Feral Blackbuck in Australia
- Thread starter Astrobird
- Start date
There are very few blackbuck in private collections & the Zoo Klux Clan & govt departments make it more difficult to keep these & other low risk animals each year. You made the claim first ,so how about you actually find out how many there are in private collections & how many licence holders other than zoos there are?
You said they have been released,so where are all these populations? They are as abundant as panthers down here. None!
Ive been involved with this species & the deer industry for 4 decades & have a "wee" bit of practical experience with them ,sorry not so much lab or theory experience, just the real world.
They are the least invasive species I've ever worked with for a multitude of reasons,not the least they are not cryptic in their behaviour & when scared they run to open ground bunch up & are easily picked off. Apart from the diseases carried by sheep,they are easy meat for eagles, & every other predator. They have been extripated from every range they have been released into without much effort down here.
As for the NTH QLD pop I sit on a committee with the vet who ran the eradication a few years ago & the QLD Govt would be surprised & interested if any did still exist, These rumours keep appearing but blackbuck have dung piles as part of their lekking behaviour & none have been found,or footprits, or other evidence,etc on the wasted wild goose chases.
I highly doubt there is a wild self sustaining population of blackbuck anywhere in Aust. A point I continually put to the various Govt departments whom I'm sure would just love to prove me wrong,& as yet haven't
The ones in ouur zoos are in great need of some new blood.
Hope this sheds some light on the "abundance" of black buck down here. Yes Texas & Argentinna have many thousands of these spectacular annimals,not so Aust.
Cheers Khakibob
IanRRobinson
Well-Known Member
I'd be interested in knowing just what feral ungulate species are currently at large in Australia. Are any of these species of particular conservation importance?
nanoboy
Well-Known Member
I have an iPad app created by the 'Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre' and says it is "An Australian Government Initiative". The app is a mini-enclyopedia on pest species in Australia. Check it out on the app store here: https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/field-guide-to-pest-animals/id634197149?mt=8
The entry for blackbuck says that small numbers were released illegally on a Cape York property in the 1980s for hunting, but have since died out. It also says that populations that established around Perth (WA) have been "totally removed".
With regards to pest ungulates in Australia, the app lists:
- Pig (is a pig an ungulate?)
- Horse
- Goat
- Donkey
- Camel
- Buffalo
Deer:
- Chital
- Fallow
- Hog
- Red
- Rusa
- Sambar
it would be interesting to get the approximate number of Blackbuck in Australian zoos - of the places I have visited recently there are -
Alma Park - 6
Altina - approx. 40 - 50 in at least 3 herds
Werribee - only a handful on display, maybe 6 or 7, but they do have a lot of animals not on display so they could have more....
Melbourne - don't have them any more
Mansfield - approx. 10
Adelaide (a few years back) had 3 on display plus a few younger ones in the farmyard.
Monato (I'm guessing now - memory has faded of that visit) approx. 20
TWPZ - I heard they maintained a herd of about 50, is this still the case?
Hunter valley Zoo has them,
Taronga - do they still have them?
Halls Gap - do they have them?
Perth don't
Darling Down have them?.... I think...
That make roughly 140 - 150 in zoo that I can think of, of course there are heaps at Mary River Hunting Safari, and those in private hands. I'd like help with who else has them and how many.
Alma Park - 6
Altina - approx. 40 - 50 in at least 3 herds
Werribee - only a handful on display, maybe 6 or 7, but they do have a lot of animals not on display so they could have more....
Melbourne - don't have them any more
Mansfield - approx. 10
Adelaide (a few years back) had 3 on display plus a few younger ones in the farmyard.
Monato (I'm guessing now - memory has faded of that visit) approx. 20
TWPZ - I heard they maintained a herd of about 50, is this still the case?
Hunter valley Zoo has them,
Taronga - do they still have them?
Halls Gap - do they have them?
Perth don't
Darling Down have them?.... I think...
That make roughly 140 - 150 in zoo that I can think of, of course there are heaps at Mary River Hunting Safari, and those in private hands. I'd like help with who else has them and how many.
that sounds like "loads of blackbuck" to me!
I wouldn't know how to find out who the private holders are. They are held privately, which is what I was saying. My "claim" was that there are loads of blackbuck in Australia. Astrobird just gave some rough estimates of those in zoos, which does come to a figure that I would call "loads". There are more on private ranches, for example the Mary River station claims to hold the largest herd in Australia. My comment to Grant Rhino's question was that obtaining animals from captivity in Australia would be much more logical and cost-effective than catching them from the wild if they still existed in the wild.
again, read what I wrote. Yes blackbuck have been released into the wild. The WA population increased and did very well for many decades, but was later shot out. In the Northern Territory animals were released from private ranches on more than one occasion after the 1980s. My only comment on their status was that some internet sites said those animals no longer exist and some sites said they did. I've never been to the Northern Territory, so I have no clue myself.khakibob said:
no need to apologise.khakibob said:
genuine question: why would "various Govt departments" love there to be blackbuck wild in Australia? Pretty much all the government department sites I have seen say that there are no blackbuck wild in Australia. Why do you think they do want them to be there?khakibob said:
same as for almost all exotic mammals in Australian collections.khakibob said:
nowhere did I say anything even close to "thousands". I merely said there were loads of them, which there are. Probably around a couple of hundred, going by Astrobird's numbers above. In terms of exotic mammals in Australia, that is most definitely "loads".khakibob said:
Oh, also you never replied to my question about your claim regarding "hundreds" of releases of blackbuck in Australia.....
Because the government has them listed as an invasive species and the lack of wild populations after many attempts to establish them proves they are not invasive. The government makes them hard to own due to them being invasive and if it is proved they are not invasive the governments argument falls over. This could carry over to other species like Bison which are also classed as invasive and severely restricted as a result. It could prove their whole system of what is invasive defunct and they would have to establish new criteria.
You missed Bantang
Hog deer.
Moluccan rusa,although some will argue they should be considered one big generic species . Those who have actually seen & worked with M rusa will argue haw divergent they are both in taxa & ecology.
Cheers Khakibob
The Govt authorities are using the Bommford indicies to asses the "risk" of species.
The blackbuck come up as high risk when this subjective assesment is applied to them,when all the emperical evidence actually shows they are indeed a very very low risk. It highlights the flaws in the system, & this same indicies is being used on many species.
I have never said there were hundresds of releases of blackbuck. There were certainly hundreds of attempts by those already farming deer to expand into blackbuck. These were experienced wildlife keepers/farmers already & in almost every case everyone failed to establish a self sustaining herd.
Cheers Khakibob
ah, I see. Fair enough then.
it's not my list, but as it is based on what Astrobird personally saw then I'd say it's pretty correct.
is the Bommford indices what is also used by the Vertebrate Pests Commitee? Because their list is seriously retarded!
Regarding the hundreds of releases, you said "There have been hundreds of attempts to establish self sustaining populations od blackbuck in Aust & almost none have survived. They would be the "least invasive" species ever to be brought to Aust, yet they create so much opinion from so many "experts"." - I understood you to be speaking of attempts to establish wild populations but you were instead speaking of farming attempts?
nanoboy
Well-Known Member
Not me. The folks who made the app.
I had to google what a bantang was.
They spell it "banteng" though.
zooboy28
Well-Known Member
The seven ZAA zoos in Australia with Blackbuck (Altina, Alma Park, Darling Downs, Hall's Gap, Monarto, Western Plains and Werribee) have a total of 169 individual blackbuck according to the 2013 census.
Well the list isn't far off, especially numbers wise.