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Maremma Dogs to Look After Bandicoots

The Maremma Sheepdog guards sheep in Italy. Dogs are intelligent and are trained for many things. They are now being trained to protect the endangered eastern barred bandicoot. Whoever came up with the idea should be given an award. In hindsight it would be seen as obvious, but it was smart thinking.

Maremma dogs will be selected for the specific job. The bandicoot will be released into the wild with the dogs. Protected release locations will be closely monitored. Their welfare is important: there are no eastern barred bandicoots currently living free.

Landowners will be asked to feed the dogs. This will reduce funding requirements. The bandcoots will be given freedom to live as naturally as they can - living alongside a dog. Ironically, the animals that kill bandicoots are imports from Europe like the wolf and feral cat.

As well as training the dogs to look after the bandicoot, they have to be taught not to hunt natural wildlife themselves. It is easy for dogs to turn wild if left alone. Australia has already had success with teaching dogs to protect penguins on Middle Island, Warnambool. No doubt the enterprise will work.

✴ Environment by Ty Buchanan ✴

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All Present

"Yeah, they're all here."

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Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan

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Funneeeee!

"AAAAAh, Hah, Hah, Hah, Hah!"

Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan

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Australian Blog★
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ACEAS Database Explains Australian Animal Extinctions

How do we stop the mass extinction of native animals in Australia? That is the big question. Building up a database of endangered species will help but action is needed now. More than a hundred kinds of animal are under threat.

Species are quickly dying off. Small marsupials are becoming extinct. These are in remote regions where humans seldom go, so this is a bit of a mystery. The answer could be imported predators which have been brought here since Europeans arrived.

Though feral cats and foxes are seen as mainly responsible, changing the landscape for farming and housing has also had an impact. Open land assists cats and foxes - they can more easily see their prey. Small slow-moving native animals

stand no chance at all.

The Australian Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (ACEAS) database has identified areas most in need of conservation management plans. Animals are in the process of moving to new locations as the climate changes. Species fill environmental niches. They must move to places a place where their external needs are met. If they do not find suitable environments they will become extinct.

Conservation by Ty Buchanan

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Camel Beauty

"You're beautiful."

"I know."
Funny Animal Photos by Ty Buchanan

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Whales Continue to Beach Themselves

Why do Whales beach themselves? The theory is that some coastal regions are shallow so sonar does not bounce back to the animals to tell them to keep away. This is only a theory. There seems to be no way of stopping the mammals from laying themselves on the sand to die a painful death. Dragging them out to sea is an attempt to save them, but they continue toward the beach again within hours.

A few days ago killer whales beached themselves on sandbars near Fraser Island. Three of them died. Fishermen have been told to keep their boats well away from the animals. They are trying to find deeper water. The hope is that open sea will attract them and they will move away from the shallow sand.

Apparently when a whale beaches, the whole pod panics. The presence of boats, particularly motorized ones, stresses them more. One would have thought that evolution would have "bred" out the beaching trait. The numbers who die each year on beaches is obviously not high enough to affect the breeding population so those with the trait pass it on to the next generation.

It is feared by many people that beaching could lead to extinction of species. There is no possibility of this as the number who swim safely along the coasts remains very large. It is good for people to try to save them. Unfortunately, humans cannot change nature.

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Conservation

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Massage Animals

"This massage will make you feel better."

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Funny Animal Photos

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Take Away Animal

"You just come along with me then."

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Funny Animal Photos

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"Extinct" Animals Are Still With Us

Animals are going extinct, though some are still turning up. This is true. In the past 100 years many species have been declared extinct. Oddly, a third of these have been found still living. Many have not been seen for a very long time. This is the reason for them still being around.

The okapi a zebra-like animal was recently re-found in the Congo. In Cuba the solenodon "rat" was seen jumping around. Another find was the Indonesian Talaud Flying Fox. In Australia the rock rat was identified. And the Christmas Island shrew came to light.

