A Tasmanian golf club is set to begin culling wallabies and rabbits due to “excessive droppings” and “destruction” of the course’s greens, a move that has angered animal welfare advocates. The Greens Beach Golf Club in the state’s north has been granted a “crop protection permit” from the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and […]
Tag: Brushtail possum
Māori push for pandemic stimulus spend to save Raukūmara Forest
Two Māoriiwi, or tribal groups, are campaigning for a portion of the New Zealand government’s new COVID-19 economic stimulus package to help save their treasured, ancestral Raukūmara Forest from being overrun by introduced pests. The Raukūmaras stretch across around 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres) of national park and private land along the North Island’s East Cape. […]
Poison-laden drones to patrol New Zealand wilderness on the hunt for invasive pests
A large rat scampers across a shady forest floor in search of its latest meal of Kiwi chicks, one of New Zealand’s endangered native birds. But the rodent is in the sights of another predator – a mammoth drone carrying hundreds of kilograms of deadly poison. This scene could soon be playing out across New […]
“Part of something bigger”: the social movement around New Zealand’s Predator-Free 2050 goal
In Whāingaroa/Raglan on New Zealand’s (NZ’s) west coast, trapping for introduced mammals that prey on endangered native birds is something of a competitive sport. Karioi Project, a local conservation NGO named after the bushclad volcano that backs the small surf town and houses a significant population of endemic oi (grey-faced petrels, Pterodroma gouldi), has established […]
What makes a forest healthy? Māori knowledge has some answers.
RUATĀHUNA, New Zealand — In certain seasons, the forest used to look like a bride, recalled Māori elders in Ruatāhuna: vibrant, healthy, and clothed in all its glory. These days, they agreed, it looks more like an old lady, ragged and tired. There’s a feeling of loneliness there now, too, as if the forest is […]
POLL: Should invasive animal species be controlled by drowning?
One can understand New Zealand’s apparent frustration with invasive Australian brushtail possums. One can conjure up genuine sadness for the damage the possums cause through their unwavering appetite for birds’ eggs and one can feel real concern for the plight of the native species being edged out. Like many invasive species, they are a nightmare […]
Finding mammals in Sydney (Urban mammals)
When most of us think about wildlife watching, cities are not the environments that usually come to mind. Typically urban development is associated with habitat destruction and local extinctions. However, not all wildlife species are equally affected by human activities and some have adapted and become quite successful in human-dominated landscapes. Sydney – Australia’s largest […]