In the media

September 05, 2008

Australia Zoo impresses

With an animal-mad 10-year old son, my family and I took the opportunity to visit Australia Zoo north of Brisbane, ahead of the International Animal Welfare meeting on the Gold Coast.  We were all incredibly impressed.

Australia Zoo is of course "home of the Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin who passed away two years ago.  It is continuing to expand at an extraordinary pace.   The whole experience was brilliant, but a few things stood out:

  • Australia Zoo aims to promote conservation through "exciting education".  That means close, hands on experience with the animals where possible.  It is also the area where many wildlife people and conservationists express reservations about the Irwin style - many people feel the handling of the wildlife in the Crocodile Hunter series to go over the top.  This visit convinced me that there is a heck of a lot of merit in the Irwin approach.  Kids and adults alike are absolutely captivated by the keeper talks and the animal shows.  The signage and display designs are as good as I've seen (and I was at San Diego Zoo earlier this year) and did fulfil the goal of "exciting education".
  • The Keepers and in fact all staff, are extraordinary.  I don't know if their attitude and enthusiasm flows from Steve and Terri Irwin's passion - whatever Australia Zoo is doing, it is working.  We thought the positive attitude seemed to come through in the animals, and after attending the various sessions at the International Animal Welfare Conference afterwards, I'm convinced that's true.
  • The grounds are incredibly clean and neat.  The rainforest walk-through aviary would be a world-class showpiece simply for its gardens, let alone the bird life.  Even though the Zoo is expanding, there was no construction interfering with current displays.  The investment going into the place must be massive (no small task given it is an entirely privately funded Zoo).

The Irwins have a very strong view against native animal harvesting.  That view is in contrast to many conservationists who see kangaroo and crocodile harvesting as a positive for the environment.  There are strong arguments that kangaroo harvesting can reduce the carbon footprint and impact on soils if it replaces sheep or cattle farming.  Certainly my 10-year old Sam quickly formed the opinion that the Irwins were on the right side of the argument: earlier this year he visited a commercial crocodile farm near Darwin and came away thinking the farming was simply too intensive, given the obvious injuries some of the animals were carrying.  He much preferred the maximum two to a pen at Australia Zoo.

Finally, I was encouraged by the display and talks on feral animals.  The camel and red fox information was completely correct, interesting and given in a manner sympathetic to the individual animals and balanced with the environmental consequences.

I thoroughly recommend a day (two would be better) at Australia Zoo.  Even if you are cynical about Steve Irwin's presentation of wildlife, or the Irwin's views on some aspects of conservation, park those concerns for a day and see for yourself the amazing promotion of conservation going on up there. 

September 10, 2007

Wild dogs taking a toll

Coverredirect_4The Land Newspaper led with "DogFight" last week as its headline, even in the face of the ongoing equine influenza outbreak dominating most rural news.  It is an indication of the toll taken on graziers when wild dogs are attacking.  This particular story came from the north of NSW, but similar cries for help are heard from many places.  The Invasive Animals CRC has a project team in place trying to roll out a "nil tenure" appoach to wild dog management whereby control is based on dog ecology and not property ownership.  The model has worked well in other places, but in northern NSW the scale of the roll-out is at a completely different level.  For example, Project Officer Dr. Guy Ballard of participated in 99 separate meetings in his first five months on the job.  I suspect more resources are needed if we are really to get on top of the dog issue.

September 06, 2007

Fishes of the Murray-Darling Guide released by MDBC

Final_coverThe Murray-Darling Basin Commission (MDBC), a participant in the Invasive Animals CRC, has released an important new book.  Fishes of the the Murray-Darling Basin: an Introductory Guide is authored by Mark Lintermans of the Commission and he has done a brilliant job.

The book is extremely well illustrated and will no doubt become a valuable reference guide.  It is set out so that the distribution of each species is easy to see and further information sources can be found immediately.

The MDBC is offering the book for free (I rang to check because it is just a beautiful production I couldn't quite believe it) if you ring 02 6279 0434.

August 02, 2007

HopStop, parasites and pheromones spark media interest

A recent seminar hosted by the Invasive Animals CRC on advances in cane toad research sparked a frenzy of media attention.  Pestat Pty Ltd, one of the CRC's participant companies revealed development of a lethal spray - HopStop - which they are seeking to register for household use.  Sydney Uni's Rick Shine revealed latest research on a lungworm, Rhabdias, that debilitates cane toads and might be useful for slowing down their advance across the Top End.  Queensland Uni's Rob Capon explained how his lab is unravelling the chemical ecology of the toad, trying to find chinks in its armour.  Collaboration between these two universities is leading to the unravelling of an alarm pheromone emitted by distressed cane toad tadpoles. 

Some of the media response is shown below.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21969125-5005941,00.html

http://www.abc.net.au/canberra/stories/s1963235.htm

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2007/s1963370.htm

http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/worm-a-chink-in-the-cane-toads-armour/2007/04/27/1177459966993.html

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