On Fri, 16 Mar 2001, Marilyn Davis wrote:
> Nature is a wonderful and remarkable thing. After the antics of Aquis
No, we should be complaining that AQIS took several weeks (I believe)
to kill this bird and we should be urging the federal government to
provide AQIS with more resources so it can be more prompt in such actions.
In the last 50 years hopefully the only Australian vertebrate extinctions
have been of frogs - but unfortunately we seem to have lost 8 species
of frogs.
The most plausible cause of these extinctions is a pathogen - a chytrid
fungus. The pet trade seems the most likely way this pathogen was
introduced.
Its possible that this Magpie had been involved in the pet trade - perhaps
purchased in Asia as a cage bird. The risk that it would introduce a
pathogen may be very small - but the cost of such an introduction may
be very high.
Andrew Taylor
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
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