I've managed to stay out of this debate until now. Chris' anecdote reminds
me of a similar experience that a few us from the Australian National
University had in Namadgi NP, Brindabella Range in 1988. The same sort of
setup - hunting dogs and armory in the back of the ute, hunters and beer
cans in the vehicle's cabin. The ANU group was in the national park
mist-netting birds as part of a long-term banding project at Moonlight
Hollow. Some of you will know the site and have participated in the bird
banding project. After a brief interchange between the hunters and bird
banders (similar in nature to Chris' encounter), the ute sped off down the
track (yes, wheels spinning too), clipping the guy ropes of the mist net
poles, bringing down every single mist net (400 m of mist nets) along the
side of the track. The ute continued without stopping (I'm not sure the
driver was even aware of what he had done), the bird banding group spent the
next few days untangling the twigs, leaves and other garbage from the nets
and, where possible, repairing the nets.
Let's hope that the hunters that Chris and I have experienced are not
representative of those who will be let loose in our national parks.
Stephen Ambrose
Ryde NSW
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Chris Lloyd
Sent: Wednesday, 13 June 2012 3:03 PM
To:
Subject: Snippets from the frontline
In Barmah Forest NP in Victoria on the Friday before the long weekend I
stopped to follow a few robins on the side of a dirt road - binoculars in
hand. A 4x4 tray top cruised slowly by replete with hunting dogs in cage and
armory. The passenger yelled "Ya alright, (it clearly wasn't a question)if
ya lookin' for possums there's three back there with bullets in their heads
(expletives deleted)". This was followed with the requisite spinning of
wheels followed by a slow cruise off maintaining visual in the rearview/gun
sights. Three o'clock in the afternoon is an unusual time to be possum
spotting/shooting I thought but maybe things are different in Mexico. I saw
literally hundreds of such vehicles streaming out of Melbourne the following
day.
Chris Lloyd
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