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Old June 9th, 2011, 10:15 AM
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hazelrunpack hazelrunpack is offline
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One million camels....holy catz! At this stage, what can they do besides cull? Once the population is culled, maybe they can turn their next efforts to population control, if they even have birth control for camels that can be administered from the air... But there is no way they could dart a million camels with birth control meds. And how could you tell after the first dartings which camels were 'fixed' and which weren't? Even if they can get the population down to 250,000, birth control is still an insurmountable task and likely would cost more each year than culling would!

It's not just farmers' losses that need to be considered. It's native animals that suffer the most from invasive species. It's why hazel was in favor of killing the cowbird that we captured while banding--cowbirds are native to WI but human activity has increased the 'reach' of cowbirds, who happen to be nest parasites. Since human activity has changed the landscape, cowbirds can reach far into the forest and parasitize species that are totally unprepared to deal with them. As a result, populations of many small songbirds are declining while the cowbird populations soar since every road cut into the forest gives them access to new areas. One cowbird fem can parasitize up to 70 nests in her lifetime!!! That's a huge impact and it's recognized by the govt--cowbirds are the only native bird that you can legally kill any time you can safely do it in WI.

As heartless as it sounds, the camels don't belong in Australia. As I understand it they have a very detrimental impact on the ecosystem and put a great deal of pressure on native species. If the authorities can truly cull 650,000, IMO they should go the rest of the way and try to cull them all. It's bloody and brutal, but for an invasive species like camels, it would have the greatest long-term benefit for the ecosystem. And unlike introduced rats or snakes or invasive plants, camels are large enough to be fairly 'easily' eradicated.

Humans caused the problem. Camels are just being camels. It's sad, but if the ecosystem is to be restored, culling by humans may be the only way at this point.
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