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Sounds very interesting. Honestly not trying to be skeptical, the thing it reminds me of was a proposal from a scientist that Australia import elephants and rhi

Sounds very interesting. Honestly not trying to be skeptical, the thing it reminds me of was a proposal from a scientist that Australia import elephants and rhinos to help control the spread of gamba grass. Itself imported from africa for grazing, it crowds out local plants, but maybe more pertinent these days, has an increased fire risk profile. To me the contention with any plan, conservation or otherwise, is "be ultra careful what you bring into Australia". Certainly not an expert, I'm sure in any case they would be very careful doing any of this, tracking etc. And I don't feel rhino's are quite as aggressive as say, hippos (authorities did not think Escobar's hippos would survive in Colombia; that turned out to be dead wrong). But I would certainly be very curious to see how introducing such a large aggressive herbivore with no natural predators would affect the area, if only because it does seem like a doable task to control the population.

ehnto 5y ago
It would be a conflicted moment to have to think about controlling a pest rhino population. A huge success and an ecological disaster all in one, but I think the risk of that is quite low as they are not a fast breeding animal and this program is in a closed safari park. We have an invasive camel problem which probably serves as a good benchmark for what a pest rhino situation would look like here. There is a bounty program for hunters to get paid for eradicating them from Australia. It's a touchy subject, no doubt. But being hard hooved animals they destroy the top soil and kill the ecosystem our bugs and birds thrive on. Camels, sheep and cattle have done immeasurable damage to the Australian ecosystem.
- gimmeThaBeet 5y ago
  Agree on all points. I had mixed feelings that the fact that the population struggles in the face of poaching despite having no effective natural predators seems conducive to fostering a controlled population in a closed environment. The food chain wouldn't affect how they proliferate . But the first thought is always...just the track record. Rabbits, foxes, cats, cane toads, donkeys, camels, goats, pigs. But, like you say, they aren't going to be losing track of their rhinos. But, arguing conservation as a practical application, has Australia ever intentionally introduced a species for a practical application and had it not go absolutely sideways (big caveat, usually once the animals escaped, or were just turned loose)?
  - ehnto 5y ago
    I had a bit of a dig around and turned up nothing but bad news, so I imagine it almost always goes sideways. The only exceptions are zoos. I did find a small success story in reducing the numbers of invasive Myna birds by volunteer trapping, which is seeing native species return to the areas affected. So that's nice.

ehnto 5y ago

It would be a conflicted moment to have to think about controlling a pest rhino population. A huge success and an ecological disaster all in one, but I think the risk of that is quite low as they are not a fast breeding animal and this program is in a closed safari park. We have an invasive camel problem which probably serves as a good benchmark for what a pest rhino situation would look like here. There is a bounty program for hunters to get paid for eradicating them from Australia. It's a touchy subject, no doubt. But being hard hooved animals they destroy the top soil and kill the ecosystem our bugs and birds thrive on. Camels, sheep and cattle have done immeasurable damage to the Australian ecosystem.

gimmeThaBeet 5y ago
Agree on all points. I had mixed feelings that the fact that the population struggles in the face of poaching despite having no effective natural predators seems conducive to fostering a controlled population in a closed environment. The food chain wouldn't affect how they proliferate . But the first thought is always...just the track record. Rabbits, foxes, cats, cane toads, donkeys, camels, goats, pigs. But, like you say, they aren't going to be losing track of their rhinos. But, arguing conservation as a practical application, has Australia ever intentionally introduced a species for a practical application and had it not go absolutely sideways (big caveat, usually once the animals escaped, or were just turned loose)?
- ehnto 5y ago
  I had a bit of a dig around and turned up nothing but bad news, so I imagine it almost always goes sideways. The only exceptions are zoos. I did find a small success story in reducing the numbers of invasive Myna birds by volunteer trapping, which is seeing native species return to the areas affected. So that's nice.