NSW DECC have asked DPI to develop a "Code of Practice" to manage the shooting of flying-foxes. A Code of Practise is intended to ensure that any shooting is done in a humane and ethical manner. You may recall there was a review of shooting recently undertaken by an independent panel. This review has not been released although the Department undertook to release it publicly by the end of May 2009. This review is widely believed to find that shooting is cruel and inhumane. The review was informed by a report written by Anja Divljan, Kerryn Parry-Jones and Peggy Eby on the deaths and injuries sustained by a number of flying-foxes that were recovered from an Orchard after shooting. This report is available here : http://www.hsi.org.au/index.php?catID=263
There is no way any Code of Practise can address the cruelty that occurs as a result of shooting of flying-foxes for "orchard protection" because: - They are shooting a dark moving target against a dark sky- The vital organs of a flying-fox represent a very small proportion of the total area of the animal and its body mass is far more dense than, for example a bird. This makes it easy to wound an animal (wing bone breaks are fatal but not immediately) but very difficult to make a quick kill.- Shooting takes place during the time when flying-foxes are birthing and raising young. Every lactating female has young that either dies with her in the orchard or starves to death in the camp- The Divljan report that the animals recovered from the orchard were strongly biased to females 1.67 females for every 1 male.
Of those animals 65% were lactating females (see below for more statistical information from the report).- The people collecting the flying-foxes in the orchards were able to see animals that were hanging in inaccessible positions that were alive until at least the following day after shooting. These animals could not be recovered for examination and euthanasia and are assumed to have died from their injuries, dehydration, starvation, predation or infection some time later. In addition, licensed shooting of a species that the vulnerable to extinction is incompatible with the NSW government's conservation responsibilities.
So - to the action needed- please write to Carmel Tebbutt and tell her that NO Code of Practise can ever address the issues of cruelty that occur with shooting and that she must cease issuing licences to harm for the purposes of crop protection. It is urgent that these letters get Minister Tebbutt as soon as possible. Shooting is likely to start again in August.
Carmel Tebbutt's address is: The Hon. Carmel Tebbutt, NSW Minister for Environment, Level 30, Governor Macquarie Tower, 1 Farrer Place,SYDNEY NSW 2000 Phone (02) 9228 4866 Fax (02) 9228 4855 dp.office@tebbutt.minister.nsw.gov.au
Please send a copy of any letter you send to Ian McDonald.
The Hon. Ian Macdonald,, Minister for Primary Industries, Level 33 Governor Macquarie Tower, 1 Farrer Place, Sydney NSW 2000 Phone (02) 9228 3344 Fax (02) 9228 3452 Email macdonald.office@macdonald.minister.nsw.gov.au networkItem
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Fraer Island declared a Biosphere
Fraser Island
The Great Sandy region, which includes Fraser Island, has been declared a biosphere reserve at a UNESCO meeting in South Korea. Biospheres are sites of significant biodiversity that are managed under strict conservation and sustainable development principles. The reserves are recognised under UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere program. Burnett Mary Regional Group chief executive David Brown says the region is very unique. "There is an underlying geophysical feature - the Cooloola sand mass - which is why Fraser Island is one, if not the world's largest sand island," he said. "Along with the Great Sandy Strait, there is also a whole series of interesting habitat on the mainland and Fraser which are actually unique globally. "It results in an amazing range of biodiversity, both fauna and flora." The Great Sandy Region is the 15th biosphere to be declared in Australia. *ABC
Ed Comment; What that will mean for the much persecuted Fraser Island dingoes we have no idea, probably no changes to current "management" will take place.
The Great Sandy region, which includes Fraser Island, has been declared a biosphere reserve at a UNESCO meeting in South Korea. Biospheres are sites of significant biodiversity that are managed under strict conservation and sustainable development principles. The reserves are recognised under UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere program. Burnett Mary Regional Group chief executive David Brown says the region is very unique. "There is an underlying geophysical feature - the Cooloola sand mass - which is why Fraser Island is one, if not the world's largest sand island," he said. "Along with the Great Sandy Strait, there is also a whole series of interesting habitat on the mainland and Fraser which are actually unique globally. "It results in an amazing range of biodiversity, both fauna and flora." The Great Sandy Region is the 15th biosphere to be declared in Australia. *ABC
Ed Comment; What that will mean for the much persecuted Fraser Island dingoes we have no idea, probably no changes to current "management" will take place.
