American Acclimatization Society

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A flock of starlings in Denmark. Flocks of this size and larger are common in North America following the successful introduction of the species in the 19th century. Sort sol pdfnet.jpg
A flock of starlings in Denmark. Flocks of this size and larger are common in North America following the successful introduction of the species in the 19th century.

The American Acclimatization Society was a group founded in New York City in 1871 dedicated to introducing European flora and fauna into North America for both economic and cultural reasons. The group's charter explained its goal was to introduce "such foreign varieties of the animal and vegetable kingdom as may be useful or interesting." Like other acclimatisation societies, the American Acclimatization Society's efforts impacted the natural history of North America, particularly due to its success in introducing invasive bird species. [1]

Contents

Background

In 1854, the Société zoologique d'acclimatation was founded in Paris by French naturalist Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, whose 1849 treatise Acclimatation et domestication des animaux utiles ("Acclimatization and Domestication of Useful Animals") had urged the French government to introduce, and when necessary selectively breed, foreign animals both to provide meat and to control pests. The group inspired the formation of similar groups around the world, particularly in countries that had been colonized by Europeans. [2] Wildlife scientist John Marzluff writes that the motives of the 19th-century acclimatization enthusiasts were largely cultural: "Western European settlers introduced many species throughout the world because they wanted birds from their homelands in their new environs." [3]

Founding

Even before the American society's founding, wealthy New York residents and naturalists had deliberately sought to introduce foreign animals. In 1864 the commissioners of Central Park had introduced Java sparrows, house sparrows, chaffinches and blackbirds into the park. The European sparrows were reported to have "multiplied amazingly". They quickly became one of the most common birds in New York, though the others did not seem to do as well. After the society's founding, such efforts were redoubled. The group's annual meeting held at the Great New York Aquarium in 1877 [4] reported that the release of 50 pairs of English skylarks into Central Park had only been a partial success, since most had flown across the East River to take up residence at Newtown and Canarsie in Brooklyn. At the meeting, the recent release of European starlings, Japanese finches and pheasants into the park were noted. The meeting adjourned with the group resolved to introduce more chaffinches, skylarks, European robins and tits—"birds which were useful to the farmer and contributed to the beauty of the groves and fields"—in the city. [5]

Notable members

By 1877 New York pharmacist Eugene Schieffelin was the chairman of the society. Another notable member of the society was wealthy silk merchant Alfred Edwards, who constructed bird boxes around Manhattan to help house sparrows to breed.

Some accounts of Schieffelin's efforts claim that he had resolved that as an aesthetic goal, the organization should introduce every bird species mentioned in the Bard's works. However, multiple historians have disputed this claim, as no contemporary source corroborates this claim of a link to Shakespeare. [6] [7] The American poet William Cullen Bryant admired Schieffelin's efforts and wrote his poem The Olde-World Sparrow ("A winged settler has taken his place/With Teutons and Men of the Celtic race") after spending an evening with Schieffelin, who had just released a shipment of sparrows into his yard. [8] Schieffelin himself is seen by modern biologists as "an eccentric at best, a lunatic at worst." [9]

Impact and the starlings

Starlings had been introduced in the United States by the mid-1870s. [7] The American Acclimatization Society added another 100 starlings to the total in 1890 and 1891. [7] By the early 21st century, more than 200 million European starlings had spread throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada. Their aggressive competition for nesting cavities has long been thought to be responsible for the collapse of some native bird populations, among them New York's state bird, the eastern bluebird, though some research has found that this is unlikely, except in the case of sapsuckers. [10] For its role in the decline of local native species and the damages to agriculture, the European starling has been included in the IUCN List of the world's 100 worst invasive species. [11]

Largely because of the spread of the European starling, a 2007 article in the San Francisco Chronicle (deriding the introduction of fallow deer to the Point Reyes National Seashore) called the society "the canonic cautionary tale of biological pollution." [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Finch</span> Family of birds

The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where they are usually resident and do not migrate. They have a worldwide distribution except for Australia and the polar regions. The family Fringillidae contains more than two hundred species divided into fifty genera. It includes species known as siskins, canaries, redpolls, serins, grosbeaks and euphonias.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old World sparrow</span> Family of songbirds

