Scarlet Experiment: Birds and Humans in America

by Jeff Karnicky

Emily Dickinson’s poem “Split the Lark” refers to the “scarlet experiment” by which scientists destroy a bird in order to learn more about it. Indeed, humans have killed hundreds of millions of birds—for science, fashion, curiosity, and myriad other reasons. In the United States alone, seven species of birds are now extinct and another ninety-three are endangered. Conversely, the U.S. conservation movement has made bird-watching more popular than ever, saving countless bird populations; and while the history of actual physical human interaction with birds is complicated, our long aesthetic and scientific interest in them is undeniable. Since the beginning of the modern conservation movement in the mid-nineteenth century, human understanding of and interaction with birds has changed profoundly. In Scarlet Experiment , Jeff Karnicky traces the ways in which birds have historically been seen as beautiful creatures worthy of protection and study and yet subject to experiments—scientific, literary, and governmental—that have irrevocably altered their relationship with humans.

This examination of the management of bird life in America from the nineteenth century to today, which focuses on six bird species, finds that renderings of birds by such authors as Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson, Don DeLillo, and Christopher Cokinos, have also influenced public perceptions and actions. Scarlet Experiment  speculates about the effects our decisions will have on the future of North American bird ecology. 

 

 

Genres: Birds

246 pages, Hardcover

Published November 1, 2016

Reviews

[David Robertson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readers considering Jeff Karnicky’s Scarlet Experiment who may be squeamish reading about experimentation on birds can rest easy; Karnicky’s “experiments” are (mostly) bloodless, at least in terms of graphic detail. Karnicky interprets “experiment” very broadly. His experiments certainly include the strict scientific meaning of testing a hypothesis. However, he also expands the term significantly to encompass nearly all interactions between humans and birds, and especially those whose outcomes are not obvious, inherently apparent, or foreordained. The subject of this carefully documented and well researched book is how experiments, in all senses of the word, have affected both humans and birds in America over the last two centuries.

Karnicky takes his title from a line in Emily Dickenson’s poem “Split the Lark,” which literally references a bird dissection to explore the concepts of doubt and skepticism: is it truly necessary to kill and, thus, destroy a bird in order to appreciate its ability to sing—to annihilate its very nature? Karnicky uses this line as a touchstone for all the birds killed in America as a direct result of human actions whether intentional, inadvertent, or indifferent. He posits that, in the 21st century, birds have come to be recognized as cognitive individuals that, in many cases, have become subject to human management and governmental policies. Each of the book’s five chapters focuses on one bird species as a means of exploring diverse and complex aspects of human-avian interactions.

Karnicky begins with a consideration of how human interactions with blue jays in the 19th and 20th centuries developed into an understanding of the cognitive abilities of birds. He then ponders whether human behavior might change to incorporate ethical considerations of human actions if we recognize that jays—and, by extension, all sentient organisms with which we share the planet—possess intelligence, consciousness and emotions that exist on a continuum with human’s possession of these qualities. In the second chapter, he further considers how introduced European starlings, perhaps the ultimate avian beneficiary of habitat alteration and the most numerous bird in North America, can serve to help people think about the kinds of ethical relations that exist between human and non-human animals. Starlings interact with and respond to the world as humans do. Such an understanding, therefore, negates assigning priority or superiority to human perception; instead, recognition of the inherent companionship between people and animals should inspire humans to reconsider their relations with the natural world.

The third and fourth chapters focus on how two species—the red knot and the Canada goose—survive in a milieu intensively structured by human public policy—or governmentality, to cite the terminology favored by Karnicky. For the red knot, in imminent danger of extinction, the author explores how conservation measures have embraced both science and marketing. Despite the species’ recognized plight and the development of a realistic plan to increase the birds’ numbers that would have a high likelihood of success if implemented, red knot numbers continue to decline. In light of the fact that current conservation strategies have failed to improve the prognosis for the species’ existence, Karnicky goes on to question whether endangered species can continue to exist in a system of “integrated world capitalism” that places a monetary value on all forms of life. In contrast to the red knot, the Canada goose, a species at one time considered vulnerable because of overhunting, has rebounded so robustly that the birds have become a nuisance and a health risk to people. Through inadvertent habitat manipulation and intentional regulation, goose populations are climbing steadily. People now subject geese to intensive management through governmental policy decisions and behavior modification strategies.

The fifth chapter examines the human drive to classify and organize life on earth, with a special emphasis on birds. Karnicky uses the tufted/black-crested titmouse complex in Texas to elucidate his points because the birds have, at various times, been “lumped” into a single species or “split” into two separate, distinct species. The chapter also examines the growing importance of online databases of bird occurrence and abundance like eBird. These data sources provide incredibly detailed information about bird populations, but also contribute to increasingly sophisticated bird management through public policy.

This final chapter is followed by a short concluding overview of the future of birds from the perspectives of citizens, governments, corporations, and nongovernmental organizations. It also includes some thoughts on whether the outlook for birds in America is fraught with peril or on a hopeful upswing.

Karnicky introduces each of the five main chapters with a brief personal anecdote related to the bird species to be covered in the chapter. He then provides a detailed historical account of the species in question and introduces the specific facets of the human-avian interactions he will develop throughout the remainder of the chapter. Many of the interactions involve—from the human perspective—complex issues of morality and unresolved and contentious public policy. To explore these issues, Karnicky quotes heavily from the writings of philosophers, ethicists, ethologists and economists to frame his arguments; herein lies the book’s greatest shortcoming. In those sections in which Karnicky quotes philosophers and moralists extensively, the text becomes dense. He may not have intended this effect, but even Karnicky must have recognized the impact of including so many abstruse quotations because he nearly always follows the quotations with clarifying comments that begin “in short,” “in other words,” and “that is.” These comments restate the preceding arguments in language accessible to readers who may be put-off by the somewhat turgid academic discourse.

The author raises important issues that affect the lives of millions of birds and as such deserve serious consideration and deliberation. Clarity of language and presentation are essential for reaching the broadest possible audience. Fortunately, Karnicky had the good sense to “translate” the arcane argot on which he draws so heavily into language that can be more readily understood and appreciated by natural area professionals interested in birds, ethology, and the moral underpinnings of wildlife and ecosystem management.

Karnicky notes in his conclusion that “the vast majority of Americans pay little or no attention to birds in everyday life.” As Trevor Herriot acknowledges in his award-winning account of prairie birds, Grass, Sky, Song (2009), “The damnable truth is that if ten or fifteen species [of grassland birds] went extinct tomorrow we would have trouble detecting any significant ecological or economic consequences.” However, Karnicky wisely goes on to enlarge his purview to encompass the wider natural world that very well may touch more people’s lives: “…humans might come to understand that we are much closer to birds and other living beings than we had thought. We might see the world as full of many more minds, intelligences, and lives than we had previously believed.” This statement echoes another sentiment expressed by Herriot: “It’s a fool’s dream, but a part of me can’t stop imagining that if enough people would discover all that is good and holy in these [grassland] birds, we might be able to turn things around before it’s too late.”

[FMLDNR · Rating 5 out of 5]

wonderful book.