Assessing stray/accidental/escapee status

Michael Gochfeld gochfeld at eohsi.rutgers.edu
Sat Aug 18 14:19:19 EDT 2001


Ron's concern about assessing or "knowing" the true status of a rare
butterfly, is familiar to birders who have often had to grapple with
whether or not a rare bird is "real" or "countable" or merely an
"escape".  Dick Ryan wrote a detailed study of criteria that could be
applied in the field to improve the guess as to whether a bird was
likely to have been in captivity. Things like behavior and feather wear
were among the criteria, but also whether the taxon was commonly kept in
zoos or aviaries. 

A similar article could be generated for butterflies.  An occurrence
close to a "Butterfly House" that keeps the particular species,
certainly points to an escape, though not conclusively.  I also
suggested recently that horticultural practices (flying in tropical and
subtropical plants to NJ nurseries, for example) could be a source of
strays. 

The same problem holds for herps since pet turtles and snakes may be
released or may escape. We have a well-established Red-eared Slider
population in our local canal (far out of its natural range). 

Shutting down or banning butterfly houses makes no more sense (or less
sense) than banning zoos or private aviaries, apiaries, etc. or
nurseries.  Florida, for example, has yet to ban nurseries from selling
plants like Brazilian Pepper, which are officially declared as pests and
are targetted for local eradication. 

Those of us who have to deal with faunistics have to learn to live with
uncertainty. It would be nice to know things for certain, but....

Mike Gochfeld
===========================================================

Ron Gatrelle wrote:
> 
> Alex Grkovich wrote
> 
> > The Queen has recently (within the past 3 to 5 years) been recorded twice
> > from southern Michigan. I wonder whether they were strays or escapes. One
> > would hope they were strays.....
> >
> 
> Now we come to some more important questions. I have had various misgivings
> about butterfly houses for years. I know I will go against the grain in
> this, but if I were with the USDA I would shut them all down, reassess the
> whole operation. Exotic plants, insects, parasites, diseases... sound's
> like fire ants, gypsy moths, (Water Lettuce - for those in Africa), etc,
> etc.   It looks like just fun.  Well, so does a loaded gun to an 8 year
> old.  You can fill in the rest of the blanks on this...
> 
> Next, is the "damage" to "science".  What if the Queens were not escapees
> but dispersed individuals - now we will never know.  Perhaps the easy going
> lepsters don't have any problem with this, but if I find ________ here or
> while visiting, say, in Miami I want to know if the _____ was an escapee, a
> stray, or from a new to the county, state, nation breeding population.
> 
> Escapees are common place. Too many show up in the gardens of the only
> lepsters in town -- so how many are loose and never seen by someone who
> would know? LOTS. Then there are the pilfered ones and seed pods taken by
> people. "Hey, let me get some seeds off that and plant them at home." There
> is a reason the Dept. of Agri. in California or Arizona want to stop cars
> and check for "exotics".  Human's are the world's best creatures for
> introducing exotics and ruining environments. Once the cat (erpillar) gets
> out of the bag it is too late. Sorry, 90% safe is not good enough for me. I
> hate kudzu.
> Ron
> 
> 
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-- 

================================================
Michael Gochfeld, MD, PhD
Professor of Environmental and Community Medicine
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and
Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute
170 Frelinghuysen Road
Piscataway, NJ 08854  USA
732-445-0123 X627  fax 732-445-0130

 
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