The video below was forwarded by a friend from southernmost Argentina, Santiago Imberti. Santiago is a ornithologist, guide, conservationist and educator with a deep regard for the future of Patagonian wildlife. The video is 30minutes long but very well produced and photographed, and very worth watching. (It's in English.) It catalogs the precipitous decline of the Hooded Grebe in the past decade. I know this is becoming a frequent story, but this story is personal.
Ten or twelve years ago I was among a small party which was guided by Santiago to view the beautiful but hard to find Hooded Grebe, as well as many other species of the deep southern cone including Magellanic Plover and Austral Rail. Santiago was the individual that rediscovered the Austral Rail, thought to be extinct, and he took us to the ranch where he first found the bird. A couple years later Santiago visited Maine in early summer and Howie Nielsen and I managed to show him two of our local rails as pay back. Plus a couple raptors, the piping plover, and many of Maine's neotropical migrants. I had been so struck by the beauty of this rare grebe I did a painting of the bird which subsequently appeared on the cover of an ornithological journal published in Buenos Aires. So it with deep sadness to hear that this grebe is on a quick slide to extinction.
The reasons are the usual. Unintended consequences of human endeavor. Or intervention, if you will. Trout were introduced to the ponds on the plateaus where the grebe breeds, in the hopes they would provide income to the locals. Unfortunately this scheme failed, but the trout change the ecology of the ponds, eliminating food for the grebes as well as the floating plants they use to build nests. Then mink farming took off as the latest attempt to become wealthy. When that failed the mink were released and are causing havoc among the local avifauna wherever they have spread.
Worth a look just at the beautiful but harsh environment, but also glimpses of guanacos (native camels), Chilean flamingo, steamer ducks, native foxes and lizards, and the young people trying to save the grebe. Santiago also sent me some papers on this topic, and if you wish to read these contact me offline.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0taBiJB35c&feature=youtu.be
BAB
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Bruce Bartrug
Nobleboro, Maine, USA
bbartrug@gmail.com
www.brucebartrug.com
The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing. - Albert Einstein --
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