Wildlife Bytes 2/2/12

Editorial

Irate commercial fishermen and shop owners are suing the Queensland Government for more than $20 million in business losses, but Premier Anna Bligh says compensation is already in the pipeline. About 60 people are seeking compensation for business losses associated with losing fishing grounds due to dredging works and a fish disease outbreak in Gladstone Harbour. They are claiming a $70 billion port development at Gladstone, to prepare for massive shipments of liquefied natural gas and coal seam gas, contributed to the outbreak. The Premier Anna Bligh has said that compensation for damage to the fisherperson's Industry was always going to be paid, and the decision to pay compensation was made before the dredging started. So they knew before they started the dredging that the marine environment would be damaged! They knew fish and other marine life would be infected by the heavy metals stirred up by the dredging, although they have consistently denied it. But they still went ahead anyway, and Gladestone Harbor has been trashed, and much more trashing is to come. Curtis Island, very much a natural area with lots of wildlife, is to be the future site of another three CSG processing plants. And while its too probably late to save Gladstone Harbor and Curtis Island, groups are now trying to save nearby Keppel Bay from the Industrial fallout. Visit http://www.protectkeppelbay.org * WPAA

New Kangaroo Doco

The documentary 'Kangaroo Mob' will be on ABC 1 on Tuesday 21st February at 8:30pm. It is being promoted with... "meet the mob of 'street smart' kangaroos moving into Australia's Capital City". In light of the fact that several thousand kangaroos have been deliberately killed for no good reason in and around the ACT in recent years, it will be interesting to see what perspective the film makers take regarding the kangaroos. We do not expect the Doco to show kangaroos in a positive light, but we are always ready to be surprised. *WPAA

Family Fun and Music Day, Victoria

Come and enjoy a RAWSOME day of good vibes great music, delicious food, cold bevys & heaps of fun, family friendly - all ages welcome, heaps of delicious of food & drinks - healthy, funky, luscious, affordable, beer & wine for sale, free hydration station - get your fill of H2O, Raw market, merch tent & info stalls, free on-site parking - $2 Carbon tax for every empty seat in your vehicle, free hugs for walkers and bus or bicycle arrivals (use bus# 784, 785, 781), carbon conscious and offset event - join us thru the year for carbon offset projects, loads of FREE kids entertainment - rides, wildlife contact,performances, facepainters, circus, craft,games, do bring - sunscreen, hat, sunnys generous heart - every $ you spend supports conservation, dont bring - alcohol, umbrellas, glass, tight-ass attitude. Visit http://www.raw.org.au/

Elephants in Australia?

Australia should introduce elephants and allow dingoes to breed in packs as a radical, yet serious, solution to the country's rampant bushfire and feral animal problems, a Tasmanian environmental professor says. Alternatively, Aboriginals should be encouraged to reinstate their traditional practices of hunting and patch burning, University of Tasmania professor of environmental change biology, David Bowman, writes in an opinion piece for journal Nature today. Professor Bowman says while climate change may be a contributor to the increasing regularity of wildfires, they are being fuelled by the spread of "alien plants" introduced alongside invasive species that are also now overrunning the country, such as buffalo, pigs, camels and goats. Those animals are reconstructing ecosystems and destabilising the country's food webs, he says. But Professor Bowman believes yet more species need to be introduced to Australia. This time they should be mega-herbivores such as elephants, rhinoceroses or Komodo dragons, which would help reduce the thriving African grass called gamba, a major fire hazard. The poisoning of dingoes also should stop, as dingo packs would be predators for smaller, feral animals such as foxes and pigs.
Read more: http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/introduce-elephants-to-solve-bushfire-risks-professor-20120201-1qtob.html#ixzz1lAQUkLNV

Ed Comment; It never ceases to amaze us what some of these academics come up with. Gamba grass was introduced by farmers, dingoes are killed by farmers, kangaroos are killed by farmers, wouldn't the farmes have some fun with elephants walking thru their fences. They might have to buy bigger guns.......

