Abstract
The U.S. Department of Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service announced its latest attempt to regulate the importation of wildlife on Monday, March 7, 1977.
The appearance of the proposal in the Federal Register marks the third time in little more than three years Interior has moved to control importation of exotics. If "the third try is the charm", then the charm is to the benefit of aviculturists, for Interior has finally demonstrated a sense of reasonableness.
Rather than espousing a wholesale ban on birds, Interior has listed only a handful of species for regulation and appears to being doing so with a greater degree of scientific credibility than in the past. Species proposed for regulation include two finches - Java Rice Bird (Padda oryzivora) and the Red-billed Weaver (Quelea quelea), the genus Pycnonotus (Bulbuls), the Japanese White-eye (Zosterops japonica) and all the species of the family Sturnidae (Starlings, Grackles, Mynahs).
Several criteria were employed in arriving at an injurious determination:
1. The species occupies an ecological niche (including feeding habits, roosting habits, requirements for reproduction, and other factors) that overlaps to a considerable extent the ecological niche of a native species;
2. The species is a close relative of a native species with which it might be expected to compete with for food, space, or some other resource, or with which it might be expected to interbreed,
3. The species has behavioral traits, feeding habits, or ecological requirements that could be disruptive or destructive to natural communities or environmental features, or in conflict with man's use of the environment;
4. The species is known to have feeding or foraging habits that include crops or other agricultural products or harvested natural resources, or that suggest that it may readily be able to adapt to such food resources;
5. The species is known to be the host of a parasite that would be detrimental to humans, domestic animals, or native wildlife. or is known to be a reservoir or vector of, or the host of a parasite that is a vector of, a disease that can readily be transmitted to humans, domesticated animals, or native wildlife.
6. The species is known to be dangerously venomous or toxic or otherwise noxious to man or to other animals;
7. The species occupies ecologically disturbed areas, particularly urbanized areas or those altered by the addition of exotic vegetation, as a major portion of its habitat;
8. The species has demonstrated an ease of establishment, colonization, or dispersal, or has reproductive characteristics that suggest an ease of establishment in the absence of its normal population con trots; or
9. The species is a close relative of a species that falls into one of the above categories.
Of the above mentioned species, none except the Greater Indian Hill Mynah and the Rothschild's Mynah are of profound avicultural interest. The Red-billed Weaver, Java Rice Bird, and Japanese Whiteeye were once common in aviculture, but have been banned by a number of states. There are a few Java Rice Birds in private collections, however, they are on the decline in view of the current climate.
The restrictions on the genus Pycnonotus has been proposed as the result of two species becoming established in the continental U.S., according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. The Japanese White-eye is established in Hawaii, albeit through