Category

Piping Plover

The piping plover suffered from hunting in the 19th century for the hat trade and food markets, but began a slow recovery after it was protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1914. Declines began again with pressures from post-WWII coastal development, beach stabilization, dam construction, shore recreation, and increased predation. In 2001, 18 critical habitat units were set aside in Texas to help with the bird’s winter-season protection.

Interviews

Narrator: Bob FischerTitle: TradeoffsDuration: 00:01:44Date: January 14, 2025In 2007, a Galveston birder shot a feral cat that was stalking an endangered piping plover. The shooting brings up fraught ethical issues about how to weigh competing moral values, such as protecting endangered species versus ensuring individual animal welfare. The philosopher Bob Fischer argues that sometimes numbers can be used to help make the decision. For instance, a cat might kill tens, hundreds or thousands of animals in its lifetime, justifying killing the one cat to save its many prey.Narrator: Jesse GranthamTitle: Skating on the Razor's EdgeDuration: 00:01:55Date: October 25, 2003Jesse Grantham is a botanist, biologist and former head of the National Audubon Society's Texas coastal sanctuary program. Here he talks about the dilemma of the piping plover, and many other declining species: they are the product of eons of evolution, and their behavior and needs cannot quickly adapt to the new challenges of human civilization.Narrator: Jim StevensonTitle: Bird ListsDuration: 00:01:40Date: August 24, 2022Jim Stevenson is an ornithologist and bird guide based in Galveston. In 2000, he wrote a book, "The Quest for 5000 Birds: A Birding Adventure," describing and celebrating his effort to see and identify many of the world's birds. During the years since, he has come to question the point and value of assembling these kind of bird lists, especially at a time when simply marking that bird as "seen" may neglect to point out its rareness, and the conservation work needed to restore it.