Primates

An International animal charity claims it saved a petrified pregnant orang-utan mother and her infant after they were surrounded by headhunters in Borneo. The charity Four Paws, which was founded in Austria and campaigns to end animal cruelty, had been searching the area around a palm oil plantation after news of killings emerged. According to the charity, palm oil companies pay up to 1 million rupiah (about $100) for each orang-utan slaughtered. ''The Four Paws search unit did not find any surviving orang-utans apart from a pregnant female and her infant, who were already surrounded by a gang of local youths intending to kill them for the bounty,'' the organisation's website said. 'The petrified animals were rescued at last minute and brought to one of the few remaining safe areas in the jungle of Borneo.'' Dr Signe Preuschoft, a Four Paws primate expert, told the Daily Mail: ''Our arrival could not have been more timely.'' The charity, which runs an orang-utan orphanage, said the apes have since been successfully released into the wild. Large tracts of forest in Borneo have been cleared through logging and forest conversion for oil palm plantations and other agriculture. According to WWF, orang-utans are an easy target for hunters, being large and slow, and studies have indicated that 200-500 baby orang-utans from Borneo are illegally traded as pets each year. *Age

Crocodiles

Crocodile sightings near schools have triggered calls for "humane" cullings in northern Australia. North Queensland's Ian Macdonald, who is Federal Opposition spokesman on northern and remote Australia, made the call after a 5m crocodile was spotted near East Innisfail State School, in Queensland, over a 10-day period. "The time for dithering and pandering to the radical green element is over. We need urgent action before someone is killed," he said. Senator Macdonald was critical of the Queensland Government, especially State Fisheries Minister Craig Wallace who he said had praised the success of a shark culling program, but continued to ignore the threat of crocodiles. Crocosaurus Cove croc handler Nigel Palmer said it would be more sensible for the crocs to be moved to farms or parks such as in the NT. He said in the Wet crocs did arrive in unusual places but as the water retracted they went with it. "It (a cull) would be difficult to police and monitor. It would be impossible to control," he said. "The positive would be creating an income for indigenous communities or similar, and the biggest negative would be leaving wounded animals swimming around in the system. And wounded crocodiles are dangerous animals." *NT News

Alpine National Parks

The Baillieu government is refusing to abandon its cattle grazing trial in the Alpine National Park despite the Commonwealth rejecting its plans under national environment laws. Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke yesterday ruled that the grazing trial - which would return 400 cows to the park - posed unacceptable risks to the heritage values of the alpine region and said it was in breach of federal law. ''A national park should not be used as a farm,'' Mr Burke said. ''It is there for nature and it is there for people to enjoy nature. It's not there to be used as a form of free feed for a handful of local users and it shouldn't be used in that way.'' State Environment Minister Ryan Smith said he was now seeking advice from the Victorian Government Solicitor's Office and his department on possible next steps. He said the trial was an election commitment the government intended to keep. But he conceded it would now be difficult to put cows back into the alpine park this summer. ''It [the trial] is an election commitment, we were elected to fulfil our election commitments, this is one and we will certainly be pushing through to the best degree that we can,'' Mr Smith said.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/environment/federal-no-to-alpine-grazing-but-state-refuses-to-bow-20120131-1qrcb.html#ixzz1lAatFI72


Seals

A grey seal hunt on Hay Island off Cape Breton is looking doubtful this year because of a lack of markets, says a spokesman for the sealers.vRobert Courtney said Monday the Cape Breton sealers were hoping to see markets for grey seal meat in China but a proposed trade agreement opening the door for the export of Canadian seal products hasn’t happened.v“It don’t look good without the meat market,” said Courtney, president of the North of Smokey/Inverness South Fishermen’s Association.v“The people in China want it but the border isn’t open and we can’t get it there.”Last January, then-Fisheries Minister Gail Shea announced from Beijing that she had landed a trade agreement to sell Canadian seal meat in China, but bureaucrats with Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have confirmed the Chinese have yet to sign off on the agreement, the Canadian Press reported in November. Frank Pinhorn, executive director of the Canadian Sealers Association, said at the time Fisheries and Oceans may have promised too much, too soon but he’s confident a final deal is in the works. *Cape Breton Post "
Ed comment; Sounds very much like the kangaroo kill....these dispicable Industries trying to dump their products that noone else wants, onto the Chinese markets."

