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Tasmanian Devils Wipe Out Thousands of Penguins on Tiny Australian Island

posted by mrpg on Tuesday June 22 2021, @04:14AM   
from the humans-again-at-it dept.

upstart writes:

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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Original Submission

• Australia and their history of introducing species Australia and their history of introducing species (Score: 1) by arcade on Tuesday June 22 2021, @05:20PM (1 child)

  by arcade (8404) on Tuesday June 22 2021, @05:20PM (#1148081)

  Red foxes, Rabbits, Camels, Cane toads, cats, feral pigs ..

  And then there is the cacti ..

  Of course, Australia hasn't learned, they released the myxoma virus to fight the rabbits. Which they adapted to. So, they released a calicivirus in '91 to give the rabbits haemorrhagic disease.

  I mean, what could go wrong?

• Re:Australia and their history of introducing spec (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 14 2021, @02:00PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 14 2021, @02:00PM (#1156173)

  Oh, so that's the influence for The Long Drive! :)

  Parent