As the red list of species seriously
endangered grows year-by-year efforts are being made to save some of these from
extinction. We have our favorites and are more ready to put our hands in our
pockets for these species. It is interesting that many of the most popular
species are predators such as big cats or hawks and falcons.
The
big problem for so many species is the loss of their habitat to some form of
human exploitation. A good example is
the New Zealand Falcon, which is that country’s only endemic raptor and is
running out of habitat. But it also has a particular problem in that it nests
on the ground, so its young are vulnerable to hungry cats, dogs, possums and
stoats.
It
feeds on small birds and that has inspired New Zealand to fund the ‘Falcons for
Grapes’ program since 2005, in which they have been trying to encourage falcons
to live in the vineyards to stop the smaller birds gorging themselves on
grapes.
The
falcon police have worked out well for the vineyard owners but the question
remains is this life good for the falcons? Kross et al from the U o Canterbury
have attempted to answer that question with their paper in PLoS ONE (1). In
short the answer is yes.
The
mums and dads feed their falcon chicks more and better quality food than
falcons studied in wilder non-agricultural regions. Now they do get some food
supplementation as pay for the policing job, but even when allowance is made
for that the feeding is better. They even take more trouble infood preparation
by pre-plucking before it is offered to these pampered chicks.
It
seems that the program is win-win with healthier, brawnier, new police chicks
ready to keep the grape pilferers out with the threat of capital punishment.
