bounties for tagged specimens

[Gregory Nielsen]

Banding sometimes causes problems for the animals in countries where the
reasons for banding are not understood.  Here in Colombia  overwintering
Ospreys were being shot by fish farmers and a legend grew among them about
the bands being worth money. This only stimulated some of the farmers to
shoot more Ospreys and it took some time to educate the this group about the
situation of the birds,  why they are banded and that they would not make
money with the bands.  I´m sure that if anyone here had received 5 bucks for
an Osprey band it would have been all over and  there wouldn´t be many birds
flying north in the spring.

Greg Nielsen