This is embarrassing for the conservationists about to meet in Japan at the United Nations Summit on Biodiversity. It appears that emotion has won out over rationality. It is too easy to make predictions about what will happen in the future. With climate change, little real knowledge is available to researchers, though change is occurring. Perhaps now more cautious steps will be taken.

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Society

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Bushmeat Trade Is Depleting Natural Forest

Bushmeat is not just a problem in Africa. Asian countries have the same problem, as the demand for meat from wild animals increases. Taking animals from tropical forest changes the whole ecosystem. It is common sense really. As the number of creatures feeding on vegetation and other animals decline there is an abundance of vegetation growth and remaining fauna. More growth kills off food for these animals.

While some plants increase, others decline. Even the amount of vegetation not consumed can fall. Uneaten vegetation crowds out growth for all, so saplings do not grow tall. Plants need animals to disperse seeds. Consequently, the variety of plants falls.

Just two decades ago the Lambir Hills National Park in Sarawak was pristine. There was an abundance of animals and trees. Now all the large animals have been killed off by hunters after a profit.

Once such dramatic change occurs there is no way back. The large animals will not breed back to original numbers. The damage also impacts on remaining animals who find their usual food source is no longer plentiful.

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Society

Australian Blog★

The Demise of Species Will Have to be Prioritized

Not much can be done about saving endangered species when the great majority of people "don't give a damn". Like global warming many just do not want to hear the truth. Money is not forthcoming for conservation. Stopping animals from going extinct is only being done on a piecemeal basis. We have to choose what to save.

This really means that the blame for the loss of some animals lies solely with Mankind. Just who is to decide the fate of creatures is not yet known. It will have to be bodies that receive funding for such purposes. They are probably doing the selection process as we speak. If what is to be saved and what is to be lost was publicly known there would probably be an outcry - everyone has their favorites.

More funding is the answer of course. Whether times be good or bad giving money for conservation has never been popular. Other things seem more important. It is really inevitable that prioritizing what goes extinct will occur. The global warming issue shows that people only care about their present welfare. Environmental damage continues.

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Conservation

City Spiders Are Larger

Many animals do better when they live alongside humans. One seldom thinks of spiders though. If you travel overseas you soon discover the huge spiders in rented accommodation. Research has shown that these frightening but usually friendly creatures do grow larger in warm homes.

They don't have to be living inside the houses either. Just staying close to warm building is sufficient. The golden orb spider was placed in particular external environment and data were collected. Those near buildings were larger and fatter than their bush cousins. Living in the middle of a car park with the heat given off by cars made them bigger as well.

Though many people fear them, urban spiders are harmless. They keep pest insects in check. If they weren't there, we would probably be "eaten alive" by flies and gnats. Rather than spraying and crushing them, put them outside and send them on their way.

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Society

Humans Did Not Kill Off Megafauna

During the Middle-Late Pleistocene, one million to 10,000 years ago, more than 50 species of animal disappeared, the last to do so 46.4 thousand years from the present. The reason for the demise of the giant creatures is hotly debated. Some scientists claim that the spread of Man across the globe was the cause. This is suspect, however, because there were so few of them. Killing the odd animal would not have made a significant impact.

Many believe that the end date for megafauna is incorrect. As stated above, the theory that humans killed them off by definition means that people and animals lived side-by-side for a considerable time. Evidence in Australia certainly points to this - 13 species of large animals were here on human arrival. Moreover, the people mainly relied on subsistence strategies for food. Their weapons were not very efficient. A boomerang is highly inaccurate and the range of a spear is limited.

Megafauna died out over a long period of time, not all at a specific date. Species lingered on in many regions. Just assuming that humans killed them is a mistake and diverts from the discovery of why the large animals became extinct. This was a time of extremes in climate. Perhaps a series of wild swings in climate gradually reduced their number to the tipping point where reproduction did not take place.

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