wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler) (07/18/84)
Australia has always suffered from swarms of hares and mice, both having been introduced from other areas. They built humongous fences to try to control the range of the hares, but it doesn't seem to help in the long run. I had a pen pal in Alice Springs who would often go on hare hunts and bag 100s in a one day hunt. There is a great reluctance to introduce predators as once the hares and mice are brought under control, how do you keep the predators under control? Further, what chance is there for the predators turning on the native creatures and destroying the most unique animal population on earth? The Australians would like to be able to go back in time and throtle that English gentleman who imported the hares from England just to remind himself of home. Talk about upseting the balance of nature. T. C. Wheeler
clark@aurora.UUCP (Clark Quinn) (07/19/84)
<we'll import a Denevian bug eater!> I'm glad Alex (the temporarily displaced Australian) mentioned the previous history of the rabbits and mice in Australia. Other imports have fared almost as well, doing just what was planned :-). For instance, once all those rats from ships docking in Hawaii infested the cane fields, they imported mongooses (mongeese? there's a cute quote I can't remember about how the mongoose is a singular beast because no one knows how to pluralize it). However, one is diurnal, the other is nocturnal. Net result = mongeese (mongooses? see above) everywhere! -- Clark "Real men don't have cute signoff quotes"
jwp@sdchema.UUCP (John Pierce) (07/21/84)
>WOMBATS??!! > > Oh My God! Not again?! > >sufferin' charlie Yes!! WOMBATS!!! Again!!!! As I pointed out in my monograph on wombats a year or so ago [1], wombats are essential to maintaining a decent market price for the rutabaga crop of the Northeastern Australia truck farms. Wombats, dammit, are *important*, and I wish people would quit slighting them. "Sufferin' Charlie", by the way, is a popular figure in "Outback" folklore, playing an important role in the cycle of legends centered around the "Greater Alice Springs Wombat Invasion of '73" [2]. John Pierce, Chemistry Dept, UC San Diego sdcsvax!sdchema!jwp [1] Reprints are available on request, for a small reproduction fee. [2] For those with a further interest in this subject, a monograph by Bruce B. Bruce will appear shortly in net.aust.folk.legend.alice.chuck.