Old World sparrows are a group of small passerine birds forming the family Passeridae. They are also known as true sparrows, a name also used for a particular genus of the family, Passer. They are distinct from both the New World sparrows, in the family Passerellidae, and from a few other birds sharing their name, such as the Java sparrow of the family Estrildidae. Many species nest on buildings and the house and Eurasian tree sparrows, in particular, inhabit cities in large numbers. They are primarily seed-eaters, though they also consume small insects. Some species scavenge for food around cities and, like gulls or pigeons, will eat small quantities of a diversity of items.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lark</span> Family of birds

Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. Larks have a cosmopolitan distribution with the largest number of species occurring in Africa. Only a single species, the horned lark, occurs in North America, and only Horsfield's bush lark occurs in Australia. Habitats vary widely, but many species live in dry regions. When the word "lark" is used without specification, it often refers to the Eurasian skylark (Alauda arvensis).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">House sparrow</span> Species of bird

The house sparrow is a bird of the sparrow family Passeridae, found in most parts of the world. It is a small bird that has a typical length of 16 cm (6.3 in) and a mass of 24–39.5 g (0.85–1.39 oz). Females and young birds are coloured pale brown and grey, and males have brighter black, white, and brown markings. One of about 25 species in the genus Passer, the house sparrow is native to most of Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, and a large part of Asia. Its intentional or accidental introductions to many regions, including parts of Australasia, Africa, and the Americas, make it the most widely distributed wild bird.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Starling</span> Family of birds

Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Sturnidae. The Sturnidae are named for the genus Sturnus, which in turn comes from the Latin word for starling, sturnus. Many Asian species, particularly the larger ones, are called mynas, and many African species are known as glossy starlings because of their iridescent plumage. Starlings are native to Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as northern Australia and the islands of the tropical Pacific. Several European and Asian species have been introduced to these areas, as well as North America, Hawaii, and New Zealand, where they generally compete for habitats with native birds and are considered to be invasive species. The starling species familiar to most people in Europe and North America is the common starling, and throughout much of Asia and the Pacific, the common myna is indeed common.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bluebird</span> Genus of birds

The bluebirds are a North American group of medium-sized, mostly insectivorous or omnivorous birds in the order of Passerines in the genus Sialia of the thrush family (Turdidae). Bluebirds are one of the few thrush genera in the Americas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common starling</span> Sturnus vulgaris; medium sized passerine bird native to temperate Europe and western Asia

The common starling, also known as the European starling in North America and simply as the starling in Great Britain and Ireland, is a medium-sized passerine bird in the starling family, Sturnidae. It is about 20 cm (8 in) long and has glossy black plumage with a metallic sheen, which is speckled with white at some times of year. The legs are pink and the bill is black in winter and yellow in summer; young birds have browner plumage than the adults. It is a noisy bird, especially in communal roosts and other gregarious situations, with an unmusical but varied song. Its gift for mimicry has been noted in literature including the Mabinogion and the works of Pliny the Elder and William Shakespeare.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastern bluebird</span> Species of bird

The eastern bluebird is a small North American migratory thrush found in open woodlands, farmlands, and orchards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bird vocalization</span> Sounds birds use to communicate

Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs are distinguished by function from calls.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Introduced species</span> Species introduced either deliberately or accidentally through human activity

An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived there by human activity, directly or indirectly, and either deliberately or accidentally. Non-native species can have various effects on the local ecosystem. Introduced species that become established and spread beyond the place of introduction are considered naturalized. The process of human-caused introduction is distinguished from biological colonization, in which species spread to new areas through "natural" (non-human) means such as storms and rafting. The Latin expression neobiota captures the characteristic that these species are new biota to their environment in terms of established biological network relationships. Neobiota can further be divided into neozoa and neophyta (plants).

<i>Fringilla</i> Genus of birds

The genus Fringilla is a small group of finches from the Old World, which are the only species in the subfamily Fringillinae. The genus name Fringilla is Latin for "finch".

Naturalisation is the ecological phenomenon through which a species, taxon, or population of exotic origin integrates into a given ecosystem, becoming capable of reproducing and growing in it, and proceeds to disseminate spontaneously. In some instances, the presence of a species in a given ecosystem is so ancient that it cannot be presupposed whether it is native or introduced.

