http://www.theaustralian.com.a...frgcjx-1226261160493

HERDS of elephants marching through the Australian outback grazing on foreign grass, Komodo dragons in the bush feasting on feral pigs and the occasional rhinoceros roaming in the wild -- this is the answer to the increasing problem of introduced plants and animals in Australia, according to scientist David Bowman.

In the wild, the rhinos and elephants would eat tons (tonnes) of feral grass each day, while Komodo dragons would end the need for expensive shooting or poisoning programs to deal with destructive pests such as pigs and goats.

Professor Bowman, head of environmental change biology at the School for Plant Science at the University of Tasmania, is a passionate advocate of using different thinking to deal with environmental challenges.

"We must introduce and manage predators to control the feral animals, and herbivore species to graze the flammable grasses," Bowman said.

He said a major source of fuel for bushfires in the monsoon tropics is gamba grass, a giant African grass that has invaded the northern savanna.


"It is too big for Australia's marsupial grazers -- kangaroos -- and for cattle and buffalo, the largest feral mammals," Bowman said.

"But gamba grass is a great meal for elephants or rhinoceros. The idea of introducing elephants may seem absurd, but the only other methods likely to control gamba grass involve using chemicals or physically clearing the land, which would destroy the habitat.

"Using mega-herbivores may ultimately be more practical and cost-effective, and it would help to conserve animals that are currently threatened by poaching in their native environment."

Bowman's controversial feral pest management ideas, contained in an essay for the prestigious international science journal Nature, generated a mixed reaction among other Australian experts.

Most said Australia already had enough feral animals to deal with and that introduced elephants could do immense damage to trees, a major part of their diet, as well as eating gamba grass.

I know an old lady who swallowed a cat, she swallowed the cat to catch the bird, she swallowed the bird to catch the spider, she swallowed the spider to catch the fly. I don't know why she swallowed the fly, but fear her line of reasoning will prove fatal.

Ole Prof Bowman sound like a bit of a wanka. All we need running around Australia is a bloody big flesh eating lizard

Maybe we could train 'em to stomp out the toads..

There is some effort starting to clone the early mastadon/mammoth types since they found some DNA. Would that be better than the modern ones ? You also used to have a carniverous 'roo.How about bringing that back ?
What's a few more weird beasts in Oz ?

Bring it I say. More shit to shoot.

I've got absolutely no problem with bringing all sorts of African species to Australia. Should have been done a hundred years ago.

Cape Buffalo, elephant, zebra, eland, kudu, springbok, impala, wildebeest, sable, nyala, just imagine it, plus lion to help control them.

Bakes, you might even have something to hunt then.

Don't want a elephant tip toeing through my new vege patch thanks very much John.

Then what do we release to control the elephants when they get out of control. It is almost as bad as national parks and wildlife (or as they are known round here national sparks and wildfires) here in nsw policy of using feral dogs to control feral pigs in the catchments which means some of the smaller pigs get taken by the dogs but the dogs dont even try for the bigger pigs which means most pigs in the catchments are 70+kgs so the dogs feed on antthing else that is easyier for them to take EG native animals.

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Then what do we release to control the elephants when they get out of control.

Homo sapiens..

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Originally posted by Bakes:
Don't want a elephant tip toeing through my new vege patch thanks very much John.

Nah we'll release those in Tasmania.

I wonder if gemsbok eat gamba grass? I think they would fit in well in the NT.

But thinking of dumb biological pest control, apparently a station in SA once had a massive rabbit population and imported 5000 cats to control them. Where they found 5000 cats in a hurry beats me.

A pygmy hippo was seen in the NT a few years back..perhaps its already started

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All we need running around Australia is a bloody big flesh eating lizard

Bakes , I think Aussie has a lot of bloody big flesh eating lizards (Croc's) Now !

On a Island I was on in the NT the Croc's roam all over the place at night hunting goats

That poor Pygmy Hippo got shoot by some pig hunters unfortunately !

A friend of mine went into business of trapping and shooting feral cats and selling the skins to mitten and glove makers for lining mittens and gloves. After a year of shooting and trapping he was running out of feral cats so he started raising cats. With the price of cat skins running at 60 cents each and the cost of food at 40 cents and paying a Mexican 10 cents to skin the cats he was only making a dime a cat. Being inventive and always thinking of ways to improve profits my friend decided to raise rats to feed the cats and cut his feed cost by 25%.

He ran into problems soon after he started his rat project because rats breed much faster than cats and he began to be over-run with rats.

To solve his rat problem, he then decided to raise snakes to eat the surplus rats.

For a while everything was ecologically balanced and he was making 20 cents a cat skin and it looked like blue skys were smiling upon him until his Mexican catskinners demanded a raise. Realizing that increasing his costs would eat into his profits, my friend thought and serched for a solution and finally came upon the idea that if he could cross breed the cats with the snakes...........they would shed their skins twice a year and he could fire the damned greedy Mexicans.

I lost track of my friend during the cross breeding program but I have herd that he is facing some kind of discrimination suit, a wrongful termination suit and is in trouble with PETA

Yeah but they stay in the water Sarge.