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Tasmanian devils wipe out thousands of penguins on tiny Australian island:
An attempt to save the Tasmanian devil by shipping an "insurance population" to a tiny Australian island has come at a "catastrophic" cost to the birdlife there, including the complete elimination of little penguins, according to BirdLife Tasmania.
Maria Island, a 116-square-kilometre island east of Tasmania, was home to 3,000 breeding pairs of little penguins around a decade ago.
Their populations have dwindled since Tasmanian devils were introduced in 2012, but according to BirdLife Tasmania, the most recent survey conducted by the parks department showed penguins had completely disappeared from the island.
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Tasmanian Devils Wipe Out Thousands of Penguins on Tiny Australian Island
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Agnes' Law:
Almost everything in life is easier to get into than out of.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday June 22 2021, @12:57PM (4 children)
> Every time we humans meddle, Nature pays a price.
Sounds good - but demonstrably not true. For example, locally to me, consider the reintroduction of the red kite into UK which has been a huge success with currently hundreds of breeding pairs.
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/red-kite/conservation/ [rspb.org.uk]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Tuesday June 22 2021, @02:36PM (3 children)
Is it really so surprising that reintroducing a species didn't cause problems? The ecosystem had already evolved to support them there.
Versus introducing a species into an area it's not native to, then it has no local competitors and goes crazy.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 22 2021, @05:49PM (1 child)
It wasn't really re-introduction in the case of Maria island (pronounce Mor-i-ah). There were never devils there before (the island is too small to have a sustainable population). The devils on Maria are human raised rescue animals. They have different behaviors than wild devils, e.g., they are much more social with members of their own species (female with young will allow males in burrow-- not seen anywhere else AFAIK) as well as less reclusive.
Maria island is an amazing place to bring the family to be certain to see wildlife in a setting that is not oppressive like a zoo. Essentially, a large free range zoo. Wombats are nearly tame, and come out during the day (normally nocturnal). Free camping too (7km from the ferry landing IIRC), so just need to pay the round trip ferry fare. Or, cheap camping close to the landing.
It is a former prison island. The cells have been converted into hotel rooms if camping is not your thing.
As for the devils, Moria has cancer free devils. There aren't many of those left, since the cancers they have are transmissible.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_facial_tumour_disease [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday June 22 2021, @06:08PM
I was referring to PiMuNu's red kites in Britain thing.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday June 22 2021, @07:35PM
But GP said "Every time we humans meddle, Nature pays a price". It's a defeatist statement that doesn't match the facts.