The koala cull

[donnashuggy]

Why was it kept a secret?

[the*scarlet*pimpernel]

Vic, you seem to be under the impression that koalas don't drink water?

They do, and will actively seek out water in particularly hot weather or, as Wilk said, when the trees are sufferning from lack of water.

The drought around here was quite bad last summer. The trees become stressed. The gums are drought tolerant but they protect themsleves and their becomes dry and have even less nutritional value than normal. The koalas starve, even though it looks like they have plenty of food.

I agree with removing them from KI. Crimson rosellas were introduced to Norfolk Is. Pretty bird but they have taken over the nesting sites of the native parrot which is now nearly extinct. They are trying to eradicate the rosellas now, as they should.

[wilk1149]

Unfortunately unless people are prepared to reduce the population and knock down houses to plant trees and restore the vital undergrowth humans are going to have to deal with animal populations. Years ago people didn't control the fertility of their dogs and cats and we had rampant population growth of those two animals. Now many people get their pets fixed. All too often emotion over rules logic. This is why we now have over seven billion people and no thought for the future. The mire people we have the less animals that must exist. The biological mass is an overall constant. As with everything there is only one pie. For one thing to have a bigger slice of the pie everything else must have less. Same with money as the rich get richer the poor must have less. One pie and Bill Gates has the biggest slice

[lionrose.7]

There are Crimson rosellas in NZ, would have been ex pets, seem a few in Auckland.

[***super_nova***]

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@polksaladallie wrote:

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@the*scarlet*pimpernel wrote:

No, I imagine as habitats decrease and animal colonies become more isolated inbreeding would become a problem.

I wonder how the dingo population on Fraser gets on. It's supposedly the most pure of the breed but it would have to be showingthe effects of inbeeding  by now whouldn't it?

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They are "showing the effects of inbreeding".  They are staying breed pure.

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For population to have reasonable genetic diversity there needs to be at least 3000 breeding individual - and some geneticist say as much as 5000 is needed.  Anything less and sooner or later problems will emerge as inbred animals have compromised immune system and are less able to cope with parasites, can have fewer surviving offspring etc.   Isolating small colonies of wildlife  will result in such problems.  That is one of the reasons why we have so many species on endangered list. 

I do not know how many dingos ar there on Frazer Island, but I would rather see introduced one or 2 that might not be 100% pure, then allowing small pack to become too inbred.

[colic2bullsgirlore]

Hmmmmm... Koala... tastes like chicken... The grandfathers culling effort for December January 1899 138 "bear" skins off to market...only the faster Koalas survived in this area

.... Koala was one of the mainstays of the cedar getters diet on the Mid North Coast of NSW during the 1850's to the turn of the 20th century

[lloydslights]

How wonderful to have that sort of family history available.  

I noted the address of Robertson & Grime.  Darling Harbour when it was a harbour.  I also noted the different prices for the different "qualities" of the fur.

Colics2....I can recall my grandfather trapping possums and the grandparents had a possum pelt rug, would that have been the same sort of use for the Koala skin? Do you know?

DEB

[colic2bullsgirlore]

soft leather was a main use for the drop bears.. Koala leather repels water better than most.....unsure about the possum

skin use but leather and animal fat produced from hides had many many uses before the "chemicals" came along... The gold rush spread the leather's virtuous capabilities overseas

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/93345984

IN those days koala skins were put to a great variety of uses.

Indeed it was the demand for their skins that was largely responsible for almost wiping them out.

Strangely enough the Klondyke gold rush in America also played a big part in the destruction of the koalas.

Australian miners made the trip, wearing koala skin coats.

It was discovered that no other furred skin would keep out the cold like these koala skin coats.

There was a big demand for the skins, and soon hundreds of miners on their way to the Klondyke were wearing these real Australian coats.

At least one bootmaker on South ern Monaro specialised in making boots and slippers from koala skins.

For the slippers he left the fur on, but for the boots the fur was re moved, and the tanned koala lea ther was considered better than any other for high class boots.

[colic2bullsgirlore]

Is it Caturday?? from the same article....waste not want not

Nothing has been done to make commercial use of the soft leather which can be made from the skin

of the flying fox, one of the greatest pests that the orchardist has to con tend with.

When properly tanned, the skin of the flying fox is like chamois leather.

I have seen gloves and baby shoes made from flying fox skins and they were most attractive.

If something could be done to make commercial use of these skins, the pests would be brought under control.

Splendid rugs have been made out of the skins of the platypus, possum, rock wallaby, fox, and even wild cats.

Nowadays, the platypus, possum and rock wallaby are protected, so that it is unlikely that many of these splendid rugs will be seen in use.

An old miner recently showed me a razor strop that he had been using for over forty years.

It was merely a strip of the hide of a black whale.

He considered that the hide of the black whale made the finest razor strop that one could wish for.

It seems strange that such razor strops are not placed on the market.

In, many parts of the bush wild cats are a pest, but their skins are valuable.

These cat skins are used for making attractive rugs, fur coats, and for dress trimmings.

[lloydslights]

I can recall my old grandfather using a strop with the cut throat razor.  I thought his skin was leather

Oops, fruit bat leather would be wonderfully soft, I'd imagine.  Hate the smelly, noisy things.

Thanks for the info.

DEB

[the*scarlet*pimpernel]

wow Colic, that's really cool having that bill of sale. My sister has my grandfather little note book that he wrote the sale of his milk and cream in each day.

Did the cedar getters really eat koala? I wouldn't have thought there would be koalas in cedar country. When I lived over that way there were koala colonies around Broadwater, New Italy, Wardell and Chinderah. I don't know what happened to the Wardell koalas. They put a new bi-pass through there recently which meant destroying the koala habitat