Aviculture & the Theory of Co-evolution

Abstract

Co-evolution: The simultaneous evolution of adaptations in two or more populations that interact so closely that each is a strong selective force on the other.

Conservationists are suspicious of aviculturists who claim they practice aviculture for conservation reasons. Animal rights groups insist that the importation of birds for the "pet trade" is blatent exploitation of wildlife, and that caged birds are an anathema to the humane among us. Bird breeders welcome the challenge of breeding difficult species, at least once, often because of the recognition and credibility this earns them, but they concentrate on breeding primarily high-priced pet birds or low-cost, mass-produced birds for the pet market.

Of course, there are exceptions to all these pronouncements. I do not, however, intend to argue any of these points in the body of this article, but rather to suggest that aviculture is a natural product, neither bad or good, right or wrong of the evolution of man and the evolution of certain species of birds, which by accident or by design have come in contact with the human species - the result being co-evolution!

One fifth of the entire mass of land animals on earth today is made up of humans and the animals that by human agency or historical accident have come under man's protection. We refer to our dogs and cats and farm animals as domesticated animals. The birds we raise in captivity we proudly refer to as "domestically bred'.' Biologically, the process of domestication is a success story without precedent in the history of evolution.

Here we must stop and re-think our assumption that domestication is simply the invention of man, an example of man's inevitable subjugation of nature in the march of technological progress. A series of new studies has dramatically recast the role of humans in domestication, overthrowing the simple picture of man as the conqueror. The evidence now suggests that far from an example of man's domination, our relationship with animals is a natural occurrence-initiated by the animals themselves as a strategy for survival and an opportunity to reproduce itself.

Over the aeons, those species which survive have done so as a result of "natural selection'.' Natural selection, according to Charles Darwin in The Origin of Species, is analogous to the type of selection exercised by breeders of cattle, horses or dogs (and, more recently, birds). In artificial selection, we humans choose specimens of plants and animals for breeding on the basis of characteristics that seem to us desirable. In natural selection, the environment takes the place of human choice. As individuals with certain hereditary characteristics survive and reproduce, and individuals with certain other characteristics arc eliminated, the population will slowly change.

According to Darwin, inherited variations among individuals which occur in every natural population are a matter of chance. In themselves, they have no goal or direction, but they often have positive or negative adaptive values; that is, they may be more or less useful to an organism as measured by its survival and reproduction. It is the operation of natural selection - the interaction of individual organisms with their environment - over a series of generations that gives impetus to evolution. A variation that gives an organism even a slight advantage makes that organism more likely to leave surviving offspring.

I believe that, in the future, we will have sustaining breeding populations of all cockatoos if we can get the foundation stock. This will require careful breeding to maintain good viable stocks. Stud books will be the basis for preventing inbreeding and to provide good breeding stocks. We arc currently starting stud books for Umbrella and Moluccan Cockatoos. One member has already started one on the Red-vented Cockatoo. We support the Black Palm Cockatoo stud book that is managed by the government. These books arc an effort, but now is the time to start them since we do have room for error at the current numbers. All birds should be listed in the stud books and all babies produced.

The Red-vented Cockatoo is a very sore point. In 1980, I could have gotten a dozen birds for $1,000. Where are they now? How many people are breeding them? TRAFFIC records a total of 65 birds entered the U.S. in 1988, and they may have been returned to the Philippines due to the possibility ofVVND. Where can we get new breeding stock? I understand they are becoming rare in areas where they were common and that the species is dying due to VVND and/or Beak and Feather Disease. I have heard both stories. This is a story that can be repeated with many birds.

I would like all interested parties to join the Cockatoo Society and those who have Moluccan and Umbrella Cockatoos to register them in the stud books. The same goes for all of the other specialized groups.

The animal rights movement, which likes to romanticize nature and anthropomorphize standards in dealing with animals (I wouldn't like to be in a cage, so I wouldn't put an animal in a cage) ironically promotes the concept...