Tassie Devils

[Kifaru Bwana]

just thought I'd stick this on here (not exactly a new idea but it is new to the news thread)

Mainland Aus may become home to Tas devils - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

It is just an idea being bandied about, but I am not too keen on it!

I am sure you Aussie and NZ folks are all too well aware of the fact what (negative) impact most foreign animal introductions have meant to native flora and fauna. Since 1788 19 mammalian and 20 bird species (not to mention reptiles, amphibians and invertebrate fauna) have become extinct in Australia. I can not cite the accurate - and mainly - bird extinction percentage in NZ, but that is equally dim and sobering reading.

Now to introduce Tassie devils to a mainland habitat outside the confines of a zoo - even if it is fenced - does not do it for me somehow. Zoo rescue and breeding facilities fine, but introduction of a species that is and has not occurred on mainland Australia is an entirely different matter. We need to confront the facial tumor issue that is precipitating the extinction of Tassie devils head-on from a vet health perspective (like in Homo sapies we do so often in cancer and drug treatment) and the habitat encroachment issue in Tasmania that is endangering their current future.

What about an environmental impact assessment? What about potential impact of Tassie devils on local herbivore marsupial communities, let alone endangered taxa?

I like to have these answers first, before going ahead with any mainland Tassie outback initiative is allowed to move forward.

 

[MARK]

Jelle, I think you may find we have lost much more than about 19 species of mammals in the last 200 years, In fact I have read we have the worse extinction rate for mammals of any country (some books) say it could be up to two hundred mammal species.

In regards to letting free Tassie devils on the main land I would be surprised if that happened, there was talk of introducing them to Maria Island which is a large Island off Tassie but not sure if that want ahead

 

[jay]

The other thing to remember is that Tassie devils were living on the mainland till about 20 000 years ago. It is thought that the introduction of the dingo wiped them and the thylacine out through compeition.

 

[Chlidonias]

with regards to the two posts above, there are some devils on Maria Island but they are in enclosures and there are apparently no plans to actually release them (at least that's what I was told by one of the rangers there last year).

jelle's figures for modern Australian extinctions sound about right, but since human arrival Mark's would be more correct -- given that its probably around 60,000 years! (but jelle wasn't talking about the total human colonisation period, only European)

Dingoes were introduced to Australia between 2000 and 6000 years ago (no firm agreement on exactly when) and there were devils -- and thylacines -- on the mainland up till then (so quite a bit more recently than 20,000 years ago!)