Feral Thoughts

Ferals in the Capital - fox and hare control

The "Bush" Capital of Australia, Canberra, is developing a range of environmental projects that will be icons in the future.  Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve is slowly recovering from the devastation of the 2003 bushfires and two new projects are underway: Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary and the Canberra International Arboretum.

I've written a little about the Mulligans Flat project before. It has an obvious focus on feral animals with the recent completion of an 11 km feral-proof fence.  The rangers have begun the task of ridding the sanctuary of cats, foxes, rabbits and excess kangaroos (the last are herded out of the sanctuary). The job is almost done, with rangers Peter Mills and Grant Woodbridge trying to determine if they have dispatched the last fox. They estimate there were 8 or 9 foxes within the fenced area at the closing of the sanctuary and most likely all have been successfully baited.  Baits have stopped disappearing now but that isn't absolute proof of eradication - the guys are using remote cameras near likely fox habitat and the "super bait" of young rabbit to try and determine if the last fox has been eradicated.

Night of the Killer Grannies

If you go down to Wests Rugby Club in Belconnen in the Australian Capital Territory tonight, you're liable to get a shock. Around about seven, you'll notice a group of the more mature patrons back their stools away from the poker machines or finish off their veal parmigiana and move quietly to a back room.  Few opt for a second shandy when there is free tea and coffee inside.  For these folk have serious business to discuss; it's time to tote up the annual bird tally. How many Indian mynas has each of the killer grannies (or grandpas) added to the toll this year? I don't know if it's because they have more time, or because they remember BM time ("before mynas") but the myna-managers of Canberra tend to be on the more mature side.

The Annual General Meeting of the Canberra Indian Myna Action Group is one of the few times the killer grannies (and grandpas) of Canberra actually physically gather.  Perhaps a hundred of the three or four hundred that quietly go about their business in the privacy of their own backyard come together.  For they are the quiet killers at work in Australia’s national capital.  A city usually regarded as staid, boring, public-servanty.  These folk are far from boring.  They are on a quest.  A quest to rid the national capital of one of its most hated feral species: the Indian or common Myna.  One might think that a city that is inhabited by great influxes of the country’s elected officials during Parliamentary sitting seasons might have worse feral pests to worry about.  But the Canberra Indian Myna Action Group, or CIMAG for short,  don’t think so. They want the birds out of their city.

Birds cost horticulture $313,000,000

A new book Managing Bird damage to fruit and other horticultural crops launched today by the Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation, Senator Eric Abetz indicates that the cost of birds to the industry is $313 million per annum.

Authors John Tracey, Mary Bomford, Quentin Hart, Glen Saunders and Ron Sinclair have done a brilliant job pulling together a mass of information on birds, the damage they do and what can be done to reduce their impact.  What was clear from the seminar leading up to today's launch was that (1) the cost of birds is much higher than most people expected and (2) research into new methods of control has been largely overlooked.

Data indicates that in the nut industry, up to 22% of crops can be lost to bird damage. It seems extraordinary to me so little research has been supported by industry over the years, given the levels of damage reported.  Discussion at the seminar tended to indicate that other problems are occupying the attention of horticulturists, most notably at the moment being the lack of water.  The problem is also highly variable and caused by a mix of exotic and native species.

The biggest message coming from today's speakers was to take a strategic approach.  Simply killing birds is rarely effective. For example, in Africa a billion Quelea (pictured) maybe be killed annually with no discernible impact on the population or the damage they do.  This species has been kept as a pet in Australia by the way, although it is thought that none are left in the country.  It is certainly a species that import risk assessment should keep out, now that better processes are in place for assessing risk.

Growers should get a hold of a copy of the book, which can obtained for free from the Bureau of Rural Sciences.

Managing Bird Damage - 20 September launch

Canberra

The Invasive animals CRC will be hosting a workshop and launch of a new book - Managing Bird Damage to Fruit and Horticultural Crops - on 20 September 2007.  The Minister for Conservation, Senator Eric Abetz, has kindly agreed to launch the book and will speak on a packed program.

John Tracey from NSW DPI (senior author of the book) will speak as will starling guru Dr. Ron Sinclair from South Australia, Brad Wells from Horticulture Australia and David Lowe from the NSW Wine Industry Association as well as a number of others.

The program is cohosted by the Bureau of Rural Sciences who produced the book, and is at 9.00 for 9.30 at the Theatrette of Parliament House.  Everyone is welcome, but you must register with diane.holloway@invasiveanimals.com on 02 6201 2887 for catering purposes.  It should be a very useful networking event for anyone with an interest in bird issues.