Climate Change

Tropical sea cucumbers and their faeces could save coral reefs from the harmful impacts of climate change, scientists have found. Scientists at One Tree Island, the University of Sydney’s research station on the Great Barrier Reef, say sea cucumbers reduce the impact of ocean acidification on coral growth. "When they ingest sand, the natural digestive processes in the sea cucumber's gut increases the pH levels of the water on the reef where they defecate," Tree Island director professor Maria Byrne said. This works to counter the negative effects of ocean acidification. One of the by-products when sea cucumbers digest sand is also calcium carbonate (CaCO3), which is a key component of coral. "To survive, coral reefs must accumulate CaCO3 at a rate greater than or equal to the CaCO3 that is eroded from the reef," Professor Byrne said. "The research at One Tree Island showed that, in a healthy reef, dissolution of calcium carbonate sediment by sea cucumbers and other bioeroders appears to be an important component of the natural calcium carbonate turnover." The ammonia waste produced when sea cucumbers digest sand also serves to fertilise the surrounding area, providing nutrients for coral growth. Sea cucumbers are among the largest invertebrates found on tropical reefs. About 30 species are commercially harvested by the fishery industry along the Great Barrier Reef and throughout the tropics. "We urgently need to understand the impact of removing sea cucumbers and other invertebrates on reef health and resilience at a time when reefs face an uncertain future," Professor Byrne said. * AAP

Platypus

A juvenile female Platypus has found stuck in a fish ladder in a weir in the Caboolture River. She was taken to The Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital by the concerned local resident who found Zayne. Triage nurses Lisa and Ann checked over Zayne when she was admitted late in the afternoon, and found she was a healthy little girl who had just been displaced. Dr Robyn’s assessment detected no abnormalities. Zayne was already well hydrated, and fed some mealworms. She was kept in the Mammals ICU overnight for observation, and given the all-clear for release the very next day. Zayne was released in suitable platypus habitat, far from any roads or residential housing, by Murray our Appeals Manager. It’s great getting out of the office to see the results of all of our hard work! AZWH Statistic: It’s very rarely we see platypus at the hospital (3 since 2010), but we’ve treated two in the past week alone! *AZWH

Spiders

Southeast Queensland residents have been warned to be on the lookout for potentially dangerous funnel-web spiders, which typically move around in warm and damp weather. Queensland Museum senior curator Robert Raven yesterday said that although more common in Sydney, funnel-web spiders were found in Brisbane suburbs near dense bush, such as The Gap, Kedron Brook, Mt Coot-tha, Bardon, Kenmore, Brookfield, Pullenvale, Springwood, Rochedale, and Capalaba and Mt Cotton in Redland City. Gaythorne resident Jessica Radnidge thought she had stumbled over an outbreak of funnel-web spiders after she found two at her house in the past three weeks, one of which bit her father, Philip. After examining photographs, Dr Raven said the creatures were mouse spiders. He said the confusion with a funnel-web was understandable because they were similar in size and dark colouring, except that the mouse spider was stockier. People should be wary about funnel-web and mouse spiders, both of which were potentially dangerous. "A child at Gatton was bitten by a mouse spider in the '80s and, judging by the reaction, everyone thought it was a funnel-web," he said. "They can deliver a severe bite." Funnel-web spiders grow as big as an adult hand. With summer temperatures and rain, deadly male funnel-webs will be active until at least March or April. Males often wander at night searching for females, especially during rain. *Courier Mail

