When I was a kid ...........

[Bear Dale]

.... just about every boy had a slug gun. I wonder if there would be less of these buggers around if it was like that now.

[ameerat42]

Now you can just clone it out

[Bear Dale]

Now you can just clone it out

that would be a grand solution if it permanently rubbed them out.

[Brian500au]

Dam I miss my slug gun - I think you could buy them at KMart back in the days....

[Mary Anne]

Jim a Bird can not really help it if it’s in the wrong place, if it was born here it belongs here

[Bear Dale]

Jim a Bird can not really help it if it’s in the wrong place, if it was born here it belongs here

No sorry, I strongly disagree.

They should be eradicated as humanely as possible just like feral cats (I'm a cat lover) foxes, cane toads etc etc etc etc. Just because feral cats etc were born wild in the bush, they don't belong here and the 100's of millions of native animals that are killed by them every year is proof.

Around my place I can watch Indian Minor birds pulling Kookaburra chicks and Rainbow Lorikeet chicks out of the nest in hollow limbs to take them over. Both those natives aren't known to be exactly non-aggressive yet they yield to the constant onslaught of Indian Minors. What must it be like for the other timid native species.

Our council issues Minor bird traps to any person who wants to participate and groups like Apex and Rotary have gotten behind the efforts and their members make the traps. I alone have trapped and humanely put down 436 in the last 5 years and I live in a very small coastal village surrounded by millions of acres of National Park and there's a few other participants in the trapping program and its hardly put a dent in the population.

[ameerat42]

Ah! An ecological discussion, OK...

So what about rampant development, then, that devastates tracts of habitat on the flimsiest of
reasons? (Housing the increasing population being the main tout to justify profiteering, to the detriment
of the environment, and ultimately too of the same increased population.)

(BTW, I had a snail rifle when I was younger. You'd put a shell in and...)

[Bear Dale]

Ah! An ecological discussion, OK...

So what about rampant development, then, that devastates tracts of habitat on the flimsiest of
reasons? (Housing the increasing population being the main tout to justify profiteering, to the detriment
of the environment, and ultimately too of the same increased population.)

(BTW, I had a snail rifle when I was younger. You'd put a shell in and...)

Totally agree ^ but developmental degradation and loss of habitat and life to an island the size of Australia is minuscule compared to what feral animals kill yearly.

Australia is a massive continent with vast untouched areas by man, but feral animals have invaded every square kilometer and wreak havoc.

As mentioned before, I live in an area that is surrounded by thousands of square kilometres of National Park, but unfortunately they have turned into refuges for foxes and cats etc.

[Mark L]

Ah! An ecological discussion, OK...

So what about rampant development, then, that devastates tracts of habitat on the flimsiest of
reasons? (Housing the increasing population being the main tout to justify profiteering, to the detriment
of the environment, and ultimately too of the same increased population.)

(BTW, I had a snail rifle when I was younger. You'd put a shell in and...)

That's a separate debate to what Jim bought up.
These birds do not belong in Australia and would be the most detrimental to our native birds.
And Marry Anne, do you weed your garden? If it germinated there it belongs there??