Sydney RBG Flying Foxes
Flying foxes that call Sydney's Botanic Gardens home have been given a reprieve, after a plan to relocate them was postponed. The Botanic Gardens Trust was hoping to drive the flying foxes away by disturbing them with noise. The trust says the relocation is neccessary to protect the historical trees in the gardens. The relocation has now been put on hold for a year because of concerns the flying foxes would relocate to unsuitable areas. Botanic Gardens Trust executive director, Dr Tim Entwisle, says they could not get the necessary approvals in time to move the animals. "It means the flying foxes in the Royal Botanic Gardens are here for another year," he said. "We've already lost 18 trees in the last 20 years they've been here, but we think we can nurse those through as long as we relocate in the following year." *ABC
Ed Comment; What this means is that the Federal Government are still considering the proposal which has been strongly oppposed by many wildlife gropus.
Ed Comment; What this means is that the Federal Government are still considering the proposal which has been strongly oppposed by many wildlife gropus.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
RAAF tree change targets Tindal bat plague The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) has resorted to tree lopping to stop hundreds of thousands of flying foxes from roosting at a Top End air base. The flying foxes are the second animal problem the Tindal base, near Katherine, has faced with the airstrip closed to aero-medical services for the past 18 months due to a wallaby plague. The RAAF Wing Commander Rohan Gaskill says a health threat assessment has been carried out.
"The assessment found that the physical risks, although they are there, they are relatively low. The risks do exist and Defence is trying to minimise those risks," he said. Wing Commander Gaskill says techniques involving noise and water have not worked well. "The one that is working for getting the flying foxes away from the immediate proximity of houses is the lopping of the trees that they do like to roost in, particularly the african mahogany species, along with a couple of other species we do have growing in the area," he said. *NT News
"The assessment found that the physical risks, although they are there, they are relatively low. The risks do exist and Defence is trying to minimise those risks," he said. Wing Commander Gaskill says techniques involving noise and water have not worked well. "The one that is working for getting the flying foxes away from the immediate proximity of houses is the lopping of the trees that they do like to roost in, particularly the african mahogany species, along with a couple of other species we do have growing in the area," he said. *NT News
Bats spread the Ebola virus to humans and play a pivotal role in disease outbreaks, evidence suggests. Ebola, a filovirus, causes fever, vomiting, diarrhoea and sometimes bleeding. There is no treatment or vaccine and 25–90 per cent of infected people die. The virus is transmitted by direct contact with infected blood, body fluids and tissues. The new findings have emerged from data collected in the remote Kasai-Occidental and Kasai provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) which experienced a large Ebola outbreak in 2007 in which 186 people died. Some members of the research team helped discover in 2005 that fruit bats are a natural reservoir of the Ebola virus.
For the new study, researchers led by Eric Leroy from the International Centre for Medical Research in Franceville, Gabon, interviewed locals about the background of the Ebola cases. They were told that the annual migration of the fruit bat Hypsignathus monstrosus was particularly large in 2007. Bats are an important source of protein in the area as wild animals are in short supply. They are often shot and then sold covered in blood. The researchers believe the source of the 2007 outbreak was a man who bought bats at market. He survived, experiencing only a low fever, but his four-year-old daughter died after developing a sudden fever accompanied by vomiting. A family friend who prepared the girl’s body for burial was subsequently infected and went on to infect 11 members of her family, all of whom died. Researchers say their study suggests infection is only transmitted after prolonged contact with an infected person, meaning it may be easier to contain an outbreak than was previously believed.
Jean-Jacques Muyembe, epidemiologist at the DRC’s National Biomedical Research Institute and co-author of the study, told SciDev.Net that the team will continue to retrace events around outbreaks and carry out ecological studies in bats “to definitely prove that these bats are the direct vectors of Ebola to humans”. Vital Mondonge, a co-author from the infectious disease section of DRC’s health ministry, says that the bat migration should be a focus of efforts to prevent Ebola infection. Chimpanzees and gorillas are also known Ebola vectors. Bats, however, appear not to die from Ebola, suggesting they play a role in maintaining the virus in tropical forests. *SciDev.Net
For the new study, researchers led by Eric Leroy from the International Centre for Medical Research in Franceville, Gabon, interviewed locals about the background of the Ebola cases. They were told that the annual migration of the fruit bat Hypsignathus monstrosus was particularly large in 2007. Bats are an important source of protein in the area as wild animals are in short supply. They are often shot and then sold covered in blood. The researchers believe the source of the 2007 outbreak was a man who bought bats at market. He survived, experiencing only a low fever, but his four-year-old daughter died after developing a sudden fever accompanied by vomiting. A family friend who prepared the girl’s body for burial was subsequently infected and went on to infect 11 members of her family, all of whom died. Researchers say their study suggests infection is only transmitted after prolonged contact with an infected person, meaning it may be easier to contain an outbreak than was previously believed.
