The Three-Minute Outdoorsman: Wild Science from Magnetic Deer to Mumbling Carp

45. Hunters and Conservationists at Odds over Shooting Shorebirds

A N I M A L S A N D U S 177 45 hunters and conservationists at odds over shooting shorebirds The ornithological community was up in arms recently over the shooting of two large shorebirds, called Whimbrels, on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, in French West Indies. Of course the question is, how would ornithologists know this even occurred? The answer is that both birds had been outfitted with satellite transmitters two years ago by scientists at the Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary (the project also involves collaborations with the Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program, and the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences). The island of Guadeloupe has a small but dedicated group of resident shorebird hunters. Each fall they shoot fairly large numbers of shorebirds, including Lesser Yellowlegs, Pectoral Sandpipers , Stilt Sandpipers, Short-billed Dowitchers, Greater Yellowlegs, and American Golden-Plover. These species all occur in Minnesota regularly during spring and/or fall migration. Shorebirds were once hunted extensively in the United States both by sportsmen and market hunters. They are considered excellent table fare. I described earlier how the take by market hunters, not sportsmen, likely led to the extinction of the Eskimo Curlew, another large shorebird, and to large declines in other species, such as the American Golden-Plover. George MacKay from Nantucket Island kept detailed records of how many shorebirds they harvested each fall, and how this number kept diminishing . At the same time, huge numbers of these same birds were shipped by the barrelful from the center of the country, where they were taken by market hunters during spring migration. This almost certainly led to the extinction of the Eskimo Curlew (and similarly, the Passenger Pigeon). t h e t h r e e - m i n u t e o u t d o o r s m a n 178 The two Whimbrels shot were on their southward migration , when they apparently were pushed off course by Tropical Storm Maria, taking them to Guadeloupe, where they typically don’t stop over in fall. The ornithologists studying the birds had given them names (Machi and Goshen). This of course heightens the possibility of their attaching too much emotional significance to the birds’ demise. But what the ornithologists had learned so far was pretty remarkable. Machi was first caught and banded in Virginia in August 2009. During the next two years Machi traveled over twenty-seven thousand miles (that alone would qualify her for a free trip on some airlines), including seven nonstop flights of more than two thousand miles. These feats were part of her yearly trips from the breeding grounds near Hudson Bay and her wintering quarters in São Luís, Brazil. The satellite track showed that Machi made a long arc around Tropical Storm Maria, which brought her to her fateful visit to Guadeloupe. The hunter that shot her noticed the radio antenna protruding from behind her, and the bands on her legs. He turned the bird in to a wildlife biologist, who reported it, which alerted the ornithological community. A few days later, Goshen’s satellite transmitter stopped moving in a swamp in central Guadeloupe. The wildlife officer drove out to the swamp to ask hunters to stop hunting out of concern they would kill her too. Although her remains were apparently not turned in, clearly he was too late. Only a handful of other birds have transmitters (owing to their high cost), and this loss was a big blow to the project. Much more could have been learned from the two Whimbrels , and their deaths were unfortunate. However, shorebird hunting is legal in Guadeloupe (and a couple of neighboring islands, such as Martinique). The species is also hunted in Thailand . So these hunters were not villains, no more so than someone who shoots a radio-collared bear or wolf. However, a widely circulated YouTube video of these hunts raises the possibility that the birds were not being used for food, which violates at least my ethic that if you shoot it, you eat it. In the video the hunting A N I M A L S A N D U S 179 almost looked more like practice for the retriever. However, just one hunter was featured, and I have no idea what is behind...