Australia's Desperate Attempt to Rescue Native Fauna
11/22/99
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Barbed Wire, Poisonous Peas and Viruses - Australia's
environmentalists are engaged in a desperate attempt to
rescue native fauna from the onslaught of immigrant species
Source: MorgenWelt e.V., Hamburg, Germany
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 22, 1999
Byline: Philip Bethge
Some might call Bryan Cane's leisure-time activities strange. At
times, this resident of Useless Loop in Western Australia can be
observed dropping poisoned chunks of meat from an airplane, by the
pound. At other times, you'll find him distributing little wire traps
with automatic trapdoors in the sandy dunes surrounding his garden -
or he might be mending holes in a mile-long electrified fence that
separates his hometown and its 4.5 square mile peninsula from the
Australian continent.
"I feel these things have to be done," says Cane, knowing that he is
fully backed not only by the Australian research foundation CSIRO
(Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organisation), but also by
his entire neighborhood.
For the past few years, Cane and a good number of other Useless
Loopers have shared a common after-hours concern - they worry about a
number of small animals with large ears and noses. Their names are
Burrowing Bettong, Western Barred Bandicoot and Shark Bay Mouse, and
they are among Australia's most endangered mammals. In fact, they were
considered extinct on the Australian mainland until very recently.
But here, on the salt-encrusted Heirisson Prong peninsula on Western
Australia's Shark Bay, a few dozen of them have found a new home. The
fence, the traps and the poisoned bait that is regularly dropped from
the air, are all part of a symbolic victory Australian researchers
have won against an overwhelming enemy: animal species introduced from
Europe.
Foxes and cats, imported to Australia in the early days of the
century, are considered the chief terrorists of the Australian Bush,
and have been wreaking havoc with local wildlife for decades. The rest
is taken care of by almost 300 million rabbits, 24 million cattle and
120 million sheep and goats, whose very presence threatens to destroy
- forever - the habitat of many marsupials, and with it, an entire
ecosystem that is unique in the world. A stock-taking after 200 years
of colonial rule: 18 of Australia's marsupial species have fallen prey
to European domination.
Another 26 species exist only on tiny islands off the coast, are
sighted only very rarely and are facing a very real threat of
extinction.
"Australia holds the worldwide record in the extinction of native
mammals," says Harry Recher, President of Australia's National
Biodiversity Council. "Virtually every species, every population of
native flora and fauna, has been decimated in this country - most of
them by more than 90 percent."
Lately, in an effort to save what they can, Australia's researchers
have taken the bull by the horns. Their weapons in the fight to stop
the large-scale extinction of species include barbed wire, poison and
viruses.
One of the pioneers in researching the careworn marsupials is CSIRO
zoologist Jeff Short - the person responsible for setting the above-
mentioned Heirisson Prong peninsula project on Australia's West Coast
in motion, in the early 1990s. Today, the project is considered
Australia's classic example for the successful protection of
endangered species. In those days, the realization had just dawned
that foxes and cats were the prime culprits in the unprecedented
dying-off of Wallaby and Co. Even Heirisson Prong was firmly in the
paws of the foreign marauders. Short reports that there were hardly
any marsupials to be seen at the time. Then, the cleanup began in
earnest. With the help of the Useless Loopers, the zoologist erected
the electric fence that has since barred the predators from invading
the peninsula. The foxes and cats living in the project area were
trapped, poisoned or shot down. And by 1992, the zoologist was able to
import the first Burrowing Bettongs from Dorre and Bernier Islands to
Heirisson Prong.
The Bettongs had been able to survive only on these two small islands
off the coast. Short coddled several of these hamster-sized kangaroo-
like animals in captivity and finally released eighteen of them into
Useless Loop's fenced-in version of freedom. Within four months, they
were all dead. A fox had gotten past the electric fence, and done a
thorough job.
The next attempt to re-settle the animals met with more success. At
present, more than 100 specimens live on the peninsula, meaning the
Bettong population is stable. Four years ago, Short also introduced
the Shark Bay Mouse, another denizen of Dorre and Bernier Islands
weighing only one-and-a-half ounces, to Heirisson Prong. In late 1995,
they were joined by Western Barred Bandicoots, little 7-ounce bundles
of fur with pointy noses and enormous ears that had not been seen on
the Australian mainland since 1929.
To this day, the campaign demands the joint energy of three CSIRO
scientists and a host of "Earthwatch" volunteers from all over the
world. The latter pay a lot of money for the dubious privilege of
living in rudimentary quarters and spending their nights measuring
slavering and kicking Bettongs in the dim light of miner's lamps.
High-tech radio-telemetric equipment and truckloads of traps are
necessary to safeguard the habitat of the roughly 150 animals.
But you can't argue with success. And so it wasn't long before copycat
projects sprang up around Short. In 1995, the Western Australian
Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) called the
"Eden" project into being, in Heirisson Prong's immediate vicinity.
The Peron peninsula, almost one hundred times the size of Heirisson
Prong and Australia's largest peninsula, has since been the venue of
what is probably the most ambitious project on the part of
Australian researchers to rescue native wildlife.
"We intend to reestablish Peron's original diversity of species," says
project leader Ray Smith, who has established his headquarters in the
peninsula's small fishing village of Denham. By the turn of the new
millenium, the zoologist plans to re-create paradise on earth for
thirteen endangered native species. A 2.1-mile high-security fence
separates the peninsula from the mainland, and keeps predators and
rabbits at bay. Smith and an army of volunteers have removed 20,000
sheep from the peninsula, and a good 2,500 foxes along with hundreds
of cats have been killed.
