Slashdot Mirror
Aussies Could Use Elephants To Fight Invasive Species
A type of invasive African grass is a major cause of wildfires in Australia. The giant gamba grass is too large for cattle and the native marsupial grazers to eat, but David Bowman, a professor of environmental change biology at the University of Tasmania has a plan. He says that elephants or rhinoceroses could eat the pest grass. "... the only other methods likely to control gamba grass involve using chemicals or physically clearing the land, which would destroy the habitat. Using mega-herbivores may ultimately be more practical and cost-effective, and it would help to conserve animals that are threatened by poaching in their native environments," he said. This plan makes you wonder just how big a Chinese needle snake can grow.
...the Elephants simply starve to death.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
But who will eat the elephants when they become invasive?
Perhaps we'll die...
So there was this fence that was supposed to prevent the plague of rabbits from crossing the country. I don't think it worked. I'm having this vision of a future with an Elephant proof fence. Somehow the idea appeals.
yes rabbits would be a good idea. They are smaller and cuter than elephants and they eat grass as well...
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
From here [PDF].
The elephants can be used to stomp on the caine toads.
-- Wiccan Army, 13th Airborne Division "We will not fly silently into the night"
[...]they're not exactly small and hard to spot. [...]
If they wear red socks, and hide in a strawberry patch, they're quite hard to spot!
You've obviously never been to australia. Hint - it's very big.
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
I thought the whole "Got a problem with invasive species x? Import invasive species y!" schtick had gone wrong so many times over the years that there would be more caution about it now.
What are they going to import in 30 years time to deal with the plague of elephants? My vote's for genetically modified, cybernetically enhanced fire-breating giant battle-centipedes. What could possibly go wrong?
Or maybe the attraction is that elephants can actually be extremely dangerous to humans. Australia just doesn't have enough animals like that, right?
Are you getting sick and tired of them?
OK, since I've posted, I've got a brilliant idea: control the elephants by introducing mice!
Have you been to Australia?
The majority of people live in big sprawling cities by the coast, for the reason that the rest of the country is an arid desert ...
Any city built inland would run out of water very quickly .... Imagine Las Vegas, but without a water supply ...
Puteulanus fenestra mortis
To quote from the Aus gov't PDF on Gamba grass:
Gamba grass is tolerant to fire at any time of the year.
Burning gamba grass in the dry season can be hazardous
to property, people and livestock due to the high fuel
loads and height of the plants, which create an extremely
intense fire.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
...I hope you are joking.
Feral goats are a serious problem in Australia, along with so many other invasive animals and plants.
A better link to look at would be this one:
http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/invasive/ferals/index.html
I mean, Elephants are f***ing awesome and all, big, giant things that knock over trees when they get mad, but goats are well proven to eat grass and other things (like briers) that most animals won't touch. They handle dry, arid climates well, and provide other useful things like, Milk, Cheese, Meat, and Pelts. If you pick angora goats you get fancy wool from them as well.
Been there, done that they went feral : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_goats_in_Australia. Though some farmers to make a fair living off mustering the ferals and then selling them for pelts and meat.
You can learn a lot about a person if you just take the time to inject them with sodium pentathol
A suggestion for fixing this problem is to open the gates. Come right in. Anyone from a war torn country, middle east, wherever, come on over if you can get yourself here. Only catch: You must spend the first 15 years here in a rural outback town or property and not come within 200km of a city.
It's thought to be the best way to 'solve' the country shopper / boat people / illegal immigrant problem.
It seems to me like it would just replace the "illegal immigrant" problem with an "illegal internal migrant" problem. Would you put passport controls at the city gates or something?!
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
The best example of a large animal being introduced into a new area is the oryx that were introduced into white sands missile range. Having no natural predators due to the thick hide on the back of their neck that the mountain lions can't penetrate easily and their long horns they have had no problem breeding going from 93 in 1977 to over 2,000 today. They put a strain on the natural wildlife, the jackrabbits and mule deer, by eating and drinking the scarce resources limiting their numbers and also hurting the mountain lion population by limiting their food sources. The oryx have flourished and have moved well beyond the missile range so much so that the NM Game and Fish began giving out Landowner permits in an effort to keep them in the missile range which has failed and oryx have moved north to Sevilleta Wildlife Refuge and south all the way to Fort Bliss. Approximately a 100 mile radius around the range with little to stop them from moving further the southwest has a new animal that is here to stay.
Knowledge = Power
P= W/t
t=Money
Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
As pointed out- elephants numbers are easily controlled due to their size. I would like to suggest we one up the elephant suggestion- and go for an even bigger animal- I would suggest the blue whale.
Yes, I know- technically the blue whale is an aquatic animal- but they can breath air. We could create artificial limbs for them- attack fake legs to their flippers and their tails to allow them to walk on land.
Since any young born would not be able to move- (hence eat), without human intervention, you wouldn't have to worry about their numbers exploding out of control.
To me- this seems a near perfect solution. The only problem is that whales don't eat grass- but that's only a minor technicality- and you have to admit whales with artificial tripod limbs crossing the desert of Australia is a site worth one or two minor technical glitches.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Music? Yes
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
ok - let me expain it another way - there is a police district that is assigned three [count-em] THREE police-officers. The geographical size of this district is similar to that of France.
Yea I saw that documentary Mad Max too...
The drop bears will slaughter us all!
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled." Feynman
SKINNER
Well, I was wrong. The lizards are a godsend.
LISA
But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we're overrun by lizards?
SKINNER
No problem. We simply unleash wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards.
LISA
But aren't the snakes even worse?
SKINNER
Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.
LISA
But then we're stuck with gorillas!
SKINNER
No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.
Can anyone tell me how to set my sig on Slashdot?
Australia isn't like the US, which is criss-crossed with rivers even in the desert areas.
The rivers on the east coast, where the population is? Mostly too short/small to even appear on that map.
The north & north-west? Not desert.
Pretty much everything west of the Murray-Darling? Desert. The ones marked 51-57 on the map are seasonal, and flow only every few years.
Much of central-southern NSW, between the coast & the Murray-Darling? Already irrigated through "water [piped] in from all over the region... going over mountains and through valleys". Or, more correctly, "piped through mountains".
The Murray-Darling itself? It already mostly is "just a trickle by the time it reaches the ocean". Without the 2 dredging machines that run 24/7, the mouth of the river would close up and cut it off from the sea.
Despite having an area very similar to the 48 contiguous US states, Australia has ~50% more desert area (1,350,000km^2 vs 900,000km^2) and much much much less water.
So, no, there's not much water in Australia. It's not considered "the driest continent on earth" for no reason...
What part of "a well regulated militia" do you not understand?