unbelievable...

[Lotis9]

I've started reading a book about the first wildlife forensics lab. In the intro it states that the more rare a species becomes, the more desired it is, whether as pets or for their parts. One such example given was Black Palm Cockatoos. A pair of Black Palm Cockatoos goes for $80,000. And still some of us sit back and act like it's not a big deal to want to obtain and own, let alone, breed such a species. It is the pet industries demand for rare species that is diminishing them in the wild, second to habitat destruction. It angered me to read that and to know how many people pretend like we're helping through the pet trade.

I encourage responses. $80,000 for a pair of Black Palm Cockatoos!!!
And yet I worry that writing this will encourage the greedy.

[Newticus]

I personally don't see a problem with wanting to breed rare species. Some one will always want one, it is human nature. So if you can captive breed rarer speices then it lesses the burden on wild speices. I will grant you though that $80,000 is an ungodly amount for a pair of birds. It is not necessarily the industialized pet industry like the Pet Smarts and what have you that creat those prices, it's the under ground and black market that help make those prices. We don't like to think about it but poaching is still a strong force, and I don't know too many pet stores here in Ontario that sell wild caught birds. You can find them on the internet though. I guess that is still the pet industry though.
The need to own rare things is not limited to animals, but it's worse because animals are sentient beings.
To be devils advocate, a lot of commonly kept parrots are endangered or protected. Does that mean that any one who keeps an amazon, African grey or macaw falls into the same catagory as those who want a black palm, or is it different because now there are many captive bred inviduals of the more common pet parrots and they don't cost $80,000 per pair? A lot of people still pay a rediculous amount of money for their birds, I should have paid 2,200 for my amazon if I didn't work for the store I bought him from and wasn't good friends with the manager. Does that I am similar to the person who wants to shell out for a pair of black palms?

Melanie

[magdalena]

Unfortunately, pet trade or not the natural habitats of so many rare and not so rare species are getting smaller and smaller. Whether we want the fancy bird or not is a lesser issue than conservation but when conservation fails should we allow a species to go extinct if we can help it?

[Congobongo]

Although it is fun to have a pet that is unusual it is more satisfying when you bond with them and love them and they love you back and want to be with you and around you. Not all rare and exotic animals will do that so, we need to stick to the one's who do.

[Newticus]

It depends on your reason for keeping them. Some people keep rare and exotics to breed them. Some keep them as show pieces in a collection. Others are facinated by their unique or rare quality. I am not necessarily against any of these reasons, provided the rare animal comes to them in a legal way. I am strongly against wild caputre of rare animals so that they may be crowning jewels in a collection. If they are taken to help set up a breeding and conservation facility I don't see the problem. Especially because of what Magdalena has said. If a collector wants to pay alot for a captive bred animal, who cares?

Melanie

[new guy on the block]

WTF? the pet trade helps, when u have people breeding a species, the captive population grows and brings the price down making it less tempting for potures to take them from the wild.
is there a shortage of dogs and cats? NO
i vote, make endangered species legal pets (only from captive populations)

[idrial]

I am also confused. Every book I've read talks about how since 1997 we're finally breeding birds rather than catching them in the wild.

I also happen to believe that breeding rare species in captivity is beneficial to keep endangered species from poofing out of existence. If I was a bazillion-millionaire, I might spend $80k on rare bird so I could give it a good home. It has nothing to do with greed.

[Rahni]

NKOTB, the pet trade helps IF they people buying the birds are breeding them, as is generally not the case with pet birds. If the birds are aviary birds, then certainly it can help, but this isn't common in the US. Most birds are kept as pets. In Aus, it's great that we have captive populations of many native birds, so that if they are in trouble there is an amazing resource there, for example with the Gouldian finch. Keep in mind that this is jeopardized when people start breeding colour mutations- yellow turquoisines will never be released into the wild.
I personally think that if a particular bird is becoming highly endangered, for example the spix's macaw (which is too far gone to be able save now), people should be encouraged to voluntarily surrender their pet so that it can be used to breed, and the offspring can be released back into the wild. I'm sure most people would be happy to support the survival of the species. I do know of one lady doing this with her pet spix's, but I think it was probably a case of too little too late.
The real problem is that there is still a market for wild caught birds, and these birds are still allowed to be imported. There is a massive market for wild caught birds in less developed countries, such as parts of Indonesia, but I really can't see why anyone in a developed country would hand over money for a bird that has been put under a lot of stress, kept in unhygienic conditions, suffered rough handling, a long plane flight and probably isn't eating well since it's suddenly been given an entirely new diet, and to top that off will be wild as hell.