Introduction of Black Hairstreak

[Chris Raper]

On 7 Apr 99 11:46:00 GMT, "Nigel" <venters at iinteralpha.co.uk> wrote:

Hi Nigel,

I'm not speaking for Ian but I think the point he was making is
generally correct. 

I don't know the exact circumstances of your Black Hairstreak release
but it is just possible that if they were recorded by someone who
didn't know they were a release they might cause quite a stir. As you
know, Black Hairstreaks are very sedentary in habit and so it is
possible that the record could be taken as an example of a hitherto
undiscovered natural population. This might in turn cause a lot of
fuss to be made over, what might be, an unviable long-term population.
Obviously this is not good because you would want all the conservation
efforts to be directed towards preserving proven, long-term viable
populations. This highlights the reason for having the rule that
details of any release should be given to the county recorder - even
if this is anonymously - just so long as someone knows.

His second point is also valid because, although Black Hairstreak is
highly unlikely to overcompete with other species (it doesn't have a
history of this), it is just possible. The point is - we just don't
know what effects there will be without first surveying the
invertebrate populations and at least considering what interactions
there might be. This would be standard procedure if the release had
been done officially.

There is also an issue with the source of the material released. I am
not all that familiar with livestock dealers in the UK but obviously
if the dealers were selling Black Hairstreaks imported from a European
dealer it would be totally inappropriate to release those in the UK.
Hybridisation with the native populations might even ultimately lead
to the extinction of the UK species - either by cross-breeding
contamination or by introducing genes which weaken the population as a
whole.

Anyway, I understand your eagerness to 'have a go' but you could also
argue that if you have time to breed up something for release, why not
get on-board with a group of people doing one of the official
releases? If there are no projects in your area get in touch with EN
or the local recorder and try and organise your own. There are bound
to be species that are more appropriate to release in your area.

This whole thread reminds me of a similar discussion I had with a
group of peoplpe in uk.environment.conservation. Someone wanted to
know why it was such a bad idea to seed road verges with wild flowers.
Basically, it looks a good idea until you realise the possible
repurcussions. :-)

Best wishes,
Chris R.