with regard to naming species I am reminded of a certain issue that
came up a few years back and generated some discussion regarding
various ethical issues, here is a related post I found on the net....I
dont know if anybody ever advanced the funding....

A Gift for the Nature Lover Who Has Everything
"Birdlife International Presents: THE CHOCI VIREO. An invitation for
your name to be remembered for eternity."

The small bird on the cover of the brochure is light gold and olive,
blending with yellowed leaves halfway up a rainforest tree. The
brochure says: "In August 1991, deep in the forests of the Rio Nambi
in south-west Colombia, a student ornithological expedition ...
discovered a bird that is distinct from all previously known species.
In 1992 the species was found at a second location in Colombia. It
probably lives only in primary forest on the Pacific foothill slopes
of the Colombian Andes -- the Choc - ."

Here's the deal. The bird belongs to the genus Vireo; it is a cousin
of the red-eyed vireo (Vireo olivaceus) and the Philadelphia vireo
(Vireo philadelphicus). It needs a species name. The discoverer
traditionally has the privilege of choosing that name. In this case
the discoverers have allowed BirdLife International to sell the
privilege to the highest bidder. If I had the financial resources, I
could name this little bird for a loved one or for myself. Vireo
meadowsi. The Meadows Vireo.

You might think the world's worst way to immortalize someone would be
to attach his or her name to a rare species in a vanishing tropical
forest. But the money will be used to endow nature reserves in the two
places where the vireo has been found. About 8000 acres have already
been purchased in the name of a nearby town. "This area is now owned
by the people of Altaquer and has been set up as the first Nature
Reserve in South America to be owned and managed by the local
community. Additional funding ... has allowed research and
accommodation facilities to be constructed on the site and reserve
wardens to be employed."

Money from the sale of the vireo's name will endow these facilities.
The Foundation for Higher Education in Colombia has agreed to match 50
percent of the sale value. The starting point for bidding is $100,000.

If that's too steep, I have a bargain for you. For only $50,000 you
can name a fish.

Dr. Les Kaufman of Boston University's Marine Program is the world's
expert on the bright, varied, threatened cichlid fishes of the lakes
of East Africa. He has the right to name about 50 of them. He's
willing to sell that right, if you can help him save the fish. The
money will go to captive breeding and restocking programs and to
training Africans in fish taxonomy, ecology, and management.

What do these fish looks like? "They're gorgeous," Kaufman says.
"They're three to six inches long, shaped like slightly elongated
sunfish. The females are drab, but the males are brilliant -- carmine
red, bright green with blue highlights, often with dark bars or
stripes. Their colors show best when they're passionate. Which is most
of the time."

I know several people who would be thrilled to have their names
attached to fish like that.

Africans use cichlids for bait, and they sun-dry them to make a soup
that they swear cures measles and malaria. (The East African
equivalent of chicken soup, says Kaufman.) Aquarium suppliers also
catch them; cichlids are the latest rage among European fish-fanciers.
But the main threats are not native fishing or aquarists but pollution
and the introduction of foreign species, primarily Nile perch, which
feed on cichlids. Cichlid populations are most intact in Africa's
small lakes, cut-off arms of the big ones, where aquatic communities
of astounding variety still thrive. Kaufman calls them lost worlds.
These are the main places he's trying to find, study, and preserve.

There's nothing new about naming species after wealthy benefactors,
especially benefactors that fund expeditions. There's a bird called
rockefelleri, at least eight birds named rothschildi (each with a
different "first" or genus name), and a Hawaiian bird called dolei
after the Dole pineapple family. The National Geographic Society has a
dinosaur named after it -- Leaellynasaura amicageographica. Its genus
name honors Lea Ellyn, daughter of the dinosaur's discoverers, Thomas
and Patricia Rich. Its species name means "friend of the Geographic."

Then there's the rabbit named for Hugh Hefner. It's a subspecies of
marsh rabbit found only on the Florida Keys. In exchange for funds
that went to ecological research Hefner named it Sylvilagus palustris
hefneri. Several bunnies of the human sort showed up with Hefner at
the naming ceremony.

The fate of that rabbit illustrates the crucial difference between
that naming process and the ones offered by Kaufman and Birdlife
International. Development on the Keys has crowded out Sylvilagus
palustris hefneri. It is now on the endangered species list. Hefner
bought its name, but not its habitat.

Left to its own devices, before Homo sapiens got so pushy, the average
species of life existed on earth for about five million years. That's
closer to eternity than anything else you can buy into, and you get to
put your name on a unique, living creature instead of cold stone. But
the larger opportunity these days for private donors, institutional
donors, or society as a whole, is not to immortalize ourselves, but to
immortalize the creatures, by ensuring them a home and someone to
watch over them.

(Inquiries about the Choci Vireo can be addressed to Martin Kelfey,
BirdLife International, Wellbrook Court, Girton Road, Cambridge CB3
0NA, U.K., phone 44-223-277318. Inquiries about cichlid fishes should
be directed to Les Kaufman, Boston University Marine Program,
Department of Biology, 5 Cummington St., Boston University, Boston MA
02215, phone 617-353-5560.)

(Donella H. Meadows is an adjunct professor of environmental studies
at Dartmouth College.)

Copyright Sustainability Institute
This article from The Donella Meadows Archive is available for use in
research, teaching, and private study. For other uses, please contact
Diana Wright, Sustainability Institute, 3 Linden Road, Hartland, VT
05048, (802) 436-1277.

Top

On 7/26/09, Russ Webb <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>   Yes, but a deal is a deal. If he even misled John into thinking that HIS
> shells would be returned or that a new species would be named after him in
> return for providing specimens, then that is wrong, however unscientific or
> un-"altruistic" that the agreement was.
>
>   Russ
>     ----- Original Message -----
>     From: worldwide
>     To: [log in to unmask]
>     Sent: Sunday, July 26, 2009 6:01 PM
>     Subject: Re: [CONCH-L] Keeping taxonomy on the high road.

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