Case of the moustached kingfisher pits those who think ‘collecting’ can save a species against those who believe we should never cancel rare animalsFor Christopher Filardi of the American Museum of Natural History,there is nothing like the thrill of finding a mysterious species. Such animals live at the intersection of myth and biology – tantalising researchers with the prospect that they may be genuine, but eluding trustworthy documentation and closer study. Indeed, or last month,Filardi waxed poetic on the hunt for the invisible beasts that none the less walk among us.“We search for them in earnest but they are seemingly beyond detection apart from by proxy and tale,” he wrote. “They are ghosts, and until they reveal themselves in a thrilling moment of clarity and then they are gone again. possibly for another day,possibly a year, possibly a century.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com