Become a Wildlife Warrior

By making a one-off donation or joining our monthly giving program you can become part of a global wildlife force that is working hard to preserve our natural environment. Monthly Giving Program; Sign up to become a regular giver for wildlife conservation! Donations start from as little as $2.50 a week and can go to helping our native wildlife at the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital. Nearly 100 wildlife emergency calls are received every day at the Hospital, Up to 30 different species are admitted to the hospital every day, Currently around 80 koalas undergoing treatment, Approximately 70% of patients are victims of car accidents or domestic pet attacks, The cost to treat one animal ranges from $100 to thousands of dollars To sign up or find out more please visit http://www.wildlifewarriors.org.au *


Wyangala Kangaroos

A study into the number of kangaroos at Wyangala Dam has been ordered following a New Year’s Day roo attack on a seven-year-old Orange girl. The unprovoked attack left Makayla McEvoy scratched and bruised when she and her family were holidaying at the popular tourist destination near Cowra. Wyangala Waters State Park manager Russell McLeod said the study was ordered at the regular monthly meeting on Tuesday night. He said until the study had been conducted it was too early to say if the park’s kangaroos would be culled. “I hope there won’t be a cull because we’ve only had one incident in anyone’s memory,” he said. “One incident doesn’t mean there should be a cull, the kangaroos have a right to be there. “The kangaroos are a feature of the park, people come here knowing they can see them up close. “[The park] copped a fair bit of media attention. “It’s our duty of care to all our guests and for the animals to hopefully prevent that happening again.”

Mr McLeod said the study would involve an assessment of the kangaroo population, whether it was on the increase and also if current numbers presented a risk to visitors. He said the study would be conducted over a number of months with Wyangala Waters State Trust set to seek funding from Crown Lands to undertake the research. Makayla’s mother Emma McGowan welcomed the study and said she would support the findings. “If the research shows they are multiplying too quickly they should be culled,” she said. While the kangaroos “have a right to exist”, Ms McGowan said “it has to be looked at in context, it’s a recreation park ... people should be protected”. She said Makayla suffers from nightmares and hasn’t been sleeping well since the attack. While park staff installed temporary signs to warn people of the dangers kangaroos present, Ms McGowan said more needed to be done to educate people. *Central Western Daily

Koalas

If Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke does not list koalas as a nationally threatened species, it will show federal environment legislation is incapable of protecting wildlife, says leading University of Queensland researcher Frank Carrick. Dr Carrick said since southeast Queensland koalas were nominated for listing as locally endangered in 2010, there had been silence from the State Government and procrastination by the Federal Government. He said there was clear evidence that southeast koalas should be listed as critically endangered under state legislation. Mr Burke is due to announce his decision next month after a Senate inquiry tabled a damning report on the animal's future. State Environment Minister Vicky Darling would not respond to questions yesterday about whether she would list koalas as locally endangered, saying any decision was for the Federal Government. "This Government recognises that our koala population is vulnerable in southeast Queensland and that's why we have a $60 million koala response strategy to protect habitat, buy new property and implement strict planning controls to link animal conservation with development planning and approvals," she said.

Dr Carrick said Queensland would look silly if it had to play catch-up with the Commonwealth on listings, since the key elements leading to the likely federal listing were based on Queensland research. "In the unlikely event that Commonwealth listing does not happen, it will clearly demonstrate the complete inadequacy of the (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation) Act to protect Australia's unique fauna," he said. Australian Koala Foundation executive director Deborah Tabart has warned for years that unless tough action was taken, koala numbers would crash. Koala numbers in the Redlands east of Brisbane have collapsed by 68 per cent from 1999 to 2010 and a survey released on Tuesday showed a drop of 13 per cent last year. With error margins factored in, Ms Darling is selling it as a sign the decline may have been arrested. *Courier Mail