Eugene Schieffelin was an American amateur ornithologist who belonged to the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society and the New York Zoological Society. In 1877, he became chairman of the American Acclimatization Society, and joined their efforts to introduce non-native species to North America for economic and cultural reasons. His 1890 release of European starlings in Central Park resulted in the first successful starling nesting in North America to be observed by naturalists.

Avian range expansion describes how birds expand their habitat. Because of the activities of birdwatchers, these range expansions are well documented.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fauna of Europe</span>

The fauna of Europe is all the animals living in Europe and its surrounding seas and islands. Since there is no natural biogeographic boundary in the east and south between Europe and Asia, the term "fauna of Europe" is somewhat elusive. Europe is the western part of the Palearctic realm. Lying within the temperate region, the wildlife is not as rich as in the hottest regions, but is nevertheless diverse due to the variety of habitats and the faunal richness of Eurasia as a whole.

Acclimatisation societies were voluntary associations in the 19th and 20th centuries that encouraged the introduction of non-native species in various places around the world, in the hope that they would acclimatise and adapt to their new environments. The societies were formed during the colonial era, when Europeans began to settle in unfamiliar locations. One motivation for the activities of the acclimatisation societies was that introducing new species of plants and animals would enrich the flora and fauna of a region. The movement also sought to establish plants and animals that were familiar to Europeans, while also bringing exotic and useful foreign plants and animals to European centres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acclimatisation societies in New Zealand</span>

Acclimatisation societies to naturalise all kinds of new species —as long as they had no harmful effect— were established in New Zealand by European colonists from the 1860s, with the first likely having been established in Auckland around 1861.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Birding in New York City</span>

New York City is home to a large birding community and diverse range of bird species. Though it is the most populous and most densely populated city in the United States, NYC is home to a range of ecological habitats and is situated along the Atlantic Flyway, a major route for migrating birds. More than 400 species have been recorded in the city, and their concentration in the city's urban parklands, forests, marshes, and beaches has made birding a popular activity in the city, especially after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

References

  1. ↑ "Review of Tinkering With Eden: A Natural History of Exotics in America". Discover Magazine . January 2001.
  2. ↑ "Society for Acclimatization Part 1 - History of Soybeans and Soyfoods in the United States 1766-1900". www.soyinfocenter.com.
  3. ↑ Marzluff, John, ed. (January 3, 2008). Urban Ecology: An International Perspective on the Interaction Between Humans and Nature. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 406. ISBN   978-0-387-73412-5 . Retrieved November 26, 2021.
  4. ↑ "City and Suburban News". The New York Times. 13 March 1877. A meeting of the American Acclimatization Society will be held at tile rooms of the New-York Aquarium, Broadway and Thirty-Fifth-street, tomorrow evening.
  5. ↑ "American Acclimatization Society" (PDF). The New York Times. November 15, 1877.
  6. ↑ Tenner, Edward (1997). Why Things Bite Back. New York, New York: Vintage Books. pp. 152–155.
  7. 1 2 3 Fugate, Lauren; Miller, John MacNeill (November 1, 2021). "Shakespeare's Starlings: Literary History and the Fictions of Invasiveness". Environmental Humanities. 13 (2): 301–322. doi: 10.1215/22011919-9320167 . ISSN   2201-1919 . Retrieved November 26, 2021.
  8. ↑ Tinkering With Eden pg. 138, Kim Todd, W.W. Norton & Company.
  9. ↑ Tinkering With Eden pg. 137, Kim Todd, W.W. Norton & Company.
  10. ↑ Mirsky, Steve (May 23, 2008). "Shakespeare to Blame for Introduction of European Starlings to U.S." Scientific American Magazine. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
  11. ↑ "100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species". Global Invasive Species Database. Invasive Species Specialist Group, IUCN . Retrieved 2013-04-25.
  12. ↑ Slobig, Zachary (May 6, 2007). "Easy Target / There's a plan afoot to eradicate the white fallow deer in Point Reyes -- but could there be another way to keep rangers, ranchers, animal lovers, Hindus and venison diners on the same side?". SFGate. Retrieved November 26, 2021.
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