An interview with Dina Fine Maron, a wildlife trade investigative reporter at National Geographic.
The songbirds can be sold"for hundreds of dollars" according to Dina Fine Maron, a wildlife trade investigative reporter at National Geographic. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports that 40 protected bird species in Florida are routinely trapped, mostly songbirds like indigo buntings. In February state wildlife officials drafted a rule to protect Florida's native songbirds from illegal capture.
MARON: One of the things that really surprised me and made me realize the scale of it was when I started learning about the songbird competition angle. This is the idea that you would catch a young songbird, usually a male because the coloring is brighter, and put two together and they might naturally respond to each other ... get territorial and start to sing. That can really make a lot of money.
Another gentleman described in court documents how he would hang these illegal giant nets across a field. It's called a mist net. It's difficult to see, it's sort of like a spider web, and then he would get a truck and it would be loud and he'd drive the truck towards the net and the birds would come out frightened by the noise and they'd all get caught in the net. He'd catch dozens and dozens of these birds by using this method.
WLRN How is this happening in my state? 🤬😡😤 This is absolutely horrific. MyWFC how do we stop this? Thank you to NPR and WLRN for informing us.
WLRN STOP destroying NATURE for your own evil greed!
WLRN Humanity: 'the glory and refuse of the universe' - Blaine Pascal
WLRN People suck and I’m tired of it
WLRN Man what the fuck
WLRN Remember the 4th of July illegal fireworks app. How about one that listens passively for sounds of illegal animals and check the GPS against zoos. Siri is a snitch and can't answer any good questions anyway.
WLRN Terrible and terribly sad. Thanks for the story.
WLRN This is depressing.
WLRN Can we PLEASE leave the wildlife alone?
WLRN For what it’s worth I don’t see as many birds around in San Jose anymore. They are noticeably missing on a daily basis. 🙁
WLRN Lawlessness led by Trump, Giulie, Pence et al has brought is to this?
WLRN Horror CrueltyFree pls!!
WLRN Horrible
WLRN ONLY IN FLORIDA fl happenings
WLRN call me