New hummingbird species discovered, imperiled by cocaine trade
It's hard out here for a gorgeted puffleg. The hummingbird species with the fabulous name was just discovered in southwestern Colombia, where farmers slash and burn 1,235 acres of cloud-forest habitat every year to grow coca, the raw ingredient in cocaine. That's bad news for a species that bird-conservation expert Andr Weller calls "the most spectacular discovery of a new hummingbird taxon during the last decade or more." Ornithologists are urging the Colombian government to create a 494,000-acre nature preserve for the safety of pufflegs, so named for the cottonball-like plumage above their legs. Cute! Says Ian Davidson of Birdlife International, "To go undiscovered for so long, the bird's range must be extremely small and fragile -- hence conservation action is undoubtedly a priority." And if forest preservation helps out other feathered folk, all the better; Colombia houses more than 1,800 bird species, the largest variety in the world.
source: San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, Toby Muse, 15 May 2007
source: Planet Ark, Reuters, Deborah Zabarenko, 15 May 2007
straight to the bird: A photo of the gorgeted puffleg
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pcarbo Posted 3:36 am
18 May 2007
I have a friend working in Bolivia, and she tells me the natives have many other uses for coca: "Coca is not addictive, it has more calcium than milk, it reduces hunger and fatigue (especially important in the case of Bolivian miners who work long hours), it has an enormous amount of nutrients found in foods, can be used as an anaesthetic, and the list goes on..."
That's all.
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