Rewilding Australia: Recreating the Australian Serengeti

[@Eco-Nerd]

Hey guys, I don't think I expressed well enough in this video, the potential benefits or reasons for introducing animals as proxies for extinct animals. I previously made videos about the European Serengeti and the American Serengeti and explained that a lot of ecologists believe that ecosytems have seen a huge decrease in biodiversity and ecosystem function due to the extinction of megafauna and apex predators. Many suggest that introducing proxies for the extinct animals could enrich ecosystems and reverse the trend of biodiversity loss! With that all said, the introduction of any animal has significant risks, and Australia is probably more vulnerable than any other continent but I believe it's an interesting topic to discuss all the same. Hope you enjoy the video 😊

[@Littlekoji-df1cf]

Very true. Thank u for screaming and raising awerenes on this exiting matter.

[@aaaydenwetsell]

can you do a south american Serengeti video next please?

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@Littlekoji-df1cf Delighted to speak about the topic! I love it!

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@aaaydenwetsell It's on my list! It's not my next video but I'll definitely make it!

[@CrimsonReapa]

theres already a plan in place to reintroduce tasmanian devils back to Australia and after discovering that komodo dragons are infact a native Australian species that evolved in Australia theres even talks about reintroducing it back to Australia as well to combat all the medium-large invasive species now present as they have done a great group in keepin invasive feral/wild pigs/hogs in check on the islands they currently inhabit + there islands are shrinking due to rising sea levels so they may end up no longer being viable for komodos in the future so reintroducing them to Australia would benefit both the komodo and Australia itself

[@johnfoster6412]

The problem with introducing a large cat like a cougar is that the Australian marsupials have no idea what a big feline is, and would be terribly easy prey, while the feral camels/pigs/deer/cattle/horses all evolved alongside felid predators and try to avoid them.

[@purplehaze2358]

By accident, hippos were introduced to the Amazon rainforest after escaping from a private collection. That's going about as well as you'd think it would, and the way I see it, intentionally introducing rhinos to Australia would have nearly identical energy.

[@aaaydenwetsell]

7:58 and i also heard that on tv that australia has no native animals that have hooves, and that when the hoofstock move around and graze and such, they can cause erosion and habitat loss for smaller species like wombats and frogs.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@aaaydenwetsell Yeah hard hooves have shown to do quite bit of damage in Austrlian ecosystems

[@ethandoingstuff1433]

and soooooo many burrowing creatures had adapted to the undisturbed topsoil

[@1fishmob]

They used to have one. Short-Faced Kangaroos hopped on hooves instead of toes.

[@aaaydenwetsell]

@@1fishmob KANGAROOS DON"T HAVE HOOVES!

[@1fishmob]

@@aaaydenwetsell It had one large toe which in e one big claw that resembled and worked like a horse hoof.

[@HagdoBr]

Komodo dragon and Tasmanian Devil still are the best choices of big predator to reintroduction.

[@hackman669]

Right idea, use native species and close relatives to fill in the gaps of nature. In the long run would enjoy seeing de- extinct species return through cloning or genetic engineering.😊

[@HagdoBr]

@@hackman669 not soo easy make clones or something. Komodo is the only big pradator wo can hunt all large invader animals and dont will sllaugther the native ones.

[@harikiran4339]

Protecting dingoes, and increasing their pack numbers in regions where camels, boars, goats and deer are found. Along with vulture populations are absolutely required so they can be the survivors that clean stuff up. Dingoes can keep most of them at bay! Also introducing artifical lakes at parts of the contibent shall help creatures not die from thirst. Humans always do build lakes for their settlements which benefitted many creatures.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@harikiran4339 Yeah i think that allowing dingoes to spread across Australia and be free from persecution would be more beneficial than any introduction would be. There are no vultures in Australia but Wedge-Tailed Eagles and Ravens would be what fills that niche there. There are plenty of man made lakes in Australia for sure and they're definitely used by wildlife

[@XenoRaptor-98765]

There were plans to make an inland sea in the Australia outback but never happened.

[@Lord_of_Snels]

inland waterholes created by settlers pumping water to the surface for sheep and crops is a key reason of kangaroo overpopulation and over grazing in the red centre, it seems very nice in an ignorant way, but really just caused massive population booms of grazers that then eat everything on the ground and then die on mass from hunger, lack of water is a key part of red centre life and suddenly providing it constantly gives a resource in an amount that usually wouldn't be seen for decades appear every single day

[@jgr7487]

Reintroducing the Komodo dragon is a must. Besides that, Australia used to have a more manicured ecosystem, which balance was thrown away by settlers. Introducing beavers would be a way to bring more humidity to some regions that are so dry, that camels die of thirst.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@jgr7487 Yeah it would be brilliant to see a Komodo Dragon reintroduction! I'd be really weary about introducing beavers in to an ecosytem where their non-native though. There's a great documentary called "Why Do Beavers Build Dams?" on KZbin and there's a big chunk of it about the invasive beavers in Argentina and you wouldn't believe the damage they've done, I don't think I've ever seen an invasive species affect an area so badly! I'd highly recommend the documentary anyway, it's a great watch 😊

[@DanielSmith-x5v]

Komodo dragons have been absent from Australia for 5 millennia. Since then the environment and climate of the region has dramatically changed and there are a number of studies available laying that out. I understand the thinking behind introducing Komodo dragons and other megafauna but ultimately in modern Queensland they are a non native species and introducing them as an ecological experiment in an environment that has been largely untouched and is evolving normally without heavy human influence does not seem wise.

