Unfortunately, since then, most published accounts have omitted her role, though if you do any Internet searching you will find, to quote, that she was the one who "... modified and applied traditional bird-tracking techniques... to follow the breeding/prey-carrying male eagle to the nest. This was a deciding factor, as the wild eagle was NOT radio-tagged and could not be followed any other way." She was more experienced with raptors than many of her colleagues.
Somewhere between discovery and official reporting, a competing group apparently took over the publicity; appropriation of data is regrettably common, but allegedly some of those now claiming credit were not even in the country. A short account of the discovery is available here-- scroll down-- in three parts, with her role mentioned. And apparently the North American Falconers Association will publish something next season. But it would be nice to get some "official" scientific recognition for her too.
Stacia with Aplomado-- no beginner in game hawking!
5 comments:
Stacia is absolutely the real thing. Her writing and her zest for life remind me much of our friend Teddy Moritz. Complimentary both ways.
I heard the story from ALL members of the discovery team even from Stacia. To me it seems like EVERYONE was instrumental in finding the nest, but no one can take more credit than the others. All team members had knowledge about the eagle and they all knew that the food was being taken to a nest. The reason why Stacia deliberately decides to even acknowledge the existence of the Belize Raptor Research Institute who initiated the nest search even in years prior to 2011, just puts question marks behind Stacia Novy.
All the people involved with the solitary eagle tracking and nest discovery on the 30th of June, 2011, were paid employees of The Peregrine Fund. This information can easily be proven by email traffic, photographs, and written documentation among private, academic and governmental sources. Stacia published an account of the nest discovery in the Journal of the North American Falconers' Association, 2012, Volume 51, and credited all The Peregrine Fund people by name. BRRI is just pissed off that The Peregrine Fund staff found the eagle's nest first. BRRI's executive director, Ryan Phillips, wasn't even in Belize when the nest was found. I have to question this organizations credibility when BRRI group published statements that birds of prey don't actively drink water. Anybody that works closely with raptors knows that they drink water. With that kind of faulty raptor knowledge, its no wonder that BRRI people couldn't find the eagle's nest in the many years they spent looking. As well, I personally feel that anyone that posts anonymous comments obviously does not have the backbone to stand behind them either.
In my many years of dealing with Stacia Novy I have only known her to be scrupulously honest and accurate in her data and accounts of events.
Lawrence Godson
President, Save the Prairie Society
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