Feral Thoughts

Does anyone want hybrids here?

In several hours of radio interviews I've done in the past week, not one single caller has expressed a view favourable to Savannah cats, or hybrids in general. Overwhelmingly, the blog response online has been shock that fashion wild-domestic crosses can be imported to Australia.

Australians know that half the mammals lost to the world in the last 200 years have come from this country. They know we've made some awful mistakes. The RSPCA has come out reiterating its opposition to hybrid animal imports. If the UK, the states of Georgia and Hawaii and the City of New York can ban these hybrids, so can we. We have much more to lose.

An online herpetology discussion group spontaneously started a petition that has over 1000 signatures in a little over a day.

My job is really only the science and awareness-raising. But this generation of Australians has normally only been able to look back with regret at dumb decisions to bring animals in. We don't have the excuse of ignorance, so we should grab the opportunity to stop hybrid dogs and cats entering Australia.

Online petition - Review the importation and breeding of Savannah cats in Australia

F5 Savannah Cats are impressive

This You Tube video shows an F5 (five generations from African serval) leaping.  It's impressive and they are a beautiful animal.

Funny how the breeders are down-playing the Savannah's features in the media once attention has been brought on the subject.  Quite different to the tenure of their websites, which play up the superiority of the breed.

Will bigger cats lead to bigger prey?

At the 14th Australasian Vertebrate Pest Conference just finished in Darwin, the view from participants was crystal clear - we don't need these "Savannah" hybrid cats in Australia (or New Zealand for that matter).  Not one of the 300 plus delegates had a good word to say to me when they found out that these hybrids may shortly be for sale.

The last paper of the meeting, by Dr. Ricky Spencer from the University of Western Sydney was a fascinating, and disturbing, insight into the growth of wild dog/dingos in eastern Australia.  He presented data that dog/dingos are getting bigger.  He speculated that beyond about 21.5kg, these dogs may switch to larger prey.

What if the same is true of cats?

I had a worried call from Australia (and no doubt the world's) only koala chiropractor, Shane Wassington.  No joke.  He was concerned that if feral cats grow larger, they may become capable of taking on a koala - a species that has never really had to cope with a climbing predator.

We have no idea really whether bigger cats would engage in prey-switching.  But Spencer's paper shows new genes into a population can lead to growth in the population.  Savannah cats are bred to be big.  One of the importing companies says on its website it's "F5s" are more like "F3s" in appearance (ie more like a serval) and once they have the animals in Australia, they'll be breeding for serval appearance - that means big cats doesn't it?

Hmmm - for the sake of a designer cat to indulge fashion sense.

They mated a cat with a what????

The African Serval (Leptailurus serval) would normally react to a domestic cat by eating it, not mating with it.

But in America, cat breeders have successfully (if that's the word) forced mating of these two species and derived a new fashion pet - the so-called "Savannah" cat. 

Normally, I'd roll my eyes and sigh "only in America...".  But no.  Some fashionable pet businesses in Australia have decided to import this serval-cat new breed so they can sell them to Australian's with a lazy $5000 sitting around.

Apparently our biosecurity system never anticipated people developing hybrid wild-domestic crosses.  So this breed is allowed to come in as a "domestic" cat breed.  No formal consultation necessary with experts like those on the inter-government Vertebrate Pests Committee.

We need a rethink here.  I don't think these cats should be allowed into the country.  They are apparently twice the size of normal domestics and can leap two metres in a bound.  Those are genetic traits we don't want entering our feral population. 

We are also allowing people to profit from animal cruelty.  The practice of mating a 20kg wild African Serval with a domestic cat weighing maybe 5-7 kg should be condemned, not condoned.  Big Cat Rescue have a You Tube video that is pretty instructive about how dumb this practice is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiLAcEp5Vng

Flushing an Urban Myth (?)

I think the "Finding Nemo Syndrome" is an urban myth.  This week, Australian media reported that toilet-flushed unwanted pets were the source of feral fish.  Certainly unwanted pet fish are the source of wild populations.  In fact, almost all of about 20 new invasive fish in Australia since the sixties come from the aquarium trade.  There is no question that unwanted fish should not be released into streams, dams or any waterway. 

Nor should live fish used for bait ever be dumped - carp from Wyangala Dam in NSW used for this purpose were probably the source of a carp infestation in Tasmania which closed two Lakes to anglers for a decade and has cost at least $10 million.

However, are there any fish so hardy that they can survive modern wasterwater treatment to establish a feral population?  I strongly doubt it.  I couldn't find any reference to an actual case in the literature (not that researchers are likely to have done experiments to test the hypothesis...). 

The bottom line is don't put unwanted fish into waterways because they could become feral and don't flush live fish down the toilet because its not an acceptable euthanasia method. 

Who or What is a Ratbag?

Returning from a fantastic week on Lord Howe Island, it was a no-brainer to cover rats on last week's radio spot.  A debate is raging on the island about the planned eradication of rats in 2010 and local artist Ginny Retmock had produced some 'ratbags' for the community market.  I bought a few for giveaways but hadn't thought much about the term 'ratbag'.

Presenter Andrea Close asked listeners about the origin of the term, and we decided listener Joyce was probably right in saying it was associated with wanting to keep away from rat catchers who carried a 'rat bag'.  However, a bit of searching since reveals the origin might not be that clear cut.  Most web dictionaries indicate the term as a common Australian one for a larikin; a non-offensive term for someone.  But in use in other parts of the world it seems the term can be for nosey older women or for causing damage ("I got drunk and ratbagged the place").  I couldn't find any historical reference for the term originating from the plague or rat catchers or the like.

