Brown tree snakes destroying more than just Guam’s birds
A brown tree snake
In the last 60 years, brown tree snakes have become the embodiment of the bad things that can happen when invasive species are introduced in places where they have few predators. Unchecked for many years, the snakes caused the extinction of nearly every native bird species on the Pacific island of Guam. But new research by University of Washington biologists suggests that indirect impacts might be even farther reaching, possibly changing tree distributions and reducing native tree populations, altering already damaged ecosystems even further.
I like brown tree snakes, even though I had a bad experience with them once. I know it’s wrong, but I sort of get a sense of pride when I hear about Aussies doing well overseas.
Save the planet - eat Skippy!
Eastern grey kangaroos: rare or rare?
Australian scientists have come up with a unique way to combat climate change: eat kangaroos and save the world. A study claims that farming and consuming more kangaroos instead of cattle and sheep will reduce carbon gas emissions.
The President of the Wildlife Protection Association of Australia, Pat O’Brien, described the study as nonsense. He said that 500 times more kangaroos than the current population would have to be killed to produce the equivalent amount of sheep and cattle meat.
“The kangaroo population is in demise in Australia; it’s never been so low because of ten years of drought,” said Mr O’Brien, who is also the chairman of the National Kangaroo Protection Coalition.
I don’t know what sources Mr O’Brien is drawing on. Everything I’ve read has said that kangaroos are more numerous now than before European settlement. I had kangaroo steak the other night. Don’t overcook it - it goes quite tough if you do.
This is a message directed at the hundreds of single guys who read this blog daily. A good friend of mine… Well, we’ve only just met recently, but she’s sent me a couple of dozen emails since last night so it feels like we’ve been friends for ages… Anyway, this lovely young woman - Oksana is her name (wasn’t that a song by Toto?) - contacted me to very kindly suggest that we could perhaps form a deep and meaningful relationship. I’m obviously not available, but I thought I could put the call out to see if any of my contacts are interested.
Now, Oksana’s English isn’t perfect. Her native tongue is Russian, but let me tell you - her English is better than my Russian, da! But I had no trouble understanding her email (actually, I may have misunderstood the part about giving her my credit card number - that seems a tad unnecessary)
Oksana
As you can see from the photo, Oksana’s a lovely, presentable young woman, and she has excellent computer skills (as evidenced by the millions of emails I suspect she sends daily).
Anyway, if any of you single guys are interested, please contact me and I’ll pass on your details to Oksana.
Some people are apparently welcoming climate change. Grape growers in Austria (note: that’s a little country in Europe, not a huge mass of land keeping the Indian and Pacific oceans separate) have found the warmer conditions to be quite beneficial.
Search engine giant Google has today introduced StreetView into its online mapping system. While users have long been able to view maps and satellite imagery for specific locations, StreetView now allows users to go on a virtual tour of many streets by providing images taken from car-mounted cameras.
Have a look at this example. Click on the little man and pan around the image.
Google have addressed privacy issues by automatically blurring faces and preventing people from reading the text on car number plates. Google have, however, specifically stated that “Honk if you’re horny” bumper stickers will remain legible.
In the Galapagos Islands, there lives a lonely boy. Well, he’s at least 60, so we can’t really call him a boy. He’s lonely not for want of trying on the part of his neighbours. Many girls have been offered to him, but he’s refused all of them. That is, until now. Possibly.
Lonesome George, believed to be the world’s last Pinta Island tortoise, may be a father yet. Recently, two of his female companions laid some eggs. The eggs may turn out to be infertile, but hopefully the world will hear the pitter-patter of little tortoise feet in about four months’ time.
Below is a video of some Aldabran tortoises getting frisky. These are about the same size as Lonesome George, but are a different species from a different island in a different ocean.
Australia’s Environment Minister Peter Garrett has today banned savannah cats from Australia, saying they pose an extreme risk to native animals and the environment.
“On all the evidence that I have seen, the risks associated with allowing this cross-bred cat into the country, when we already have up to 12 million feral cats wreaking havoc on native fauna, are simply too great,” Mr Garrett said. “That is why I have banned the import of these cats immediately.”
Various petitions and submissions have been doing the rounds since this issue came to the public’s attention several months ago. I don’t know what these people are going to do.