Jean-Jacques Muyembe, epidemiologist at the DRC’s National Biomedical Research Institute and co-author of the study, told SciDev.Net that the team will continue to retrace events around outbreaks and carry out ecological studies in bats “to definitely prove that these bats are the direct vectors of Ebola to humans”. Vital Mondonge, a co-author from the infectious disease section of DRC’s health ministry, says that the bat migration should be a focus of efforts to prevent Ebola infection. Chimpanzees and gorillas are also known Ebola vectors. Bats, however, appear not to die from Ebola, suggesting they play a role in maintaining the virus in tropical forests. *SciDev.Net
What happens if you play Meatloaf's Bat Out of Hell to flying foxes? You'll find yourself in court. Mayor Brad Carter might not have been entirely serious when he suggested playing loud music to Yeppoon's troublesome colony of smelly bats. “It's been suggested they don't like music and if we played it to them they might go away,” he said during a discussion on the potential health-threat posed by the colony. But the notion got short shrift from Joe Adair from the Department of Environment and Resource Management. Mr Adair had been asked to address councillors on the big bat issue. “There are a number of things you can do to disturb flying foxes,” he said. “And if you knowingly do any of them you'll be breaking the law.”
The Yeppoon colony had been there for many years, roosting in the mangroves at Ross Creek. And it looks as if they are there to stay until they decide it's time to move on. “It's illegal to destroy a flying fox roost,” said Mr Adair, who said the colony had fluctuated in size over time. “There are about 10,000 now where there used to be 50,000 and one of the puzzling questions is 'where did they all go?'” Cr Carter said there was a perception at the coast the colony posed a risk to human health and the council wanted to know if there was anything it could do. But Mr Adair said there had never been a single recorded instance in Queensland of health issues in humans caused by flying foxes, although he admitted he was not an expert on what people might catch from them. “Our advice is that they pose no risk,” he said, stressing that numbers were reducing and the species was under threat as suitable habitats were lost.
Cr Cherie Rutherford raised smiles when she asked how the bats defecated when they were hanging upside down. “How do they avoid messing on themselves?” she wondered. Mr Adair said the bats didn't soil the colony, but excreted as they flew, away from their roosts. "The colony might smell strongly, but it's very clean,” he said. Councillors will now seek a meeting with experts from Queensland Health for reassurances that the bats are not a health threat. *Morning Bulletin
The Yeppoon colony had been there for many years, roosting in the mangroves at Ross Creek. And it looks as if they are there to stay until they decide it's time to move on. “It's illegal to destroy a flying fox roost,” said Mr Adair, who said the colony had fluctuated in size over time. “There are about 10,000 now where there used to be 50,000 and one of the puzzling questions is 'where did they all go?'” Cr Carter said there was a perception at the coast the colony posed a risk to human health and the council wanted to know if there was anything it could do. But Mr Adair said there had never been a single recorded instance in Queensland of health issues in humans caused by flying foxes, although he admitted he was not an expert on what people might catch from them. “Our advice is that they pose no risk,” he said, stressing that numbers were reducing and the species was under threat as suitable habitats were lost.
Cr Cherie Rutherford raised smiles when she asked how the bats defecated when they were hanging upside down. “How do they avoid messing on themselves?” she wondered. Mr Adair said the bats didn't soil the colony, but excreted as they flew, away from their roosts. "The colony might smell strongly, but it's very clean,” he said. Councillors will now seek a meeting with experts from Queensland Health for reassurances that the bats are not a health threat. *Morning Bulletin
Plague-like proportions of bats are the latest animal problem to hit the Tindal RAAF base in Katherine. Roving numbers of wallabies at the base have seen aircraft stop landing there at night. Now large bat numbers are damaging trees there, Wing Commander Rohan Gaskill says. But he has told the ABC's Country Hour the bats are not interfering with flights. "Although they do fly towards the air field in the evening and around dawn and dusk, it is not really causing major problems," he said. "Our flying is normally day flying or night flying and the bats are cleared away at those times." *ABC
Fruit growers in Queensland say the search for an effective non-lethal flying fox control is taking too long. The Queensland Government introduced a ban on shooting flying foxes last year, saying the practice was inhumane. A working group of Government representatives and growers was formed this year to find a viable alternative to protect crops. But Bundaberg Orchardists' president John Kajewski says growers need a solution before fruit starts growing again on trees. "Yes, we can gladly keep going on with trials and do data, but we need a back up plan for when this plague of flying foxes comes in." The Queensland Primary Industry and Fisheries Department and EPA will develop a draft action plan for the Flying Fox Working Group to consider. *ABC
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