Don't let me give the impression Lord Howe is overrun with rats.  They are problem for biodiversity, the kentia palm industry and some locals, but tourists would normally not know they were there.  It's just my particular interest...

Under-ice aggregations might teach us about carp behaviour

Ten days ago I was in Minneapolis, Minnesota looking at a range of carp behaviours that we will never see in Australia.  The Common Carp that is the number one pest fish in Australia is also a major pest in the United States, and our Cooperative Research Centre has worked with the University of Minnesota for a few years on carp behaviour.  Specifically, we are interested in how carp communicate via chemicals that initiate certain behaviours.  In Minnesota's iced-over lakes, the carp group together, most likely in the warmest parts of the lake or where oxygen content is highest.

Commercial fishermen exploit this behaviour to catch the carp, usually sonar to locate the fish.  They surround the fish with seine nets, sending them under the ice with submersibles.  In the picture, a commercial fisherman is drilling a hole through a metre of ice to then use a sonar to find the fish.

Obviously in Australia we don't have lakes that ice over like those in Minnesota.  But we are interested in how the fish are communicating and whether we can use this information to target them.  University of Minnesota research, Professor Peter Sorensen and his colleagues are also finding that carp can be relatively easily conditioned to food or other signals.  Carp are a long-lived species and seem to be able to remember events or rewards for long periods and use that information in responding to similar situations in the future.  Peter is conducting simple food reward experiments to determine whether large numbers of carp can be trained to come to particular areas in a lake and then be trapped out.

We may have very different weather conditions in Minnesota and Australia, but it is still worth sharing our knowledge and finding better ways to approach our common pests.

Bilbies ain't bilbies

Bilbies have become an iconic image representing many threatened species in Australia.  The long-eared bandicoot used to range over 70% of the country but land clearing, foxes and feral cats have caused a massive reduction in its numbers and range. 

The long ears of the bilby and the devastating impact of the European rabbit on Australia no doubt inspired the idea of the Easter Bilby, now promoted by a number of chocolate companies.  Rabbit Free Australia http://www.rabbitfreeaustralia.org.au/ own the Registered Trademark and image "Easter Bilby" and they have for years received support from South Australia's Haigh's Chocolates www.haighschocolates.com.au/our_company/environment.html

Darrell Lea chocolates also use the bilby image in Easter chocolate sales and in turn provide substantial donations to the Save the Bilby Fund http://www.dlea.com.au/?Community/Partnership/Save_the_Bilby

However, others use the image without providing any known support to threatened species protection or research.  I understand they avoid the Trademark issue by selling their products as Chocolate Bilbies (within their Easter range by not actually "Easter Bilbies") and by simply being too big for a group like Rabbit Free Australia to take on.

So when you buy your Easter Bilbies this year, check the packaging and make sure you support the companies that support threatened species. You'll feel less guilty eating the chocolate that way.

Another Year of a Feral

The Chinese Year of the Rat, the first in the lunar cycle, begins 7 February.  Rats are arguably the most damaging invasive animal, doing massive damage to crops and biodiversity and carrying many zoonotic diseases.  Most famously they are associated with the pandemics of bubonic plague, responsible for wiping out maybe a third of the population on Europe in the Middle Ages.

By my reckoning nine of the 12 Chinese horoscope animals are feral somewhere.  What do you think?

Rat: ricefield rats in South East Asia eat the equivalent of the caloric intake of Indonesia every year!

Ox: regeneration of native trees in Hawaii can be completely stopped by feral cattle.

Tiger: I don't know of any feral tiger reports - never a species we think of as overabundant.

Rabbit: Australia's worst Christmas present, arriving 1859.

Dragon: I don't know of any but still 280,000 hits on Google

Snake:  the brown tree snake is Guam's worst enemy

Horse: Wikipedia lists 13 different feral horses from Portugal to Namibia to Nova Scotia to new Zealand.

Goat: the "Judas Goat" technique is very effective in tracking down goats and is widely used in eradication programs.

Monkey: rampant monkey populations aggressively demanding food are Hong Kong's worst feral species.

Rooster: this was one of the three I left off the list but Google gives me 36,000 hits on "feral rooster" - mainly keeping people wake on Hawain islands.

Dog: rabies still kills over 50,000 people annually with feral dogs a major source.

Pig: we might have five times more feral pigs than domestic ones in Australia!

So let's make it 10 out of 12.

Fijian Cane Toad Song

Cane toads certainly stir the emotions.  Holidaying in Fiji, we were delighted to hear that one of the songs taught at kids club was a Fijian children's tale of cane toads.  The barman explained the words to me as essentially that "cane toads came to Fiji and one has a thousand babies; on his back there is poison, poison, poison".  I'm sure there's more to the song than that and would appreciate a complete translation.

Interestingly, it seemed to be accepted as a fact by indigenous Fijians that the cane toad had been introduced by the Indians indentured to work in the sugar cane industry.  This is a myth.  The indenture system stopped in 1916 whereas cane toads were introduced from the mid 1930s along the same reasoning as in Hawaii and Australia - the wrong interpretation that cane toads controlled white-grub in Puerto Rico after their introduction in 1920. 

Many thanks to the Island Serenders at Treasure Island Resort for singing this version for me.