Professor of IPB: Catching a Wild Bird means Killing 10 Birds
Full-time Professor of the Faculty of Forestry, Bogor Agricultural University (Fahutan-IPB), Prof. Ani Mardiastuti said purchasing or keeping a wild bird is the same as killing ten other wild birds. This was conveyed during a press conference before her Scientific Oration at Baranangsiang Campus of IPB Bogor, (28/1). She gave her scientific oration of professorship, Saturday (30/1) at Darmaga Campus of IPB, Bogor.
She said, if one wild bird from eastern Indonesia is brought to our place, then it means 10 birds die. Dying on the way due to lack of food. "If you want to keep birds, do not take them from the nature," she said.
A certain bird with its beak like ivory is taken for its beak to make small bottles or ornaments. There is even a bird of Indonesia, beak of which is taken for sale, priced at 100 thousand rupiah per gram. "These birds are killed in China. I find this bird hard to get on the field, but they can get so many," she added.
Therefore, to protect the bird populations Prof. Ani and her research team at the Faculty of Forestry IPB are mapping the landscape of birds in Indonesia. The team divides the landscape into four parts, namely intact, combined, fragmented, and relics.
"The relic landscape has only 10 percent in its tree number, which shows human domination. If human is dominant, the forest loses," she said.
Of the four landscapes, Prof. Ani divides birds into three groups based on their behaviors, namely avoider, adapters and exploiter.
"An example of avoider bird is julang. If in the field we can still find these birds, the forest is still of good quality because these birds are faithful to their partners. An example of an adapter bird is kutilang, and an example of exploiter bird that likes the human presence is the sparrow," she said.
For the three types, Prof. Ani has made three strategies keep the bird populations in Indonesia, namely: protect, maintain and control. For the avoider birds, to preserve them is by legislation. To protect the adapter birds is to create a bird-friendly habitat. Finally, for the exploiter bird, it is necessary to monitor and control because they can grow explosively. (Mtd)