Dolphins

Jet skiers near Hobart have ploughed through a dolphin pod that was likely to include baby dolphins. Video footage and photographs show the two jet skiers appear to deliberately target the pod, which contained up to 30 dolphins. Onlookers who saw the incident on Saturday, in Frederick Henry Bay off Lauderdale, said people were enjoying watching the dolphins when they were horrified to see the two skis, each carrying a man and a woman, ride through the dolphins. Their horrified voices calling out are heard on the tape. They believed the riders did it deliberately and seemed to continue riding among the dolphins, which split up and swam in different directions. Wildlife biologist Kris Carlyon said it was likely the dolphins would not return."The dolphins will have felt harassed and basically will clear out, at least in the short term," said Mr Carlyon, of the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and the Environment.

"We've seen quite a few calves among the pods [recently] and they are at a particularly vulnerable stage of their life. "This is a sad example of people getting over-excited and ruining it for everyone else." Marine and Safety Tasmania was keen to identify the jet skis or their riders. Police could also become involved. DPIPWE recommends whale-watching guidelines also apply to dolphins: Do not approach in a boat any closer than 100m, the distance recommended for boats moving at slow speed and with no wake (less than 8 knots), Vessels under steam no closer than 300m, Withdraw immediately if animal shows disturbance, Move slowly while in the area, Do not approach from the rear of the animal. Report Tasmanian marine mammal sightings to 0427 WHALES, 0427 942 537. *Mercury

Bats

Hate the annoying drone of mosquitoes buzzing around your head when you are outside trying to enjoy the cool of an evening? You should be thankful for Victoria's microbats, who each devour a staggering 1000 mosquitoes every hour, all through the night. A warm, wet summer has caused an insect boom across Victoria, and the state's tiniest bats are enjoying a feeding frenzy. Often mistaken by home-owners as either large moths or small swallows, these animals can eat almost their own weight in insects each night. Department of Sustainability and Environment bat ecologist Micaela Jemison and wildlife biologist Lindy Lumsden work at the Arthur Rylah Institute, where most of the state's bat research is carried out. According to them, there's a lot to love about the 20 species of microbats that occur in Victoria - 16 of them in greater Melbourne.

Despite being around in large numbers, they are rarely seen. "You notice them if you watch their flight movement," Dr Lumsden said. "Birds swoop, but bats zig-zag and are magnificently manoeuvrable. "As well, while human ears can't hear the echolocation waves they emit, we can certainly detect their squeaks - and, if you are up close to them when they are eating, the sound of them munching and crunching their prey." With sharp little teeth, the bats can catch a moth or mosquito as they fly, scoop it under their wing and hold it against their belly. They then bend their head down to eat on the wing. Unlike movie misconceptions, these bats have good eyesight and don't drink blood. They live for about eight years, roosting in tree hollows and living in relatively small roosts of about 35. At the institute, resident eastern freetail bats George and Cranky are both 22 and have been handled by literally thousand of excited bat fans. * HeraldSun

Introduced Wild Animals

Non-native Burmese pythons are the likely cause of a staggering mammal decline in Florida's Everglades. In PNAS journal, they report that observations of some mammal species have declined by more than 99%. A team studied road surveys of mammals in the Everglades National Park before and after pythons became common. Researchers found a strong link between the spread of pythons and drops in recorded sightings of raccoons, rabbits, bobcats and other species. The national park covers the southern 25% of the original Everglades - a region of subtropical wetlands that has been drained over the last century to reclaim it for human use. The origins of Burmese pythons in south Florida are unknown, but many were imported into the US through the pet trade. As the pythons have made it from captivity into the wild, the absence of natural predators has allowed populations to balloon. Intermittent sightings were recorded for 20 years before the snakes were recognized as being established across the Everglades in 2000.

