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The week in wildlife – in pictures
Toxic lion fish, a rare brown panda and a green sea turtle are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
Continue reading...Majority of potential UK fracking sites are rich in important wildlife
Almost two-thirds of licensed sites have above-average biodiversity, that is valuable for functions such as pollination and pest control, analysis shows
Many of the areas that have been recently licensed for fracking are rich in wildlife that perform crucial functions from pollination to decomposition, researchers have found.
Scientists say that almost two-thirds of the areas that have been labelled as suitable for shale gas extraction have levels of biodiversity above the national average, according to a new analysis of records collected from across the country.
Continue reading...Winter electricity blackouts risk recedes, says National Grid
Extra power will mean lights will not go out this winter, says firm that operates UK’s electricity transmission network
The risk of electricity blackouts in Britain this winter has diminished, after the National Grid and the government spent more than £140m on tools designed to guarantee the lights stay on.
The Grid’s capacity margin, the cushion between electricity demand and supply, has risen to 6.6%, beating its summer prediction of 5.5%. The buffer zone is also well ahead of last year’s “tight but manageable” 5.1%, which was the lowest in a decade.
Continue reading...Dirty, isolated and freezing: life in Arctic circle city – in pictures
Photographer Elena Chernyshova spent a year documenting the people and landscape of Norilsk, which was built by prisoners during the Soviet era
Continue reading...Climate scientists published a paper debunking Ted Cruz | John Abraham
Earth’s atmosphere is warming faster and more in line with models than Ted Cruz and his witnesses argued
A new study has just appeared in the Journal of Climate which deals with an issue commonly raised by those who deny that human-caused climate change is a serious risk. As I have written many times, we know humans are causing the Earth’s climate to change. We know this for many reasons.
First, we know that certain gases trap heat; this fact is indisputable. Second, we know that humans have significantly increased the amount of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. Again, this is indisputable. Third, we know the Earth is warming (again indisputable). We know the Earth warms because we are actually measuring the warming rate in multiple different ways. Those measurements are in good agreement with each other.
Continue reading...Funding boost for UK citizen science project
My Feed: @EuanRitchie1
Dinosaur-era 'swordfish' discovered in outback Australia
Great white smashes through shark cage during diving trip – video
Footage uploaded to YouTube shows the moment a great white shark breaches the side of a cage during a diving trip to Guadalupe Island, off the west coast of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula. According to YouTuber Gabe and Garrett, ‘this shark lunged at the bait, accidentally hit the side of the cage, was most likely confused and not able to swim backwards’.
Continue reading...Small businesses using technology as the great equalizer
Maintaining a thriving business today means consistently providing top quality customer service, even if you are a small business growing at a rapid rate. And with new digital technology, small companies now have the tools to compete
When Facebook bought Instagram for $US1 billion in 2012, it had just 13 employees. But it also had global recognition and more than 30 million customers.
And in the years since, the power of small companies to compete with the titans of commerce has only grown, as digital technology continues to empower minnows to make whale-sized splashes.
Continue reading...Heritage apples – taking your pick of history
West Dean, West Sussex I munched on wedges of spicy Sussex Mother, fragrant Tinsley Quince and nutty russets
“Welcome to paradise,” exclaimed our guide as he led us through the gate. Derived from the ancient Persian pardes, meaning “orchard” or “enclosure”, “paradise” is an apt description for this beautifully restored Victorian walled garden nestled at the foot of the South Downs, which boasts more than 100 varieties of apple, many of Sussex origin. Commercial growers nowadays concentrate on a handful of cultivars selected for heavy cropping, bruise resistance, keeping quality and uniform shape; this garden, in contrast, celebrates our wealth of heirloom apples, whatever their peculiar traits.
Related: Country diary: Henstridge, Somerset: Apples of concord
Continue reading...Enough cheap shots: It’s time to embrace renewables and storage
Reboot of SA coal plant like “restarting whaling” for lamp fuel
We should be putting the brake on the Carmichael coalmine, not hitting the accelerator | Graham Readfearn
The Paris climate deal should be a signal to cut fossil fuel use, rather than an excuse to mine more coal
The Queensland government is now slamming its foot down on the accelerator to help a private company build the biggest coalmine Australia has ever seen.
“We can see the end of the tunnel and now we are accelerating towards it,” the state’s mining minister, Anthony Lynham, said.
Continue reading...Where to for industrial, business and home heat?
Canberra power play: How one man’s vision took ACT to 100% renewables
Electric vehicle market growing 10x faster than gasoline equivalent
Can hackers solve our energy transition problems?
Why Victoria’s dingo and ‘wild dog’ bounty is doomed to miss its target
On any given night, many farmers go to sleep worrying about what they might wake up to in the morning. Few things are more stressful than seeing your livestock, such as sheep, lying dead or seriously injured in the paddock. Sometimes dingoes, free roaming and unowned (“feral”) dogs, and domestic dogs, or their hybrids, are responsible for such a scene. But what’s the best way to deal with this situation?
