Eugene Schieffelin
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Eugene Schieffelin (b. New York 1827; d. Rhode Island 1906) belonged to the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society and the New York Zoological Society. He was responsible for introducing the starling (Sturnus vulgaris) to North America, where it has become a serious pest.
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[edit] Starling release
In 1890, He released 60 starlings into New York City’s Central Park. He did the same with another 40 birds in 1891. It is said (though there is no evidence to support this) that his motivation was to allow New Yorkers to see all the birds mentioned in the plays of William Shakespeare; more likely he was merely trying to control the same pests that had been annoying him thirty years earlier, when he sponsored the introduction of the House Sparrow to North America.[1]
Until that time (1890), starlings were not native to North America. Schieffelin imported the starlings from England. Scientists estimate that descendants from those two original released flocks now number at more than 200 million residing in the United States.
The starlings' wildly successful spread is believed to have come at the expense of many native birds that compete with the starling for nest holes in trees.
His attempts to introduce bullfinches, chaffinches, nightingales, and skylarks were not successful.
[edit] Reasons for release
Schieffelin belonged to the Acclimation Society of North America, a group with the laudable, if misguided, aim of aiding the exchange of plants and animals from one part of the world to another. In the 19th Century, such acclimatization societies were fashionable and supported by the scientific knowledge and beliefs of that era, as the effect that non-native species could have on the local ecosystem was not yet known.
Compared to contemporary scientific thought, Schieffelin’s 19th century actions may now seem naïve and even foolish. European starlings are now considered an invasive species in the USA. In the politically charged arena of genetically modified organisms, Schieffelin’s actions are cited by opponents of GMO’s as an example of what can go wrong if an experimental organism escapes from a laboratory and radiates throughout the environment.
[edit] Trivia
- Eugene Schieffelin was a wealthy drug manufacturer and theatre aficionado.
- Schieffelin Avenue in the Bronx honors his family, which owned land in Edenwald, near Eastchester Road.
- Some have speculated that his ambition was to introduce every bird mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare into the United States, though this is almost certainly not true.
- Shakespeare’s sole reference to the starling appears in King Henry IV, part 1 (Act 1, scene 3): “Nay, I’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak nothing but ‘Mortimer.’” [1]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Edward Tenner, Why Things Bite Back pp. 152-155, (New York: Vintage Books, 1997.)
[edit] External links
- Park and the People, A History of Central Park By Roy Rosenzweig, Elizabeth Blackmar (See hyperlinks referring to Schieffelin on page 1 of the book.)
- New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, Edenwald Playground
- GreenMuseum.org, “I'll Have a Starling” installation
- Tennessee State Department of Environment and Conservation, Origins of the European Starling in the United States, By David Ian Withers
- Stanford University, Birds of Stanford - Essays, Avian Invaders, by Paul R. Ehrlich, David S. Dobkin, and Darryl Wheye
- Newsday.com, Starlings in Flight Not Bard's Delight, By Julie Claire Diop, June 8, 2003
