Aussies Could Use Elephants To Fight Invasive Species

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Aussies Could Use Elephants To Fight Invasive Species

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday February 1, 2012 @11:47PM from the we're-gonna-need-bigger-needle-snakes dept.

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.

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And in the winter... by Megane · 2012-02-01 23:48 · Score: 5, Funny

...the Elephants simply starve to death.

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1. Re:And in the winter... by Hentes · 2012-02-02 00:06 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  You mean summer?
2. Re:And in the winter... by Bill+Currie · 2012-02-02 00:14 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Australia has two seasons: summer (August, though for some strange reason, Australians insist on calling it winter) and "I'd rather be in hell" (the rest of the year). Except in Melbourne: all four seasons in one day.
  
  --
  Bill - aka taniwha
  --
  Leave others their otherness. -- Aratak
3. Re:And in the winter... by MrKaos · 2012-02-02 01:21 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Sydney has a freezing winter rain in summer and the air turns into a wall of white water. You get just as wet from the rain as you do from the humidity. The only difference is if you have your sunnies on or not.
  Then someone turns the weather switch and while that toggle switch goes from winter to summer or visa versa the day will be maybe hot maybe dry maybe rain maybe cold, the only difference is it will be that way all day after you've left for work you either carry your jacket and wear your sunnies or you wear your sunnies and carry your jacket. But don't dare open an umbrella or the wind will rip it to pieces or sudden lightning reduce it a hole in the ground with some molten metal and the remains of one of your shoes. Deodourant companies are listed on the commodities market.
  Then winter is so dry that your lips skin and hands dry and crack and you suddenly get two days of summer in winter.
  Except when it's the other way around and it pours the freezing winter rain in winter and summer is so dry that everything everywhere is so flammable that if the reflection of your sunglasses hits the ground at the wrong angle the whole place goes up in flames.
  The fire warning signs read something like (This is not a joke) Normal, High, Dangerous, Extremely dangerous, catastrophic. I almost feel it is appropriate to have them add "We're all gonna die" or "save the children" in case some people don't understand the point.
  Other than that the weather here is wonderful, I'm sure the elephants will have a great time.
  
  --
  My ism, it's full of beliefs.
4. Re:And in the winter... by vgerclover · 2012-02-02 01:29 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  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 release 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.
  
  http://www.snpp.com/episodes/5F22 Bart the mother
5. Re:And in the winter... by petermgreen · 2012-02-02 01:34 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Seriously though megafauna are relatively easy to control because they breed slowly and can't really hide. It's the small animals you have to worry about.
  
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  note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
6. Re:And in the winter... by Dexter+Herbivore · 2012-02-02 04:01 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Seriously though megafauna are relatively easy to control because they breed slowly and can't really hide. It's the small animals you have to worry about.
  You've obviously never stared down a charging bull elephant. (Not that I have, but it haunts my nightmares and I'm an Australian).
End game by sakdoctor · 2012-02-01 23:48 · Score: 5, Insightful

But who will eat the elephants when they become invasive?
1. Re:End game by el3mentary · 2012-02-01 23:52 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Elephants breed so slowly their numbers would be incredibly easy to control
  
  --
  I reject your reality and substitute my own.
2. Re:End game by Kjella · 2012-02-01 23:56 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Eat them, I don't know... but hunt them to extinction should be no problem at all, they're not exactly small and hard to spot. The more problematic bits would be if they've brought microbes with them, upset the balance of nature some other way etc. - it's a gamble with very many variables...
  
  --
  Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
3. Re:End game by deniable · 2012-02-01 23:57 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Cane toads.
4. Re:End game by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-02 00:01 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  But who will eat the elephants when they become invasive?
  They plan to sterilize the beasts, and track them with GPS.
  Plan B involves reintroducing the T Rex, as seen on the documentary Jurassic Park.
5. Re:End game by Chatsubo · 2012-02-02 00:15 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Well the horrible truth is they'll get poached out much quicker than they can breed. Keeping something like a rhino alive in such close proximity to the east might be a challenge that outweighs the benefits.
  
  --
  > no, yes, maybe (tagging beta)
6. Re:End game by michelcolman · 2012-02-02 00:39 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  So partly to help conserve these animals, they are going to transfer them from their native habitat and sterilize them?
7. Re:End game by Inda · 2012-02-02 00:58 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  I know this thread has been about giggles but one thing seems to have been missed.
  
  Its been proposed that the elephants are sterilised first.
  
  --
  This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
8. Re:End game by admiralranga · 2012-02-02 01:06 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Getting a license for something that can kill an elephant in aus, you make me laugh.
9. Re:End game by agentgonzo · 2012-02-02 01:20 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  +5 insightful? Funny I could understand.
  
