La Gomera

[zdenol123]

Hi guys. i´m going to Canary Islands / La Gomera and Tenerife / in April for collecting, mostly beetles but also I´d like take photos and some specimens to my collection. With beetles there is no problem. But for Lep´s you need butterfly net and here we go...I know there is problem with spanish laws about collecting or killing animals. So, I´d like to ask if I can get permit. And if yes where ?
Your help will be much appreciated !

Zdeno
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Zdeno Lucbauer
Kettering
Northamptonshire

[Hamearis]

Sorry mate.
No help from me.
I don't like collecting for collectings sake.
If you have a scientific reason no probs.
Just collecting makes you a selfish sicko in my book.
Ham

[Denise]

ditto....

[zdenol123]

Okay, where is difference between scientific collecting and self enjoying from collecting ? Untill you work for museum or some scientific organisation you are only " fila-ento..telist ", like most of us ! You can´t call yourself scientist if you collect in your backyard......I enjoy collectiing, I enjoy nature, I enjoy photographing, I enjoy my collection...maybe sometime when I finish those colecting days, somebody will get my collection...and then it will be something for sciense, don´t you think so ? Anyway, I´m an member of Slovakian Entomological Society, so all data from my trips before and in the future I offer to them.

With respect !

Zdeno

P.S. for me is sicko only dumb extremistic protectionist who don´t even know what he does....

[Hamearis]

Last year, lots of work and poor weather meant i hadn't seen one of my fave butterflies - the Marsh Frit.
I got to a good site but praps a week late.
I found only one Marsh Frit, and spent a graet halfhour watching and photographing it.
It is one've of my best memories of the year.
Imagine if a selfish git like you had been along half an hour before and "collected" it!
Idve had a miserable time wouldnt i?
Forget your Entomological Society - join Butterfly CONSERVATION.

Ham

[Rogerdodge]

Zdeno
Honestly, I am speechless.
In the past members of this list have freely given out locations of scarce and elusive butterflies to, what they have assumed are, like minded people.
Knowing there are dinosaurs out there like you who still derive pleasure from having dead animals on their walls, or hidden away in cabinets may endanger this free flow of information..
I used to collect butterflies too -when I was about 10 in the 1960s, but since then I have grown up a bit, and realise the damage collecting can cause.
You ask the difference between collecting for pleasure, and collecting for scientific reasons.
Well, if you can't see that satiating a desire to kill scarce animals, often before they have a chance to breed just to display and "own" them is totally without merit, whilst the collecting of specimens (now very rarely done) to assist with analysing population/genetic studies and thus enriching our knowledge and aiding conservation work is of great value, then your reasoning capabilities are strictly limited.
Try your deviant practices on any nature reserve in the UK, and I trust you will end up having to have your net extracted from your lower person by surgery, and that is a promise.
Collecting in Spain, without a license, is a very serious offence, and could send you to jail - so do us all a favour, and go for it!!
With hardly any respect at all.

Roger

[JKT]

I have to say the attitude towards reasonable collecting can get a bit rabid here.

The way to get permission in Spain is by first joining their Lepidopterist organization SHILAP. Then they will forward your application to the appropriate authorities. The permissions go by province, but the application process can take as long as three months, so you may already be too late.

[zdenol123]

Thank you very much " JKT " ! I´ll try to contact them by phone.

Yes, I really like when ppl like this want to tell you something about sciense, collecting, killing, etc. I don´t mind...ok once again thanks!


Zdeno

[Gruditch]

I note Zedno that you list yourself as hailing from Northamptonshire. Do you collect for display purposes, butterflies in the UK.

Gruditch

[Gruditch]

I have to say the attitude towards reasonable collecting can get a bit rabid here.

Reasonable collecting, you should check who you are giving information too

Gruditch

[Padfield]

Many of the butterflies in the Canaries represent endangered endemic species and the numbers on some of the islands are now critical due to excessive human activity, both agricultural and tourism related. Setting aside the distastefulness of collecting, I would be very surprised if you were granted permission to collect and I certainly hope you are not. Some years ago I searched hard on one of the islands (I wouldn't dare say which, now) for plain tiger, Canary blue, Canary speckled wood, Canary large white &c. and found generally small and in some cases quite isolated populations. The plain tiger population I found could easily have been exterminated by a succession of collectors in a succession of summers - they have already been chased into small, remote enclaves.

You sense hostility from many of us because we are indeed hostile towards those who kill what we cherish. Every butterfly society I know or am a member of - and that includes UK Butterflies - has an explicit policy against collecting. We share information with each other on the understanding that none of us collect.

Guy

[JKT]

Reasonable collecting, you should check who you are giving information too

True enough - I did not and still haven't. Then again, that was pretty much public information. I probably should have written "even reasonable collecting".

Padfield, the list of species seems to leave only two choices. If you want to hide something, you have to be more careful. For a similar reason, I have not been able to report common species as that location and date could have been linked to rare ones which I had pictures of. As far as La Gomera goes, that seems to be one island that does not (yet?) have too many problems with tourism. Agriculture has been a problem to the Garajonay national park, but the restoration program should be underway now.

[Matsukaze]

Hi JKT

Is the organisation you mentioned in your first post the one you need to contact for a license to run a moth trap in Spain?

[JKT]

Hi JKT

Is the organisation you mentioned in your first post the one you need to contact for a license to run a moth trap in Spain?

I think so.