Relationship With Humans
American barbets have little impact on humans. The loss of forest can have a deleterious effect on barbet species dependent on old growth, to the benefit of species that favour more disturbed or open habitat.
Three species of American barbets are listed as threatened by the IUCN: The White-mantled Barbet of Colombia is listed as endangered and the Five-coloured Barbet as vulnerable, the two having a relatively small range threatened by deforestation for the timber industry and to create space for agriculture (including coca and marijuana) and livestock, and mining. The quite recently discovered Scarlet-banded Barbet of Peru is considered vulnerable due to its small population size (estimated at under a thousand birds) although its remote habitat is not immediately threatened.
Read more about this topic: Capitonidae
Famous quotes containing the words relationship with, relationship and/or humans:
“Henry David Thoreau, who never earned much of a living or sustained a relationship with any woman that wasn’t brotherly—who lived mostly under his parents’ roof ... who advocated one day’s work and six days “off” as the weekly round and was considered a bit of a fool in his hometown ... is probably the American writer who tells us best how to live comfortably with our most constant companion, ourselves.”
—Edward Hoagland (b. 1932)
“We must introduce a new balance in the relationship between the individual and the government—a balance that favors greater individual freedom and self-reliance.”
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)
“Because humans are not alone in exhibiting such behavior—bees stockpile royal jelly, birds feather their nests, mice shred paper—it’s possible that a pregnant woman who scrubs her house from floor to ceiling [just before her baby is born] is responding to a biological imperative . . . . Of course there are those who believe that . . . the burst of energy that propels a pregnant woman to clean her house is a perfectly natural response to their mother’s impending visit.”
—Mary Arrigo (20th century)