wild release doesn't work?

[Semjase]

>Subject: Re: wild release doesn't work?
>From: Anne Kilmer <viceroy at GATE.NET>
>Date: Sun, Feb 15, 1998 19:42 EST
>Message-id: <34E78B7D.C5C84698 at gate.net>
>
>
>
>John V. Calhoun wrote:
>snip
>The recent northward advance of atala up the east coast of Florida is
>undoubtedly the combined result of natural dispersal and "assisted"
>
>> dispersal.  As Anne and I have pointed out, this can throw a monkey
>> wrench into studies of the species' distribution.  From this time
>> forward, new northern and western distribution records will be viewed as
>> most likely "assisted." Too bad. It would have been fascinating to see
>> how the species would naturally have expanded it's range following
>> the initial human assist.  It may have done just fine, reaching the
>> neighbor's imported cydads all by itself. It just may have taken a
>> little longer to do so...
>>
>> Best,
>> John
>
>  Well, now. The host plant is all-but extinct in the wild, and is therefore
> available
>only iin managed landscapes. The knee-jerk reaction to bugs eating your
> shrubbery is to
>shoot first, and ask questions later.
>Therefore, the only way for the atala to spread and thrive is the willing,
>eager
> welcome
>of this butterfly by local gardeners.
>We got this, largely, because the county extension agents, in the counties
> involved, are
>eager environmentalists, and have been promoting butterfly gardens in all the
> schools and
>so forth.
>Since the host plants are all deliberately planted, you can't expect a normal
> gradual
>spread. It's going to happen in bursts, on infested plants accidentally or
> deliberately
>introduced. A certain amount of tact needs to be used in discussing this, as
> there are
>regulations involving the movement of buggy plants, and one prefers not to
>draw
> attention
>...
>    Anyway, similar things are happening to populations of other butterflies,
> such as the
>malachite, the julia, and that greedhog the gold rim: Battus polydamas.
>    I suppose it's harmless and perhaps even a positive development, but I
>try
> to stress,
>among my butterflying friends, the notion of biodiversity. Plant the stuff
>and
> let God
>send the butterflies.
>    Choose, if possible, the natives that would have been on your land before
> you came
>there. But this is not a religion. Heretic bashing is no way to promote a
> healthy
>environment. I'm outnumbered by the people who move bugs around, and I'm not
> sure they
>aren't right. But it worries me.
>Anne Kilmer viceroy at gate.net
>South Florida
>
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>

Anne it is probably the normal scheme of things for these populations to shift
and change with changes in the world. Some of the species now advancing have
received little help from humans. P. cresphontes is now becoming common in
Southern California Coastal areas and it was not before.  Who is to say what is
natural and what is assisted and by whom. Perhaps someone can talk to the Group
Spirit of these species and find out?

Best

S.