mig39 2 days ago

> Remarkably, the longest fence in the world was built and is maintained for a single purpose: to protect Australia’s pastoral heartlands from the depredations of a canine.

I thought it was built to keep rabbits out?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit-proof_fence

throwaway422432 2 days ago

The exclusion fence has unfortunately suffered extensive damage in the Western Queensland flooding this week, and will likely result in wild dog incursions in multiple places.

sien 2 days ago

There is an excellent book about this. 'The New Wild' by Fred Pearce is well worth a read.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22716462-the-new-wild

We shouldn't introduce species deliberately in new places, but in many places species have taken off and should be accepted.

  • dntbrsnbl 2 days ago

    To be honest, I don't think I buy this. I'm from NZ and we have a number of introduced species (possums, stoats) which have a dramatic impact on the native wildlife.

    A lot of bird species in NZ are unique and only found here. They're almost all critically endangered or at risk [1], as they evolved with no natural predators.

    I'd rather we try and control these introduced species so we can keep (at least some of) our native birds.

    [1]: https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/conservation-status/threatene...

    • waste_monk 2 days ago

      Perhaps you should fight fire with fire - export NZ native wildlife around the world and hopefully it'll become invasive and flourish somewhere else! It worked well enough for Australia [1]!

      [1] https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/science-envir...

      (I shouldn't need to say this, but this is a joke and should not be taken as environmental policy :) )