Collecting animals for research and scientific study

[Guest guest]

Dear Dr Krishna,

I just read your response to Mr Dharma Rajan

who has defended killing animals for scientific study. Unfortunately Mr

Dharma Rajan is not the only scientist defending killing animals for study

and research. The doyen of Indian ornithology, Salim Ali, was an avid hunter

and collector of birds, for study and for sport. He devoted considerable

space to the subject of sport hunting and collecting in his autobiography,

" The Fall of a Sparrow " and considered conservation guided by the ahimsa

principle as misplaced.

 

His appreciation of birds was quite ironical. For instance, take his

disenchantment with taxonomy in a letter to his collaborator Sidney Dillon

Ripley :

 

" My head reels at all these nomenclatural metaphysics! I feel strongly like

retiring from ornithology, if this is the stuff, and spending the rest of my

days in the peace of the wilderness with birds, and away from the dust and

frenzy of taxonomical warfare. I somehow feel complete detachment from all

this, and am thoroughly unmoved by what name one ornithologist chooses to

dub a bird that is familiar to me, and care even less in regard to one that

is unfamiliar ----- The more I see of these subspecific tangles and

inanities, the more I can understand the people who silently raise their

eyebrows and put a finger to their temples when they contemplate the modem

ornithologist in action. " — Ali to Ripley, 5th January, 1956.

 

And compare it with his support for killing birds for research :

 

" For a scientific approach to bird study, it is often necessary to sacrifice

a few, ... (and) I have no doubt that but for the methodical collecting of

specimens in my earlier years - several thousands, alas - it would have been

impossible to advance our taxonomical knowledge of Indian birds ... nor

indeed of their geographic distribution, ecology, and bionomics. "

 

Salim Ali wrote the massive 'Handbook to the Birds of India & Pakistan'.

There are roughly 1200 bird species in the Indian subcontinent. People like

him would shoot at least three specimens of every species, a male, a female

and a juvenile and would repeat the exercise for different regions. Assuming

he shot three specimens of every species he encountered(and assuming he

encountered all the bird species found in India), Salim Ali must have killed

at least 1200 X 3 = 3600 birds in his lifetime. I have a feeling he killed

many more even if he did not encounter all the 1200 species found in India.

He also shot numerous other animals including gazelles for sport.

 

Today, many animal species scientists and collectors assiduously killed are

in danger of vanishing from the planet. Salim Ali could just be one of those

who contributed to the precarious present status of endangered

birds regardless of his exalted academic and popular status. He also

recommended shooting Rose Ringed Parakeets and exporting their meat.

 

Regarding knowledge gained from taxonomy, the American physicist Richard

Feynman put it beautifully, " You can know the name of a bird in all the

languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely

nothing whatever about the bird... So let's look at the bird and see what

it's doing -- that's what counts. I learned very early the difference

between knowing the name of something and knowing something. "

I for one, am glad the Czech scientist is now enjoying Indian hospitality

in prison, if only for a few days.

 

I appreciated your response to Mr Dharma Rajan. Thanks.

 

Best wishes and warm regards,