The pythons are now established across thousands of sq km in southern Florida. Although there are no accurate figures for how many there are, the numbers removed from the Everglades reached nearly 400 in 2009 and this has been increasing year-on-year (apart from a slight drop in 2010 due to a cold spell). “Any snake population - you are only seeing a small fraction of the numbers that are actually out there,’ said Prof Michael Dorcas, one of the study's authors, from Davidson College in North Carolina. He told BBC News: “They are a new top predator in Everglades National Park - one that shouldn't be there. We have documented pythons eating alligators; we have also documented alligators eating pythons. It depends on who is biggest during the encounter.” Earlier this month, US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that the US was poised to approve a ban on importing Burmese pythons. But some observers remarked that the move was about 30 years too late. * BBC

University of Canberra wildlife virologist Brian Cooke has received an Order of Australia medal (OAM) for services to conservation and the environment through biological management programs for rabbit population control. Dr Cooke is one of Australia's top experts on rabbit control. But he also works in partnership with European researchers, analysing the spread of rabbit viruses, and using the data to help conserve Europe's endangered native rabbit species.


Recenty we ran an article from the media about a kangaroo shooter who had taken to shooting wild dogs and dingoes, and we received some feedback about the issue of distinguishing between wild crossbred dogs, and dingoes. Most of us recognise that the farmers will shoot anything with 4 legs (or two), dingo or crossbred wild dog doesn't matter. When we first started producing Wildlife Bytes 12 years ago, the intention was to try to get as much info about the pressures that are placed on wildlife out to as many people as possible. We try to put good news items in when we can find them, but there's not many. Our objectives with Wildlife Bytes are to inform as many people as possible about the issues that wildlife face, from human activity such as agriculture, housing, and industrial development, and the lack of government concern for wildlife, etc.

As far as introduced wild animals go, WPAA has always argued that the controls now used, such as aerial shooting and poisons, is only a bandaid and does little to really, permanently, address the environmental problems these animals cause. For instance, a 6 months aerial shooting program for say wild pigs, may cost $200,000, and take out say 5000 pigs or less. By the time another $200,000 is available, (if ever) the numbers have bred up to more than what they were before. It's only a very temporary solution...in fact not a solution at all, and it has to be repeated regularly. Same with current attempts to reduce or eradicate camels, horses, rabbits, Indian mynas, and other introduced wild animals.

And while the Government is spending a few hundred thousand, and telling the media how great they are, and what great job they are doing, they give the impression they are taking effective action, when they are really not. For example, if there are 200 million or so wild pigs in Australia, shooting 5000 in one small area, is just a drop in the bucket. WPAA has always argued that Governments have to spend funds to develop permanent longterm solutions to this problem, not just bump off a few now and again, to get a feel good story in the paper.

Also, any program directed at reducing wild introduced animals has to consider humane issues, or it wont get broad community support. The use of poison, particullarly 1080, is opposed by by most Australians, as is aerial shooting, and unless these eradication (or attempted eradication) programs have community support, they dont get very far. People complain to their local members, and the programs get dropped.

Introduced wild animals are a huge problem, and what we are doing now is not solving the problem, it's just putting it on the backburner. At WPAA we dont know what the answer is, nor do we know what can be done to hold back the tide until a permanent solution can be found. But we do know its not what we are doing now. Perhaps we need to develop a benign virus that can carry a contraceptive thru an introduced species population, or something. We have to do something better, and we'd like to see much more funds spent on finding something better, rather than than what we are doing now.

The Government claims there are 1 million camels in Australia (we dont know how they count them) and over 2 million wild pigs. They have admitted that they will never be able to get rid of the pigs, because hunters keep putting young pigs into areas that dont already have them, so they will breed up and be a source of hunting material later. There is no doubt that wild cats get lots of blame for reducing wildlife too, and wild cats are a handy blame game for farmers and government departments to be able to blame wild cats for their own activities....or lack of them. As we have said, we dont know what the answer to reducing the impact of introduced wild animals is, but we do know its not what we are doing now.......WPAA