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Koalas Gone Wild

Posted by michael on from the little-fuzzy-animals-with-big-sharp-teeth dept.

Mabon writes "CNN reports that 30,000 of the starving animals are destroying the ecosystem by stripping away the greenery. The Austrailian government proposes shooting some 20,000 of them to reduce the amount of gum trees used by the animals."

4 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Worthless article by Thomas+A.+Anderson · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That CNN article is the most useless one I've read in ages. It fails to provide any of the following information:

    1) How would nature control population growth in koalas?

    2) Have we in some way removed that control and can it be re-introduced.

    All the article talks about is why we should or should not shoot them. There is no indication whatsoever that anybody cares why the koalas are overpopulated (and no, a quick blurb about urbanization doesn't count).

    --
    Personally its not God I dislike, its his fan club I cant stand (bash.org)
    1. Re:Worthless article by SEE · · Score: 4, Insightful

      1) How would nature control population growth in koalas?
      2) Have we in some way removed that control and can it be re-introduced.

      The island itself is not a native habitat for koalas; they were introduced by humans. There is therefore no natural control on the koalas on the island. To restore the natural balance, one would eliminate the artifical infestation by the artificial means of killing all the koalas.

    2. Re:Worthless article by azav · · Score: 4, Insightful

      WWND: What Would Nature Do?

      1) Starvation or disease

      2) Nature is taking its course. It is a standard population model of food availability and population increase that is explained in Biology of Populations.

      We apply our human morals to a natural process and declare it "bad". Well, it may be but it IS what happens in nature when the population of a species exceeds the carrying capacity and food availability of the environment that holds it.

      If the population needs to be controlled, the proven method is to thin the reproducing females or relocate them into another population.

      PIck up an Ecology or Bio of Populations book. Very enlightening reading.

      --
      - Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
    3. Re:Worthless article by bigsteve@dstc · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Nature is taking its course.

      ... except that Koalas are not native to Kangaroo Island.

      This is like saying feral cats and foxes pushing many Australian native mammals and birds to extinction is "nature taking its course". It is true, but beside the point.

      What Australians (those who care about these things) want is that the wild places of Australia are like they were before Capt Cook "discovered" Terra Australis. If this means killing introduced pests like cats, foxes, rabbits, camels, cane toads ... and culling koala and roo populations that have gotten out of control ... so be it.

      FYI, the Australian lanscape has been actively managed by man for thousands of years. This is the natural state of things.