Feral Thoughts

Trouser snakes, splashing skirts and wriggling cabin bags

The fact that anyone would be willing to put live snakes in their underwear defies logic, but apparently some people go to all sorts of extremes to try and smuggle exotic animals into Australia. A search through Customs and AQIS media releases over the past few years has revealed some clever (and some not-so-clever) methods of concealment used by passengers and posters attempting to beat our border-protection system. It seems the lure of owning or trading illegal exotic species is just too tempting for some.

 

Passengers engaging in the risky game of hide-and-sneak have tried concealing snakes and eggs in purpose-built vests and underpants. They’ve tried wearing tights with live pigeons concealed in the legs. A woman was caught wearing an apron under her skirt, containing plastic bags full of illegal fish: Customs officers became suspicious after hearing "flipping" noises coming from the vicinity of her waist. Perhaps even more incredible, a man was recently arrested for trying to smuggle four chinchillas in his armpits.

 

Illegal snakes, birds (eggs), fish, turtles and lizards have also been found in passengers’ luggage, hidden in tea tins, cosmetic jars, shampoo bottles and underwear. For one smuggler at least, the risk of discovery was too great: airport cleaners alerted Customs officers after locating a metre-long python abandoned in a toilet. Just imagine finding that while relieving yourself after a long flight!

 

For those preferring a less personal touch, international postage appears to offer another attractive option for attempting smuggling. Creativity abounds in this field: postage items have been detected with a squirrel in a sock, spiders and snakes in a package labelled “baby’s toys”, bird eggs in Kinder Surprise chocolates, and lizards concealed in garden gnomes.

 

Generally wanted as personal fashion items, ‘extreme pets’ or to trade illegally, some species are endangered novelties, some are just really pretty, and others are downright dangerous. Once these animals have entered Australia, there is a significant risk of them escaping or being released into the environment, establishing pest populations and threatening our unique fauna and flora. There are also serious issues of animal welfare (a lot of smuggled animals are found dead, or die shortly after arrival), trading endangered species (contravening the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) and risks of bringing in exotic diseases.

 

Under the national environment law, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, the import and export of wildlife is strictly regulated. The maximum penalty for breaching this law is $110,000 and/or 10 years jail. Wildlife smuggling is a despicable act that poses unacceptable risks to Australia’s biodiversity. Hats off to the Customs and AQIS officials (and their canine heroes) who do such a good job of thwarting it.

 

[Written by Dr Wendy Henderson, guest author]

Have your say on the cane toad plan - only a week to go.

 Cane toads are the public's Feral Enemy Number 1. More Australians place the cane toad in their "top five" ferals than any other species - in fact 9 out of 10 do so. It's a clear winner from the next highest rated feral, the cat, with 7 out of 10 putting that species in their top five.

Opinions vary widely on what to do about the toad. I once spent an hour of my life with a fellow who was deadly serious that a $40 million fence from the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf at the top of Western Australia to the Tanami Desert was the answer. This is some of the most rugged country on earth, so I expressed a fair bit of doubt. What about the fires that burn that part of the world every 18 months? "It would need to be a substantial fence". What about the massive tidal zone up there - it's not that far from the horizontal waterfall with legendary tides, and before being the cane toad, it was the marine toad Bufo marinus? "We'd run the fence 3-500 metres into the sea". What about the wet season when massive floods occur? "Again, it'd have to be a substantial fence". This last answer, given like I had obvious learning difficulties, meant I finally gave up wished him luck.

Wild dogs continue taking a toll - one step forward two steps back?

I am encouraged about the progress made by some groups dealing with the wild dog issue in Australia. Our Cooperative Research Centre supports a National Wild Dog Coordinator, Greg Mifsud, out of Queensland Biosecurity. Greg is well supported by a National Wild Dog Management Committee and they are achieving a lot, for example, local councils helping with the cost of doggers that have ended up with producers returning to sheep production in a few areas. Other good things are afoot - the recent WA Government injection of $8 million in assistance.

But it is still a frustrating area. Sheep producers in some parts of the country are suffering horrific losses of livestock and it takes a toll on much more than just the sheep. It is an emotional toll, it drags the whole community down and it must make people wonder why they stay in farming (quite a few don't - dog attack is sometimes the straw that breaks the camel's back).

Keva Gocher, an ABC journalist in Southern New South Wales has brought hundreds of wild dog stories to the attention of her audience and I've pointed to her work before. Her You Tube video of dog attack stories is embedded below and says much more than a thousand words.

Posted by Tony Peacock, founder of 'Feral Thoughts'

 

Kudos to toad spotters in Cairns

  Thanks are due to two Cairns stevedores from Northern Stevedores Services for alerting AQIS to a couple of black spined toads from the ship Territory Trader last week.

The cluey stevedores spotted the tiny toads and called in quarantine authorities. The ship had traveled to Cairns from West Papua.

The black-spined toad is a species found in India, China and southern Asia, and is closely related to the cane toad. Black-spined toads have a ‘Serious’ establishment risk rank, meaning there is a high-level risk of a population establishing in the Australian environment. If they were to establish here, they could compete with native frogs for food and possibly poison animals that ingest them. Black-spined toads can live in a wider temperature range than cane toads and are highly adaptable, making them a significant biosecurity threat to Australia.

The tiny spiny find highlights the need for invasive species risk assessments and biosecurity vigilance at Australia’s high-risk entry points. Australia's quarantine service is excellent but it needs the assistance of the public and people like the NSS stevedores to provide the coverage we need.

Posted by Tony Peacock, founder of 'Feral Thoughts'

Give us your ideas on a new Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Initiative

The Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre is due to complete its current funding from the Australian Government in June 2012. Here's an opportunity for you to suggest issues for consideration in looking beyond 2012. Anyone is welcome to participate in the survey.

Click here to take survey

The survey will be open all through June 2010.

Posted by Tony Peacock, founder of 'Feral Thoughts'