Re: One Compeling Reason for Collecting

[Wright Huntley <jwwiii at pacbell_net>]

RuevenM at aol_com wrote:
> Hi Tricia,
>
>    I think you side stepped my point. I am not questioning the compeling 
> reasons for collecting trips in general. I am questioning the compeling reason for 
> THE AKA TO GET INVOLVED IN SPONSORING AND FUNDING collecting trips. 

snip...

OK, Bobby, I'll have a go at that one. Let me start by saying I do not go 
for the idea of AKA money going to collecting trips, but *if* I did...

It should be for something that should happen that is not happening, now, 
and not just another trip to Gabon or Brazil.

*Pachypanchax* are, according to Huber and others, the ancestral stock 
from which all our killifish derive -- our "dinosaur fish," if you will. 
AKA has a special initiative to preserve the stocks we now have of the 
fishes of Madagascar and the Seychelles. A KCC program is in place to 
treat every Pachy species as a "Core" species and be sure we don't lose any.

The collectors who go to Madagascar are generally *not* knowledgeable 
killifish breeders, and the stock we get in is filtering through some 
strange channels. The only known habitat for *Pantanodon madagascariensis* 
was wiped out a while back as part of a general growth of agriculture and 
modernization. Their government doesn't appear to give a damn, if it 
doesn't have fur and big eyes, as far as species conservation is 
concerned. *Pachypanchax* habitats are widely threatened, too. People 
would rather grow food than protect fish too small and rare to eat.

Rather than rely on the good offices of friends in cichlids and rainbows 
for our infrequent infusions of wild stock, I could argue it might benefit 
the hobby if some experience killifish breeders could go and look for 
other *P. madagascariensis* habitat or new *Pachypanchax* species. While I 
would prefer that such an expedition be privately financed, I could 
envision the AKA giving such an effort a kick start by publicizing the 
serious need, and maybe even offering a small grant as an incentive to get 
it to happen. The collectors could be assured KCC would provide a stable 
breeder base to get any collected fish established in the hobby.

Whether AKA funded or not, I think a trip by experienced killifolk would 
give us greater depth of understanding of the problems the fish face and 
insight into how we can best act (here or there) to protect and preserve 
them for future generations. That, IMHO, would be sufficient benefit to 
justify a small funding (if it was really the trigger to get it to happen).

Differences in the osteology of the *madagascariensis* and *stuhlmanni* 
suggest that the *Pantanodon* genus could use some restudy. New specimens 
could help that along, if we could find any. Who knows? That area of 
Madagascar has been little explored, so other new Lampeye species might 
even turn up, too, helping clarify the issue. Most of the *Pachypanchax* 
regions of the island have never been explored, so many new species are 
probably just waiting to be discovered. It isn't happening, now.

Howzat for an answer to your question?

Wright
Coordinator, ESP Special Initiative for fishes of Madagascar and the 
Seychelles

--
Wright Huntley -- 760 872-3995 -- Rt. 001 Box K36, Bishop CA 93514




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