Dominion

I write on behalf of this little guy.

This, ladies and gentlemen is Charadrius Obsucurus , The New Zealand Dotteral or the New Zealand Plover*. This is the mother of one growing but still fluffy chick and she guards her nest (a mere scrape in the sand) assiduously, running ever closer to you as you approach to gain your attention and distract from her little one. She has a mate and another male bird in proximity. These are the rarest birds I have ever seen in the wild because I have seen 4 of the 1,700 of these birds in the whole of the world. They are seriously, seriously endangered.

They are seriously, seriously endangered because of the ignorance and arrogance of mankind. Until Charles Darwin published On the Origin Of Species in 1859 and for many years after man believed absolutely that they had “dominion over .. all the wild animals.” I am not suggesting men deliberately acted upon this but rather allowed it to excuse what, frankly, must have been at times very obvious. That, for instance, if you keep killing Dodos they will eventually be no more.

But we have dominion.

Surely someone must have realised that there were fewer and fewer Moas around and perhaps we should stop massacring them. Or someone must have clocked that in New Zealand there were no predators and might have paused for just a moment before releasing (or allowing to be released) rats, stoats and weasels into the wild (why do that anyway?). And don’t get me started on cats.

But we have dominion.

So, here we are at the top of the food chain, top predator trying to clean up the mess. They are doing a wonderful job in New Zealand where are there are now many, many islands and sites that are predator free again including the beach where I saw my little guy.

And in Japan they kills whales, because it is their right. We have dominion.

*As an aside, I find the New Zealanders wonderfully laid back and obviously indecisive. I have a guide book, the Collins Birds of New Zealand and an app called Bird Journal that works from published authoritative checklists and I can guarantee that the common name of the bird I have just seen is different in both. The boards around the site call this a New Zealand Dotteral, my guide book, the New Zealand Dotteral, the app, well there it is the New Zealand Plover. Drives you mad.