay,* >> >> *Happy to see your pictures and notes.* >> >> *But I am not convinced about your criticism on rearing of butterflies.* >> >> *Can you explain how "it intervenes in the autonomy and ecological rhythm >> of nature"?* >> >> *What are "its environmental consequences" ?* >> >> *I do not think that what pro/amateur entomologists have done in the >> field so far is "sustained sadism of the occult and obscurantist sort". * >> >> *The acquired knowledge in the field has only helped conservation >> activities. There is no record of extinction of a species, not even genuine >> threat, solely due to collection or rearing activities of any genuine >> nature. It is welcome to put forward criticism of any kind. But you are >> bound to explain it logically with clear points to support it, without just >> beating around the bush and falling prey to emotional discordance. An empty >> display of negativist vocabulary will not help either."* >> >> >> Any words from your side? >> >> >> Happiness to you! >> unni >> www.imagery.in >> ................................................. >> Dr.Unni Krishnan Pulikkal ARPS >> Pady P.O., Kodaly, Thrissur Dt., >> Kerala, India PIN.680699 >> Cell: 9446508102 >> Res: +91 480 2740735 >> ................................................. >> The Butterfly Art Foundation, India >> www.bafindia.org >> ................................................. >> >> >> > > -- Enjoy