Here, too, the conservation efforts have met with success. The first
few Woylies - Bettongs with yellowish-gray fur - have been hopping
around the reclaimed Bush since September of last year. Some specimens
of the ground-breeding Thermometer Hen have been settled. And soon,
they are to be joined by the termite-eating Numbat and the Rufous Hare
Wallaby. "For a long time, we didn't recognize the fatal effects the
introduced predators were having on our wildlife," says Smith. "But we
are slowly learning to effectively control the fox and cat
population."
The methods used by the researchers to tackle the European invasion
are well thought-out. Thus, an extract from Gastrolobium peas native
to Australia has become the foxes' downfall. The extract known as
"1080" is deadly for European animals. Australian wildlife, on the
other hand, have become immune to the native plant's poison during the
course of evolution.
Chunks of meat marinated in the poison have proven a very effective
weapon against the foxy plague and are now used throughout the
country. In Western Australia, CALM alone drops approximately 700,000
pieces of bait each year. The long-range plan is to eliminate foxes
from 3.5 million hectares of land using this method.
Wild cats are more of a headache for the researchers. Unlike the
foxes, they prefer live prey, which makes them tough to bait.
"Australia's dry climate offers cats ideal conditions for survival,"
says CALM researcher Smith: "Many Australian animals are completely at
their mercy." By using conventional traps, poisoned bait tailored to
cats' tastes, and so-called "chirpers," battery-operated devices that
simulate cat sounds, the researchers have nevertheless managed to
reduce the cat population by up to 80 percent.
New approaches in biological warfare are to further accelerate the
crusade against foxes and cats. Especially in the last few months,
Australia - one of the world's pioneers in biotechnology - has been
astonishing the world public with an unceasing flow of new ideas to
make life as difficult as possible for the brutish immigrants. Thus,
CSIRO researcher Peter Bird recently presented a bait that apparently
is irresistible to foxes, and contains a vaccine that very effectively
sterilizes the predators. "We influence the animal's immune system in
such a way that it mistakes the body's own ova and sperm for foreign
cells and destroys them," Bird explains this deadly path to
infertility.
In Canberra, researchers are working on an even more insidious method.
They recently succeeded in manipulating the pregnancies of lab mice
using a modified virus. The method, known as "VVIC" (Viral-Vectored
Immunocontraception) could be used for foxes and cats in the future. A
modified virus that spreads among the animals like disease is to
impair their reproduction.
However, the consequences of such biological warfare are controversial
and highly unpredictable. Thus, the method used by Australians to
tackle their rabbit problem is increasingly the object of worldwide
criticism. As early as 1950, Australian scientists had declared war on
rabbits, present in Australia since 1859. The Myxoma virus was
imported, and succeeded in cutting the Australian rabbit population in
half within just a few months.
By now, however, many of the animals have become resistant to the
epidemic. The fifth continent continues to be a playground for
approximately 300 million rabbits, who displace native species such as
the long-eared Bilbie, and cause annual agricultural damages of
roughly 600 million Australian dollars. So, in the early 1990s,
Australian researchers began testing a new weapon on South Australia's
Wardang Island: the "Rabbit Calicivirus."
A slight hitch brought home the frightening potential of the new
killer virus. In October 1995, the virus somehow got past the double
security fence of Wardang Island's quarantine area - presumably
transmitted by a bush fly - arrived on the mainland shortly thereafter
and proceeded to display its full destructive potential. Approximately
95 percent of the rodents in nearby Flinders Range died within a few
weeks. The virus, consisting of little more than a single strand of
DNA, swept through Southern Australia. In just two months, it had
killed roughly 30 million rabbits.
After a initial moment of shock, the virus was celebrated as a
victorious battle in the war against the rabbit plague. However, since
then, it has increasingly come under fire. Internationally acclaimed
experts, such as the American David Matson, have called the open-air
experiment "uncontrollable and unpredictable." To this day, it is
unclear how exactly the virus was created and how it is transmitted,
nor is it clear whether it is capable of attacking other animal
species or even humans.
Moreover, the effects of the killer virus, which was officially
released at an additional 400 locations all over Australia in October
1996, leaves much to be desired. The number of rabbits has hardly gone
down in about half of the contaminated areas. Especially in the moist
coastal regions, the dying has not set in as expected.
On Western Australia's coasts, too, the virus failed to have the
desired effect on the rabbit population. So, Ray Smith and CSIRO
researcher Jeff Short have once again pinned their hopes on Myxomatose
and on what they can achieve with their own hands. Nowadays, they
destroy the rodents' burrows and - after a number of sorrowful
experiences - sink their protective fences deep, so that the rabbits
cannot tunnel their way under them.
Empowered by the experience gained during the course of their Shark
Bay activities, the researchers hope to be able to safeguard the long-
term survival of animals like the Mala, Bettong or Bandicoot. "Of
course we dream of extending our work to larger territories," says
Short, and pleads for "at least a dozen areas" where the small
marsupials can establish a new, secure existence. "We have to find a
way to stabilize the animals' populations," he explains. "Otherwise,
we will lose them forever."
However, the struggle to reach that goal is a rocky road. Just how
rocky, becomes evident in the early morning hours, as the untiring
denizens of Heirisson Prong once again set out on their long march
around the peninsula. In the glow of the flashlight, we see them again
and again: the rabbits, cats and foxes that make Australian animals
lives a living hell.
Yet, sometimes, a pointy-snouted Bandicoot can be seen darting through
the prickly underbrush at full speed. At such moments, a smile flits
across Bryan Cane's features. Cane was one of the first Useless
Loopers to take the necessary steps in combating the dying in his own
backyard. "I am personally proud of having been part of this project
from the very beginning," he says, adjusting the green baseball cap on
his angular head. "And I really look forward to the day when we can
tear down this fence."