PLACE FOR HAWK

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 308, 21 May 1941, Page 2

PLACE FOR HAWK

THE BALANCE OF NATURE

In the opinion of leading- members of the Forest, and Bird Protection Society, the Hon. W. E. Parry's advocacy of destruction of harrier hawks is based rather 011 the biassed short-sighted views of numbers of sliootists than on knowledge of th« hawks' place in the balance of nature. A contributor to Forest and Bird (the quarterly magazine published by the Forest and Bird- Protection Society), states that in California the marsh hawk, a very similar species to the harrier, has many enemies among men in the same way as the harrier hawk lias in New Zealand, but, as the result of extensive investigation into its habits, it is protected. Research has determined that it is beneficial to a high degree, as it keeps down such pests as rats, mice, ground squirrels and rabbits (a pest in California as well as in New Zealand). The editorial article in the magazine has this passage : "In New Zealand it has always been tho practice to make decisions on wildlife matters without expert research and biological knowledge. Large sums have been spent on introducing many species, to be followed by more spending in making war on the introduced creature if it acclimatised itself and Avas considered by nonbiologists to be harmful. Further large sums have been dissipated on the killing of predators, a practice which should not be permitted unless it is judged to be necessary by trained biologists." The Society's view is that the indiscriminate killing of harrier hawks should be cheeked until an accurate necessary survey of wild life, has been made by fully-qualified experts. It is held that such an investigation may prove that sportsmen should regard the hawk as a natural tigent -working for them rather than against them.