Madhu:
I, too, back then, was outraged about the death of a condor chick in the
wild at the hands of USFWS personnel, and I picked up the phone and called
Amadeo Rea, curator of birds and mammals at the San Diego Natural History
Museum. "What's GOING ON out there, Amadeo--why don't they just leave those
poor creatures alone?" Well, maybe that's not exactly what I said, but it's
probably close.
"Hang on a minute, Wayne," said Amadeo, "let me tell you a few things." My
self-righteous rant was soon converted into doing what I could to help the
captive breeding program in its battle to bring the remaining 22 (or was it
27 at the time?) birds in before the gene pool was further diminished, and
atone, to some extent, for my indifferent certainty.
I took a month off and did nothing but try to bring myself up to speed on
the condor issue, including interviewing the key researchers.
I was an Audubon "member" (dues payer), and could soon see that much of what
I had been getting in the mail was, well, rather impure propaganda.
I wrote Op-Ed articles for the New York Times and the San Francisco
Chronicle, making the case for bringing all of the wild birds into
captivity. Many other newspapers all over the country carried the NYT piece.
I also got some videographers together and "filmed" some of the meetings.
I also had a contract with Audubon at the time. Coincidentally, it was
dropped.
If one lives, if one has one's mind pried open by a patient friend, one
grows--and keeps on growing.
Thank you, Madhu, for an excellent story. For over 55 years my personal
motto and mission in life has been to reconcile the needs and works of
humankind with those of the earth and its life. It is very satisfying to
learn that I am not alone in my quest.
WT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Madhusudan Katti" <mka...@csufresno.edu>
To: <ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, September 05, 2009 11:22 PM
Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Reconciliation Ecology: El Condor Pasa
Greetings Eco-loggers,
September 5th, 2009 was International Vulture Awareness Day. As part
of this event, there was an effort to get people to blog collectively
about Vultures. I would like to share with folks on this list, my own
contribution to the blogathon:
http://reconciliationecology.blogspot.com/2009/09/el-condor-pasa.html
Feel free to leave your own thoughts upon reading this.
regards,
Madhu
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Madhusudan Katti
Assistant Professor
Department of Biology, M/S SB73
California State University, Fresno
2555 E. San Ramon Ave.
Fresno, CA 93740-8034
559.278.2460
leafwarb...@gmail.com
http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~mkatti
http://www.fresnobirds.org/
http://www.valleycafesci.org/
http://reconciliationecology.blogspot.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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