  Kruger park has a massive over-population of elephants. It has a carrying-capacity (the number that the land-mass can sustainably support without being detrimental to the ecosystem) of about 8,000 elephants and now has over 20,000 (and still rising) causing major problem (both ecologically and politically as to how to reduce the numbers without resulting to a mass-cull).
  
  Contraception is not exactly feasible on a large-scale (it's been tried successfully on small reserves such as Makalali) but the problem of finding and contracepting all/most of the animals in the wild and making sure that you've not contracepted the same animal twice in one period (major health issues for the animal) is almost impossible.
10. Re:End game by Chatsubo · 2012-02-02 01:26 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Poachers who care about licenses, you make me laugh.
  I live in Africa, putting a rhino on a piece of land almost transforms it into a war zone. International trade in ivory/rhino horn is a big deal, no mere legal red tape is going to stop these guys. Neither do they mind much if they have to shoot some rangers to get to the animals, and so the arms escalation begins...
  
  --
  > no, yes, maybe (tagging beta)
11. Re:End game by wisty · 2012-02-02 01:48 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  In Australia, the police and customs are much more effective. It's also really hard to get assault guns, so gangs tend to be massively outgunned by the authorities. We had some locally made "Owen Guns" (WWII carbines) getting made in an illegal factory in 2004; that's how starved our gangs are for hardware. Even the "good" African countries will have trouble, because gangs will be able to smuggle guns and ivory across land boarders to and from the "bad" countries.
12. Re:End game by sycodon · 2012-02-02 02:10 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  They taste like Bald Eagles, which taste quite a bit like the Spotted Owls.
  
  --
  When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
13. Re:End game by jemtallon · 2012-02-02 02:21 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  But how difficult is it to rent the equipment necessary to dig a spike-filled pit? Riddle me that, mr smart-guy.
  
  ...yeah. That's what I thought!
  
  *flexes his mind muscle*
14. Re:End game by jbeaupre · 2012-02-02 03:33 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Are elephant germs really that dangerous?
  
  --
  The world is made by those who show up for the job.
I Don't Know Why We Swallowed The Fly by SQL+Error · 2012-02-01 23:48 · Score: 3, Funny

Perhaps we'll die...
Elephant Proof Fence by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-01 23:54 · Score: 4, Funny

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.
1. Re:Elephant Proof Fence by nospam007 · 2012-02-02 01:00 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  "Yes it did. It didn't do the job perfectly, but the rabbit population has never returned to what it was pre-myxomatosis."
  Exactly, it worked even here in Europe and we had no problems in the first place.
  A french moron wanted to get rid of the rabbits on his property and infected _2_ of them.
  Now all of Europe has almost none left.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myxomatosis
or rabbits, by Zemran · 2012-02-02 00:00 · Score: 4, Funny

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.
Gamba Grass was intentionally introduced ... by sirdude · 2012-02-02 00:04 · Score: 5, Informative

Gamba grass first appeared under cultivation in Queensland in 1942 and trials and plantings in the Northern Territory occurred as early as 1931. It was bred as an improved pasture species and sold by seed merchants. Gamba grass has adapted extremely well to the seasonal droughts, fires and low-nutrient soils of Australia’s savannas.

From here [PDF].
1. Re:Gamba Grass was intentionally introduced ... by HBI · 2012-02-02 00:52 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  FFS who would name a plant something like Andropogon gayanus ?
  
  --
  HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
And as an added bonus... by Phoenix · 2012-02-02 00:04 · Score: 3, Funny

The elephants can be used to stomp on the caine toads.

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-- Wiccan Army, 13th Airborne Division "We will not fly silently into the night"
1. Re:And as an added bonus... by sirdude · 2012-02-02 00:43 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  One stomp too many and those Caines will surely turn mutinous.
That really depends... by captainpanic · 2012-02-02 00:09 · Score: 5, Funny

[...]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!
Re:Alternatives? by robbak · 2012-02-02 00:17 · Score: 4, Insightful

You've obviously never been to australia. Hint - it's very big.

--
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
Re:Need more dangerous animals by Kierthos · 2012-02-02 00:34 · Score: 5, Informative

Let's see. The gestation period of an elephant is 21-23 months. The interval between calves is as much as five years. And female elephants generally don't even begin reproducing until they are 12-14 years old.
I somehow doubt there will be a plague of elephants. What I imagine would happen is a lot of poached elephants.

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Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-02 00:34 · Score: 4, Funny

OK, since I've posted, I've got a brilliant idea: control the elephants by introducing mice!
Re:Need more dangerous animals by tdelaney · 2012-02-02 00:46 · Score: 5, Funny

What I imagine would happen is a lot of poached elephants.
Nah - the traditional method is to barbeque them.
Re:how about more people? by JasterBobaMereel · 2012-02-02 00:56 · Score: 3, Informative

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 ...

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Puteulanus fenestra mortis
Re:Uhh, goats? by Alicat1194 · 2012-02-02 01:24 · Score: 3, Informative

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.

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