Reblogged from frezned
I just read basically the most interesting article ever.
Some amazing guy reckons we should introduce elephants into Australia’s bush ecosystem to control bushfires.
Just… incredible.
Yes, because introducing animals into Australia has always worked in the past!
When it was rabbits it was toffs who wanted to hunt, but this proposal is from a professor of environmental change biology. Like… presumably he knows what he’s talking about more than anyone in the world (except for other professors of environmental change biology).
A bunch of people are reblogging this with really obvious criticisms of the idea. Like, “don’t they know eucalyptus needs bushfires?”, “yeah but it’s really unpredictable introducing new species into an ecosystem” etc.
I’m not saying the idea is flawless, but… the guy proposing it is a professor of environmental change biology. If there’s a flaw in the idea that you - someone with presumably zero serious education in the field - can spot, he has probably thought of it. Because he is a professor of this exact subject. Who is from the country that he is proposing it takes place in.
I don’t know him personally, but I feel pretty safe assuming that he knows what eucalyptus is. And that he’s aware of rabbits and cane toads. And that he wouldn’t propose something like this if it was genuinely weak enough to be picked apart in five minutes by armchair experts!
this is really interesting. What do people think the elephants will do though? I haven’t heard about the rabbits, but the cane toads just spread and were poisonous right? And elephants don’t reproduce quickly nor are they poisonous, so I feel like they would be pretty easy to keep under control if something did go wrong.
