Mungoman
Mostly harmless...
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2010
- Messages
- 3,240
- Location
- In the Bush (Peak Hill, NSW)
The one thing that stands out in that article is the reminder that we, The British, really fucked up with Australasia in general. Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania were home to such a fascinating array of visually improbable creatures. The fact that the platypus is both venomous and looks like a ridiculous fake of creature is the clearest example of that.
Marsupials are fascinating, and localised to this area of the Earth. The Empire just wanted to clear out land for farming and for more penal colonies, never truly questioning what they were destroying in the process. The Thylacine being almost certainly hunted to extinction may seem carelessly inhumane, but when you hear how collectors picked apart the body of the 'last' aboriginal Tasmanian man like a trophy creature it hardly seems unusual in comparison.
Yeah Nah C.I. - Australians have done it. Go back to the first explorations with Banks, and the English were enthralled with our Flora and Fauna. The major problem with the Poms were the rats on their ships. The majority of extinct Australian animals are island animals and their demise was due to predation by rats.
I do have a problem though with their propensity for stocking zoological gardens - both private and public. I see sulphur crested Cockatoos caged in the soft watery climes of Britain and it infuriates me - knowing that these large birds have the capability to live as long as mankind (just imagine a gregarious, long lived animal used to heat and aridity with a territory of one thousand squares miles living solely in a cage in a manor somewhere.)
The major fuck-ups were by Currency lads and lasses who wanted a bit of 'Home' to shoot or chase, and the Agricultural Companies who wanted shot of the true Australian. Australia had to push until 1860 to get the courts of London to acquiesce to the idea of Terra Nullius.It was refused a number of times but the Aussies kept coming back with it.
So Nope. Mea culpa mate.