POLITICS AND EXTINCTION ON A HAWAIIAN ISLAND: RESPONSE TO CONANT AND LEONARD

Abstract

Department of Journalism and Media Studies, University of South Florida St. Petersburg, 140 7th Avenue S., FCT204, St. Petersburg, FL 33701-5016 hour.” this was my second interview with him, not my first. (the first had occurred earlier over the telephone. this one, not the later one, lasted about an hour.) Despite the limited usefulness of these two exchanges, I made a number of unsuccessful attempts over several years to set up additional interviews. the reviewers also claim that “by devoting an entire chapter to this topic, Walters suggests that disturbance by researchers contributed to the species’ decline more than other causes. this is completely disingenuous.” the reviewers’ misjudgment of my motive is evinced by the simple fact that I also devote a chapter (11) to the topic of ranching and devote more-or-less three full chapters (21, 22, and 23) to the deaths of released birds, which are other possible contributing factors to the ‘alalā’s decline. Given that I devote several chapters to other possible causes, the reviewers’ judgment that I was being “completely disingenuous” to have included one about possible researcher interference is unwarranted. In the book I state, “rare, glamorous, and still mysterious, with little having been published on its biology or behavior, by the late 1970s, the ‘alalā had become a golden topic for academic research. the bird’s continuing descent toward extinction only increased its allure” (Walters 2006:127). the reviewers attempt to refute this statement by claiming, “If this was a true statement, Hawai‘i should be swarming with ornithologists (and funding).” But this is a logical fallacy. Conant and Leonard’s claim would be true only if the ‘alalā were the same as the other endangered species to which they refer. It is not. (a comparable syllogism illustrates the flawed reasoning: “the low branches help to make the cherry tree fun to climb. But holly trees have low branches, and they aren’t fun to climb. therefore, cherry trees can’t be fun to climb either.”) Like the cherry tree, the ‘alalā has many special attributes in addition to its increasing rarity, glamour, and mystery that helped to increase the bird’s allure. The Condor 110(4):806–807  the Cooper Ornithological Society 2008