Last Song for Migrating Birds
Sep. 4th, 2013 08:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzLast night I read a very disturbing article in the National Geographic Magazine I buy my dad (and get subsequently given after he's read them). I know that humans can be cruel and shortsighted, but this article was truly shocking. It offered an insight in the dangerous journey songbirds from Europe undertake and how they are hunted in countries like Egypt, Albania and other countries surrounding the Meditteranean sea. Italian hunters cross over to Albania, where they have free game. Nets are hung from the first trees in a hot desert, and thousands of birds, some protected by law in Europe because they're endangered, are killed, sold and eaten.
Please go to the National Geographic website to read this article.
"February 2012 brought eastern Europe its coldest weather in 50 years. Geese that normally winter in the Danube Valley flew south to escape it, and some 50,000 of them descended on the plains of Albania, starving and exhausted. Every one of them was exterminated. Men using shotguns and old Russian Kalashnikovs mowed them down, while women and children carried the carcasses into towns for sale to restaurants. Many of the geese had been banded by researchers to the north; one hunter told me he’d seen a band from Greenland. Although nobody in Albania is going hungry, the country has one of the lowest per capita incomes in Europe. The unusual influx of saleable geese was literally a windfall for local farmers and villagers."
From: Last Song for Migrating Birds, National Geograpic Magazine.
I can't even begin to imagine the ecological consequences of killing so many birds, many of whom are endangered. We see their numbers dwindling more and more. And the only thing I miss in the article is a society I can contact and offer them my help.
Is it worth writing to European politicians to? I think so. But where to start? I think it will be a hard battle, and perhaps the damage has already been done.
Please go to the National Geographic website to read this article.
"February 2012 brought eastern Europe its coldest weather in 50 years. Geese that normally winter in the Danube Valley flew south to escape it, and some 50,000 of them descended on the plains of Albania, starving and exhausted. Every one of them was exterminated. Men using shotguns and old Russian Kalashnikovs mowed them down, while women and children carried the carcasses into towns for sale to restaurants. Many of the geese had been banded by researchers to the north; one hunter told me he’d seen a band from Greenland. Although nobody in Albania is going hungry, the country has one of the lowest per capita incomes in Europe. The unusual influx of saleable geese was literally a windfall for local farmers and villagers."
From: Last Song for Migrating Birds, National Geograpic Magazine.
I can't even begin to imagine the ecological consequences of killing so many birds, many of whom are endangered. We see their numbers dwindling more and more. And the only thing I miss in the article is a society I can contact and offer them my help.
Is it worth writing to European politicians to? I think so. But where to start? I think it will be a hard battle, and perhaps the damage has already been done.
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