Hello
Reports of camels at Newhaven station should send stress signals through
the birding community.
The remote Atlassing expedition to the Great Victoria Desert in July
2000 witnessed regular herds of camels and our local expert estimated
the population in the GVD to be between 200 and 300 thousand. Yes!
2-300,000.
We saw daily evidence of their destructive capacity......many water
sites had been drained and dried out and often fouled.
Dunes and vegetation near 'resting' spots were severly damaged and many
native plants under threat from over grazing.
They have no predators apart from man, and the indigineous community is
not interested in shooting or eating them. Some 'white fellas' have a
vested interest in keeping camel populations high for the Arab market
but this will at the expense of native flora and fauna.
There is a strong case for tackling our 'feral future' as Tim Lowe
argues in his recent book, an account of Australia's exotic
invaders.....I highly recommend 'feral future' to all on birding-aus. It
made me want to take my slingshot out to the Indian mynahs and rip up
the ever advancing 'wandering jew'.
Laurie Living
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
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