The Victorian government is set to reinstate a dingo and wild dog bounty scheme as a way to reduce livestock, especially sheep, being attacked and killed, in response to calls from farming and shooting groups.
Just what is a dingo?One of the problems with managing dingoes is that the boundary between them and “wild dogs” is contentious. Some have even claimed that there are no pure dingoes in Victoria.
Defining what dingoes are is harder than you might think. There is considerable variation in how dingoes look, for example, in terms of their overall size and colour, as is common with many other members of the dog family (canids).
And if a dingo isn’t considered 100% “pure”, containing genes from domestic dogs, should hybrids be managed differently to dingoes?
Dingo colour is highly variableResearch suggests “pure” dingoes do exist in Victoria, albeit in smaller numbers than other regions.
Notably though, genetic samples in Victoria have been collected largely from areas close to towns, where there are likely more hybrid dogs, and less so from deep within Victoria’s more remote natural regions (the mallee, alpine, and Gippsland forests), where dingoes are often sighted.
Two other recent studies are important in the Victorian context. One suggests dingo characteristics prevail even within hybrids and another has found there are two distinct dingo populations. Importantly, the south east dingo population is at increased risk of extinction.
Many ecologists would argue that splitting hairs about dingo genetic “purity” is a moot point, because what really matters is what dingoes and dingo-dog hybrids are doing in the environment. This is because dingoes are known to have important ecological roles, including the suppression of feral species (such as cats, pigs, and goats), red foxes, and kangaroos.
How are wild dogs and dingoes managed in Victoria?The decision to reinstate a dingo and wild dog bounty in Victoria is vexed. In 2007 the Victorian government established protection of dingoes, due to conservation concerns about the species, with hybridisation between dingoes and domestic dogs identified as a threatening process.
As a result, dingoes in Victoria are listed as a threatened species under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 and protected under the Wildlife Act 1975.
In Victoria wild dogs are classed as pest animals and can be legally controlled. However, the Victorian Department of Environment states that “dingoes are visually indistinguishable from wild dogs, making it impossible to ensure they are not inadvertently destroyed in wild dog control programs in any given area where both exist” and “dingoes are protected wildlife and it is an offence under the Wildlife Act 1975 to take or kill protected wildlife without an authorisation to do so”.
Management misfireLegal and species identification issues aside, do bounties and lethal control of predators actually work?
In short, scientific evidence suggests the answer is largely no (see for instance here, here, here, here, and here).
Data showing bounties don’t work
There are a range of reasons cited for why bounties fail. These include:
an inability to sufficiently reduce numbers of the the target species and hence their impact, due to rapid breeding and/or immigration from other areas
corruption by those claiming bounties, whereby animals claimed for bounty payments have not actually been killed in the area where the bounty is intended to benefit
an inability to access some animals over large and/or remote areas
a disincentive to completely eradicate animals as this removes the source of income
disruption of predator social structures causing higher livestock predation.
So what solutions do we have that might allow productive farms without the need to kill predators? A range of nonlethal solutions exist for protecting livestock, including improved husbandry techniques (such as corralling and herding), and in particular, a growing body of research suggests guardian animals provide a great step forward.
Nonlethal methods to protect livestock are also consistent with a growing social demand that both domestic and wild animals are treated humanely and ethically on farms.
Top left: G. Schuirmann. Bottom left: E. Swegen. Top right: Ian Whalan. Bottom right: L. van Bommel.
Predator-friendly farming is growing across Australia, as you can see in the image above. Large livestock on large landholdings, such as beef cattle on thousands of square kilometre stations, are reducing conflict by enabling dingo packs to stabilize and by supporting healthier cows that are better able to defend their calves (top left).
Smaller farms are also employing protective strategies, including guardian dogs, even if the livestock species is large, such as dairy cows and buffalo, because lethal control on neighboring farms continues to disrupt the dingo’s social structure (bottom left).
Technological innovations in nonlethal methods for protecting livestock from predators have been developed in Australia and used worldwide, such as “Foxlights” (top right). And vulnerable stock, such as chickens, are being successfully protected with guardian dogs and enclosures (bottom right).
There are substantial gains to be made for agriculture, people, wild animals and the environment if decision-makers use scientific evidence and ethical analysis, rather than responding to lobby groups, as the basis for taxpayer-sponsored actions.
Education is also a key aspect of any change, and scientists are being proactive here too, providing guidance on new approaches to rangeland livestock management that are supported by research.
The fact is, bounty schemes don’t work. If instead the substantial funds currently being invested in bounties were invested in supporting farmers to move to more long-term, cost-effective, and more environmentally-friendly solutions, we may all be able to sleep better at night.
Euan Ritchie receives funding from the Australian Research Council. Euan Ritchie is affiliated with the Ecological Society of Australia and the Australian Mammal Society.
Arian Wallach does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.
Comet impact 'linked' to rise of mammals
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