The male mustached kingfisher has never been photographed until Dr. Chris Filardi, director of Pacific Programs at The Museum of Natural History, snapped it for the first time in September.
Dr. Filardi immediately killed the bird after taking the photo for “science,” which has conservationists and the scientific community upset. He euthanized the male mustached kingfisher on Guadalcanal Isle. The mustached kingfisher is one of the rarest birds that hasn’t been seen for a half a century.
Dr. Filardi wrote a response to the negative criticism he’s receiving for Audobon:
“With a remote range so difficult to access, there has been a perception of rarity because so few outside people or scientists have seen or otherwise recorded the bird. As I wrote from the field, this is a bird that is poorly known and elusive to western science—not rare or in imminent danger of extinction.”
Filardi says the kingfisher specimen will only help further science’s understanding of this elusive bird.
Leave a Reply