On Fri, Feb 05, 2010 at 12:26:05AM +1000, Chris Sanderson wrote:
> Another great example of a control action likely to succeed is
> the highly ambitious clearing of feral mammals from Lord Howe Island. The
> potential benefits here are staggering, with the potential recovery of
> endemic reptiles, frogs, terrestrial birds and nesting seabirds, as well as
> reintroduction of previously locally extinct species to fill currently
> vacant niches in the island ecosystem.
Hopefully the Lord Howe rodent eradication program will succeed and
hopefully we'll see some great consequences. But its interesting
the flow of introduced species into Lord Howe hasn't stopped.
Pigs and cats were eradicated in the 80s and goats recently or almost I'm
not sure. But its 3 down and 2 up with 2 vertebrates inroduced in the
last 20 years to Lord Howe: a frog Litoria dentata (Bleating Tree Frog)
and the skink Lampropholis delicata.
There should have been a serious attempt to extirpate Litoria dentata
when its was first discovered. There are no native frogs on Lord Howe and
a variety of endemic invertebrates to be concerned about. In the first
few years after its introduction removing it was probably possible.
When I visited recently L. dentata seemed numerous and widespread.
I assume its established in inaccessible parts of the island and removal
would be difficult - not that anyone appears interested in doing so.
I'm sure if L. dentata rather than being an attractive little frog,
looked like a Cane Toad there would have been action years ago.
And I expect the same applies to Lampropholis delicata.
Andrew
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