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Dear John,
I am sorry that you have taken my
posting as some sort of personal attack as
it was certainly not meant in that
way. I attempted to make it clear that I
was not directing criticism at
any individual. I clearly failed and I
apologise for this. With
the wisdom of hindsight I realise that should have
paraphrased element out of
several postings rather than using an edited
quote and leaving your name
out.
With regard to the rest of your message there are a few matters of
fact that
I will address. Bear in mind that I am referring specifically
to the
southern NT, though notes from other correspondents suggest that
the
situation is similar in other remote semi-arid areas.
>
Seen many rabbits lately?
Very few. Alice Springs is roughly at the
northern edge of the rabbit
invasion. The rabbits got here about 100
years ago, have cycled up and down
with the seasons and declined sharply
about 5 years ago because of
calici-virus. It is quite likely that the
bustards suffered from the advent
of the rabbit, but hard to see how
rabbits could have caused the rapid
decline seen in the last 20
years. As far as I can see there is no
difference in bustard
numbers in areas with and wihout rabbits.
Likewise cattle were brought in
in the late 19th century. Numbers peaked in
the mid 1950's, declined
with the drought, peaked again in the mid 1970's
with good seasons and the
collapse of the US export beef market. Cattle
numbers in the southern
NT have decreased substantially over the last 20
years.
are we
positive
> about what we have done? 100 per cent positive that
>
is?
We can never be 100 per cent positive. If we wait until we are it
will be
too late. The fact that there has been a sharp decline
corresponding to a
period of increased hunting pressure is highly
suggestive. Bustards may
have been under pressure from grazing, feral
animals, changed
fire-frequencies and other factors that we have not
recognised.
Un-controlled hunting could easily push them over the
edge.
> Keep killing enough birds and guess what? birds
will
> disappear as if by magic from THAT area but only THAT
>
area.
If the area in which bustards are killed is wide enough we will
have a
regional extinction. As noted by some correspondents bustards in
this
region are most numerous in the Tanami and Simpson Deserts, very
remote
areas with no roads. They are absent from well-visited areas and
sparse in
quite remote pastoral areas. This distribution is consistent
with a decline
due to hunting.
The density of tracks in the pastoral areas
may well be enough to allow
regional extinction of the bustards.
In
the last 4 years I have travelled thousands of kilometres on outback
roads,
spent weeks working and camping in out of the way spots and done
numerous
bird searches for the Atlas. In this time I have seen only one
bustard
and some piles of feathers. In similar travels in the 70's I would
have seen
10 or 20.
Robert Read
Alice Springs
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