Hi Allan.
Re your concerns about dogs getting spinifex prickles in their
paws and snouts and legs.
You are right, and this was one reason I asked about suitable
dogs. Just as Aboriginals develop leather-like soles which can walk on
spinifex, gravel and hot sand, so can dogs. Although universally mangy
and thin, dogs hanging around Aboriginal settlements might be amenable to
rehabilitation and used as beaters, packs would be better than single
hounds, if they could be disciplined!
The dog that flushed the NPs quoted in the Walton article that
prompted this discussion would have been a working dog and used to spinifex
and I have seen dingoes in spinifex areas, so that except in the areas of
thickest spinifex I don't think that this would be a problem with selected
dogs. Humans can usually walk between spinifex clumps without too much
trouble in most places.
Having said that, I would concentrate the search on the
succulent fields alongside the many salt lakes in the Centre and Southern
Kimberley, where the chenopods are soft, the shrubbery otherwise fairly
benign, the sand is soft, and have been the site of various NP sightings.
Otherwise to concentrate on very limited areas of spinifex with historic or
recent sightings.
This is still a along way from being a done deal, and all
suggestions and comments are really welcome.
Cheers
Michael
"There's been a lot of suggestion about the use of dogs to find NP's - but
there's this thing that keeps coming to mind......
Those of us who have walked through Porcupine Grass (Spinifex to most)
without proper protection (I recall my first venture was in Dunlop Volleys -
oh dear) have paid dearly for the price of not looking before we leapt into
the stuff.
Wouldn't it be refined torture to send dogs through that stuff to flush
birds?? Prickles in the nose, paws and legs. Has someone tried this and the
dogs magically avoid the sharp spines"
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