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In this particular situation it is an emergency for the parrots. They could easily become extinct. Yes the sugar gliders do need to be removed as soon as possible.
However I do agree with LPC that this is a global issue of humans making mistakes and now needing to fix them. I think we have an obligation to find humane solutions. Culling things is a bit of a coverup. It is not an acknowledgement that we have a problem to fix. It is not the fault of the animals involved. They didn't ask to be where they are. They are not trying to drive the parrots to extinction. The sugar gliders are just trying to live. If they can kill them, then surely they can catch them.
What we do after that I don't know. The parrots will need a lot of help to survive.
Catherine
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Yeah for sure. And culling has never been a first option. Scientists and the public have been lobbying to get logging stopped, because it is just utter madness that it continues. But we clearly have very little power against these companies and corrupt governments. Doesn't mean we will stop trying though.
Although it is a human-induced problem, it's because of this that gliders and birds are fighting for the same resources and the gliders unfortunately have the upper hand.
I think scientists are just doing the best they can at the moment where it's native and critically endangered vs introduced species.
They cull introduced possums in NZ and turn them into hats or whatever and there doesn't seem to be much of an outcry over that.
How is it any different to eradicating rats from islands where seabirds nest? Would you expect people to collect and rehome all of the rats back to their native lands?
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12-06-2018, 11:40 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-06-2018, 11:53 PM by LPC.)
Who introduced the rats on these islands? Humans! They came with their ships to remote islands (where rats did not previously exist), complete with rats on board: sometimes centuries ago, sometimes more recently. But still we humans seem to learn nothing. We go on making the same mistakes. That is what worries me. We just don't get it.
Platy, I totally agree with you about the logging. That is outrageous, especially when the environment needs trees so badly. Yet another example of the folly of humans.
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I am sure logging is very much part of the problem. Blaming the sugar gliders is not fair. They are not the whole cause of the parrot decline. Habitat loss may be a more serious issue, Killing all the sugar gliders will not save the parrots if their habitat is gone.
Right now when there is any problem with introduced species vs native species the solution is always a cull. I didn't know about the NZ possums. I would have been against that too. The possums didn't deserve to die. The sugar gliders didn't deserve to die.
You are right LPC about the rats. We brought them to places where they don't belong and they don't deserve to die.
A cull is an easy way to blame a problem on an introduced species and act like the things we do have not effected species survival. Instead of a cull we should admit that we have made a mistake and then look for solutions.
Can we save all the introduced species? Can we save all the native species? I don't know, but we should have to try to do what is right not what is convenient.
Catherine
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12-07-2018, 06:58 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-07-2018, 07:05 PM by LPC.)
Concerning rats on isolated islands, I read some while ago about their having been controlled via an additive making them infertile. Food with additive was dropped all over the island and the rats disappeared via natural causes, because there were no more babies. Unfortunately I can't find the article any more.
No doubt the animal rights activists might not like that solution, but at least it allows the rats to live out their brief lives normally without killing. Of course, the situation with the sugar gliders and parrots is much more complicated and is on mainland, not an island. I share platy's concern for the future of the parrots and I just hope that a more humane solution can be found. if humans are intelligent enough to create advanced robotics, fly into space, etc. then they should be able to find a humane solution to a problem like the current one.