Australian Rhino Project(theaustralianrhinoproject.org)
theaustralianrhinoproject.org
Australian Rhino Project
https://theaustralianrhinoproject.org/index.php/news/blogs/11-news-and-blogs/301-the-australian-rhino-project-achieves-major-milestone
14 comments
Can we eat them then?
Let’s say they manage to create a population in Australia. With an ever so small surplus, we could take that and eat it. Prices for legal rhino burger would probably be insane, right? I mean - that and horns are why they are poached. And legal horns could be a thing then, too.
Seems like the best option for any animal’s long term survival is to become human food or amusement.
Let’s say they manage to create a population in Australia. With an ever so small surplus, we could take that and eat it. Prices for legal rhino burger would probably be insane, right? I mean - that and horns are why they are poached. And legal horns could be a thing then, too.
Seems like the best option for any animal’s long term survival is to become human food or amusement.
There is a little selection of weird frozen meat from Australia in my local super marked. Like kangaroo, alligator, and ostrich. So if rhino husbandry is possible the demand is already there for exotic meat.
Guess it take too much time and resources for rhinos to be viable livestock regrettably.
Guess it take too much time and resources for rhinos to be viable livestock regrettably.
Sounds very interesting. Honestly not trying to be skeptical, the thing it reminds me of was a proposal from a scientist that Australia import elephants and rhinos to help control the spread of gamba grass. Itself imported from africa for grazing, it crowds out local plants, but maybe more pertinent these days, has an increased fire risk profile.
To me the contention with any plan, conservation or otherwise, is "be ultra careful what you bring into Australia".
Certainly not an expert, I'm sure in any case they would be very careful doing any of this, tracking etc. And I don't feel rhino's are quite as aggressive as say, hippos (authorities did not think Escobar's hippos would survive in Colombia; that turned out to be dead wrong). But I would certainly be very curious to see how introducing such a large aggressive herbivore with no natural predators would affect the area, if only because it does seem like a doable task to control the population.
To me the contention with any plan, conservation or otherwise, is "be ultra careful what you bring into Australia".
Certainly not an expert, I'm sure in any case they would be very careful doing any of this, tracking etc. And I don't feel rhino's are quite as aggressive as say, hippos (authorities did not think Escobar's hippos would survive in Colombia; that turned out to be dead wrong). But I would certainly be very curious to see how introducing such a large aggressive herbivore with no natural predators would affect the area, if only because it does seem like a doable task to control the population.
It would be a conflicted moment to have to think about controlling a pest rhino population. A huge success and an ecological disaster all in one, but I think the risk of that is quite low as they are not a fast breeding animal and this program is in a closed safari park.
We have an invasive camel problem which probably serves as a good benchmark for what a pest rhino situation would look like here. There is a bounty program for hunters to get paid for eradicating them from Australia. It's a touchy subject, no doubt. But being hard hooved animals they destroy the top soil and kill the ecosystem our bugs and birds thrive on. Camels, sheep and cattle have done immeasurable damage to the Australian ecosystem.
We have an invasive camel problem which probably serves as a good benchmark for what a pest rhino situation would look like here. There is a bounty program for hunters to get paid for eradicating them from Australia. It's a touchy subject, no doubt. But being hard hooved animals they destroy the top soil and kill the ecosystem our bugs and birds thrive on. Camels, sheep and cattle have done immeasurable damage to the Australian ecosystem.
Agree on all points. I had mixed feelings that the fact that the population struggles in the face of poaching despite having no effective natural predators seems conducive to fostering a controlled population in a closed environment. The food chain wouldn't affect how they proliferate .
But the first thought is always...just the track record. Rabbits, foxes, cats, cane toads, donkeys, camels, goats, pigs. But, like you say, they aren't going to be losing track of their rhinos.
But, arguing conservation as a practical application, has Australia ever intentionally introduced a species for a practical application and had it not go absolutely sideways (big caveat, usually once the animals escaped, or were just turned loose)?
But the first thought is always...just the track record. Rabbits, foxes, cats, cane toads, donkeys, camels, goats, pigs. But, like you say, they aren't going to be losing track of their rhinos.
But, arguing conservation as a practical application, has Australia ever intentionally introduced a species for a practical application and had it not go absolutely sideways (big caveat, usually once the animals escaped, or were just turned loose)?
I had a bit of a dig around and turned up nothing but bad news, so I imagine it almost always goes sideways. The only exceptions are zoos.
I did find a small success story in reducing the numbers of invasive Myna birds by volunteer trapping, which is seeing native species return to the areas affected. So that's nice.
I did find a small success story in reducing the numbers of invasive Myna birds by volunteer trapping, which is seeing native species return to the areas affected. So that's nice.
I love collective nouns and am happy to add "a crash of rhinos" to my collection!
I specifically remember reading a book when I was in elementary school called "A Cache of Jewels" that was all about these various nouns.
https://www.amazon.ca/Cache-Jewels-Other-Collective-Nouns/dp...
EDIT - I just noticed a review for the book that is 1 Star "It should be more obvious this is a kids book". This listing comes with recommendations for "That's Not My Puppy" and "Bear Sleeps for Christmas". I wish people wouldn't leave bad reviews because THEY didn't interpret the product correctly.
https://www.amazon.ca/Cache-Jewels-Other-Collective-Nouns/dp...
EDIT - I just noticed a review for the book that is 1 Star "It should be more obvious this is a kids book". This listing comes with recommendations for "That's Not My Puppy" and "Bear Sleeps for Christmas". I wish people wouldn't leave bad reviews because THEY didn't interpret the product correctly.
Just a reminder the vast majority of collective nouns are essentially fake. Actual scientists have never heard most of them, let alone use them.
A murder of crows always makes me smile - english can be rather odd.
> english can be rather odd.
The more fanciful terms of venery (aka nouns of assembly) are very much deliberate contrivances.
> In the course of the 14th century, it became a courtly fashion to extend the vocabulary, and by the 15th century, the tendency had reached exaggerated and even satirical proportions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_noun#Terms_of_vener...
The more fanciful terms of venery (aka nouns of assembly) are very much deliberate contrivances.
> In the course of the 14th century, it became a courtly fashion to extend the vocabulary, and by the 15th century, the tendency had reached exaggerated and even satirical proportions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_noun#Terms_of_vener...
Excellent initiative!
In 1973, the South Australian government started buying up huge swaths of land from farmers, with the goal of creating a satellite city for the state capital of Adelaide. They felt Adelaide was growing too fast, and to stop it from becoming a sprawling congested mess, they wanted a discrete satellite city for the burgeoning blue and white collar industries to expand into.
That never happened. The population growth stagnated in SA, and after a long tenure the politicians who had backed the scheme finished their time in office, and the planning department responsible was abolished. This left the government with over a thousand hectares of land in the middle of nowhere, with no plans on how to use it.
So in 1982, the Planning and Environment minister announced that 1,000 hectares of Crown land would become an open range zoo, and it has been developed into one of the world's leading conservation parks.
More recently, they've gotten more funding from the government and are developing the park into a more accessible location, which overall should help the park grow and help develop their conservation efforts.
I was put on to this story by this excellent youtube video, which contains some wicked footage of 70s and 80s Australia, and dives in depth into the urban planning aspects of this story and what the government had hoped to achieve with a satellite city, equally fascinating!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RW6-pw16dg