Can philately sensitise people to wildlife/conservation? › publication › fulltext › Can-philat... › publication › fulltext › Can-philat...by ME Ramanujam · 2016 — During the early days of stamp collecting (as philately is known) ... to peruse the stamp ca
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Can philately sensitise people to wildlife / conservation? An introduction to thematic philately and a visual treatise concerning the variety of philatelic material available on owls (Aves: Strigiformes)
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Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2016 | 8(7): 8989–9003
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)
OPEN ACCESS
M. Eric Ramanujam Principal Investigator (Faunistics), Pitchandikulam Bioresource Centre / Pitchandikulam Forest Consultants, Auroville 605101, India
[email protected]
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/jott.2479.8.7.8989-9003 Editor: Stephen D. Nash, Stony Brook University, New York, USA.
Date of publication: 26 July 2016 (online & print)
Manuscript details: Ms # 2479 | Received 21 December 2015 | Final received 20 June 2016 | Finally accepted 12 July 2016 Citation: Ramanujam, M.E. (2016). Can philately sensitise people to wildlife / conservation? An introduction to thematic philately and a visual treatise concerning the variety of philatelic material available on owls (Aves: Strigiformes). Journal of Threatened Taxa 8(7): 8989–9003; http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/jott.2479.8.7.8989-9003 Copyright: © Ramanujam 2016. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication. Funding: None. Conflict of Interest: The author declares no competing interests. Author Details: M. Eric Ramanujam has been a wildlife illustrator for over two decades, and has a background in the advertising industry. Since 1997 he has been involved in full time conservation and research. His major sphere of interest is the natural history of the Indian Eagle Owl Bubo bengalensis. From the time he was a young adult, he has been a keen philatelist and has won many state and national titles. He gave up competitive philately after winning the gold medal at the nationals (INPEX 1993). Acknowledgements: I would like to thank P. Karunakaran, Sekar Babu Nagappa and Tushita Singh for helping me in the production of this article, particularly the Images and Image layouts.
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Can philately sensitise people to wildlife / conservation?
Ramanujam
Since the world’s first postage stamp (the ‘Penny Black’ issued by Great Britain on 1st May 1840 and featuring the profile of Queen Victoria) the majority of the early stamps depicted busts of reigning monarchs. But as time passed, these miniature works of art began to have a wider range of designs. Though busts and coats of arms predominated, bears appeared on provisional stamps in St. Louis in 1845, the ‘Basel Dove’ (symbolizing peace) was issued by Switzerland in the same year, the ‘Three Penny Beaver’ was issued by Canada in 1851, and the ‘Black Swan’ by Western Australia in 1854. All these are collector’s items today, and command prices at auction of many thousands of pounds, but it was heartening to know that some individuals and organizations identified themselves with their native wildlife to go to the extent of portraying these animals on their first postage stamps. British India narrowly escaped. Though the Scinde District had its own special issues since 1852, it was decided that British India should have its own prepaid stamps. In 1853 the decision was taken to have ‘proofs’ made of a ‘Lion and Palm Tree’ for a half anna stamp. These we
