|
Post by joachim on Dec 7, 2019 14:02:25 GMT -8
Hello, I see sometimes offered butterflies from Guadalcanal.
here were heavy fightings during WW2 on the island and I wonder whether the fauna has much suffered or whether the animals are back. I saw a film about the fightings and I consider whether some species were extinct.
Thanks Joachim
|
|
|
|
Post by exoticimports on Dec 8, 2019 5:22:35 GMT -8
Guadalcanal is 170km long and 50km wide with the interior being mountainous, up to almost 3000m mountains. There’s nothing else in the interior, never was. During the war a coastwatcher and his 200 person entourage avoided the Japanese simply because the patrols could not navigate the terrain.
The fighting was restricted to about 10% of the island, along the coast. Outside of that area life went on as usual.
By 2000, two years after the civil war started, the jungle had reclaimed major roads and abandoned settlements. The jungle comes back fast.
So, no. The fighting had effectively zero impact on the fauna. Except that stinging piss ants were introduced, the impact of which I can’t say.
The real impact, as seen worldwide, is from the logging.
Chuck
|
|
leptraps
Banned
Enter your message here...
Posts: 2,397
|
Post by leptraps on Dec 8, 2019 12:38:38 GMT -8
Several early members of the Lepidopterists Society, including Stan Nicolay were stationed on Guadalcanal during the War after the Japanese were defeated and evacuated the Island. Stan Nicolay said he did not collect during the War. And, he had no intentions of going back for any reason.
|
|
|
Post by joachim on Dec 9, 2019 9:16:04 GMT -8
Hello, thanks for the info. Yes many of my family members have been in the war and the do not feel to go there again, despiteless in which army they were. My father was in North Africa und Rommel, and later he got a good friend from London who was there under Montgomery. They preferred to sit in a cafe eating ic cream and expresso later. Hopefully the areas in other small islands are in good condition , too. In Göttingen, where I live,, the city has a Solidar alliance with Hiroshima. Even there buterflies seem to fly in the gardens there.
leptraps: One of you grand fathers served during the civil war?
Joachim
|
|
leptraps
Banned
Enter your message here...
Posts: 2,397
|
Post by leptraps on Dec 9, 2019 10:12:11 GMT -8
My great great Grand Father served with General Grant in the civil war.
My father was an engineer with White Truck. He served in the home front for two years before going into the Army Cor of Engineers. He never left the state's. All of my uncle's served in the Pacific. All three were pilots.
|
|
|
Post by exoticimports on Dec 9, 2019 12:54:10 GMT -8
My grandfather stopped at Guadalcanal he was merchant marines. Also North Africa, etc. He did not collect butterflies.
However there was a USMC pilot on GC that collected butterflies during the war. It is written in several books that a soldier chased butterflies between the lines, but I have been unable to substantiate that.
Imagine, right now there are urvilleanus and victoriae flying around.
|
|
|
|
Post by papiliotheona on Jan 5, 2020 17:45:51 GMT -8
Several early members of the Lepidopterists Society, including Stan Nicolay were stationed on Guadalcanal during the War after the Japanese were defeated and evacuated the Island. Stan Nicolay said he did not collect during the War. And, he had no intentions of going back for any reason. Kilian Roever speaks of him sometimes. Is he still around?
|
|
|
Post by exoticimports on Jan 6, 2020 4:35:00 GMT -8
Several early members of the Lepidopterists Society, including Stan Nicolay were stationed on Guadalcanal during the War after the Japanese were defeated and evacuated the Island. Stan Nicolay said he did not collect during the War. And, he had no intentions of going back for any reason. Kilian Roever speaks of him sometimes. Is he still around? Google is your friend. images.peabody.yale.edu/lepsoc/jls/2000s/2005/2005(3)179-Robbins.pdf
|
|
leptraps
Banned
Enter your message here...
Posts: 2,397
|
Post by leptraps on Jan 6, 2020 14:31:53 GMT -8
Stan Nicolay was a friend and fellow Lepidopterists. He passed away in 2004.
|
|
|
Post by exoticimports on Jan 6, 2020 14:37:20 GMT -8
2004.
He’s fortunate. There are over 400 Marines MIA on Guadalcanal in an area half the size of Manhattan.
|
|
leptraps
Banned
Enter your message here...
Posts: 2,397
|
Post by leptraps on Jan 6, 2020 16:18:32 GMT -8
They will never find any remains now. The jungle is corrosive and has totally consumed the bodies in less than a decade. And, there are several thousand dead Japanese that the jungle has consumed as well.
Stan Nicolay flew an F4U Wildcat. Like most WW2 Veterans, Stan never talked about the war.
|
|
|
Post by exoticimports on Jan 6, 2020 19:07:52 GMT -8
They will never find any remains now. The jungle is corrosive and has totally consumed the bodies in less than a decade. And, there are several thousand dead Japanese that the jungle has consumed as well. Stan Nicolay flew an F4U Wildcat. Like most WW2 Veterans, Stan never talked about the war. I can find Japanese bones as fast as you can find a Waffle House. American bones in graves still exist, they’ve not evaporated, it’s a matter of sleuthing and finding the burial sight. Time and money and brains. I’m working with organizations now on just that. I want to bring them home. Not all of Guadalcanal is jungle. Ridges are dry and drain well. Japanese machine guns have been found after 80 years that are fully functional. Same for a very few US guns, including a Thompson, a .50 M2HB, and others.
|
|
leptraps
Banned
Enter your message here...
Posts: 2,397
|
Post by leptraps on Jan 7, 2020 1:56:33 GMT -8
I have been known to be wrong before. I know I read someplace that the those who were not buried the corrosive jungle would consume.
After the battles were over, the clean up was gruesome.
I have only read, never experienced. And for that I am truly thankful that I have never experienced combat or the aftermath.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2020 10:26:54 GMT -8
They will never find any remains now. The jungle is corrosive and has totally consumed the bodies in less than a decade. And, there are several thousand dead Japanese that the jungle has consumed as well. Stan Nicolay flew an F4U Wildcat. Like most WW2 Veterans, Stan never talked about the war. I can find Japanese bones as fast as you can find a Waffle House. American bones in graves still exist, they’ve not evaporated, it’s a matter of sleuthing and finding the burial sight. Time and money and brains. I’m working with organizations now on just that. I want to bring them home. Not all of Guadalcanal is jungle. Ridges are dry and drain well. Japanese machine guns have been found after 80 years that are fully functional. Same for a very few US guns, including a Thompson, a .50 M2HB, and others. I can find Japanese bones as fast as you can find a Waffle House. PRICELESS
|
|
leptraps
Banned
Enter your message here...
Posts: 2,397
|
Post by leptraps on Jan 7, 2020 12:21:17 GMT -8
I do not get the connection, Japanese Bones and a Waffle House.
I had a neighbor whos wife was Japanese. He was stationed in Japan as part of the occupation force after the war ended. Ms Betty and I socialised with them. But people would stare. They moved to California and we never heard from them again.
|
|