[@CrimsonReapa]

@@DanielSmith-x5v theres still several areas in Australia that could sustain them (the northern forested areas are a great example) + they have already reintroduced tasmanian devils in fenced reserves and the impact they have had has been really positive, Australia desperately needs a large native land predator to combat all the medium-large invasive species now in Australia and the komodo dragon is the only one left thats not extinct + native Australian wildlife is well adapted for recognizing and dealing with them as a threat since they evolved alongside them + theres still several other native predatory lizards they have continued living alongside after komodos went extinct (most likely thanks to humans) so they still recognize large lizards as a threat where as all the invasive species don't, on the islands where komodos still roam they have done a perfect job at taking care of invasive wild/feral hogs/pigs, water buffalo to the point neither is causing much trouble for the island habitats since the komodos keep there numbers in check and they threat up wiped out the dogs/cats humans brought to the islands before they had a chance to become established (granted the number of dingos,feral dogs and cats is to large and established in Australia for the komodos to wipe them out but they could still put a big dent in there numbers by competing with and preying on them rather then them slaughtering there way threw the bush uncontested) so reintroducing komodos will have way more pro then cons, esp when the tasmanian devils have shown us that reintroducing a extinct native animal works wonders even if it's been regionally extinct for a few thousand years.

[@Misto_deVito6009]

Yes to komodos, maybe to beavers

[@CrimsonReapa]

@@Misto_deVito6009 introducing any non native animal would be a bad idea unless it was something that is very similar to if not the same as a now extinct native species

[@charIaw]

European talks about introducing Eurasian animals to Australia, instead we should have our own native species dominate. Any non native animals would be a horrible idea. Literally the whole history of Australia’s species being introduced has always had NEGATIVE Consequences. I can see the same thing happening with all these introduced animals.

[@jordanapgar8907]

I’m thinking and believing African Savanna Elephants will Adapt and thrive in Australia and also keeping the invasive African grass in check on the Australian continent to help save highly endangered Northern hairy nosed wombats from extinction in Australia!!

[@clmmeerts8467]

Terrible idea exept for the komodo dragon

[@leonidbalaklav5022]

YEAH

[@bardroyal7893]

Would love a video from you on the biggest living and extinct birds!

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@bardroyal7893 Good idea! I'll add it to my list! Thanks 😎

[@MatthewTheWanderer]

Also, rabbits are a major invasive species that has caused a lot of problems. They used to number as many as 600 million!

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@MatthewTheWanderer Yeah rabbits ate very problematic and provide direct competition to many of the native species!

[@1legend517]

I wish we could bring these animals back somehow. I'd love to have seen them, it's so sad that they're gone.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@1legend517 me too!!

[@joshuamattingly1232]

@@Eco-Nerdwell most of them anyway, I’m fine with leaving out really big crocs, snakes, and other giant venomous animals. Let’s just keep the ones we have now in that case.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@joshuamattingly1232 🤣 fair enough

[@1legend517]

@@joshuamattingly1232 I would have even liked to have seen those 🤣 ill bet they were awesome looking.

[@joshuamattingly1232]

@@1legend517 I’m sure they were, when they’re a good distance away and not hungry.

[@HolyCanolei]

I am 100% against introducing additional non native species to the region, especially big predators like the cougar. I live in the States and cougars are kinda nuts. They would likely devastate the local wildlife, especially smaller marsupials and birds, and would be a huge ecological problem. It is a VERY bad idea!

[@GLeviathan]

the only sensible introduction idea I've heard recently was komodo dragons (an animal who's recent ancestors originate in Australia) with the intention of tackling the invasive populations of water buffalo, deer, and feral horses. Even then that's an iffy idea.

[@GLeviathan]

I do hope that the tazzy population introduced in New South Wales is doing alright at least. Wherever they live, feral cats disappear. So having a healthy reintroduced population on the mainland would help some areas a lot.

[@Sthuont]

@@GLeviathan The Komodo Dragon itself actually originally evolved in Australia and dispersed out from Australia to its present distribution and possibly even further afield to Java. Reintroducing it to Australia would simply be filling the ecological niche it originally had here and is not iffy at all.

[@Richard-gy1pq]

There already here @holycanoli n have been for a while.

[@HolyCanolei]

@@Richard-gy1pq Source? Everything I see says no. And if they were there, you’d KNOW. They may be stealthy, but they make their presence known. They leave noticeable kill sights, big furry turds, and scream like a woman being murdered when they’re in heat.

[@DanielSmith-x5v]

A Komodo dragon hasn’t existed in Queensland for 50 millennia. since then the climate and environmental structure has changed heavily and there are several publications outlining this. Conservation is about combatting the human affects on the environment in order to return it or maintain it in the way it evolved. This may mean for some species an introduction back into their former range if extirpated by humans such as Tasmanian devils in mainland Australia but not randomly introducing foreign species. This is the opposite of conservation, it is putting a greater human footprint on the structure of ecosystems. The Pleistocene was a different era with different species to today. There is no reason we need to try to bring ecosystems back in time. Despite this I understand the thinking in the video. Coming from someone working in the feild of biology out of range introductions are laughed at outside of KZbin and Reddit. Sometimes I find the idea cool myself but know in reality it would never fly. In conclusion it’s cool to think about but non existent in real applications. And rightfully so because it cancels out natural evolution and replaces it with human directed evolution such as in the case of dogs and cats just less obvious.

[@Mrcryptidsarereal]

I think the fact that komodos were native to Australia makes them a far more comfortable candidate than any of the foreign mammals suggested. While it is true that the environments of today were not the same as the were 5 million years ago, they were not significantly different. Those publications pointed out that the spread and density of woodlands and arid environments simply shifted with the cycle of glacial periods (more arid areas during the ice ages, more rainforest as the ice ages end) and their stability was largely unaffected by merely the climate. Rather, it is more prudent to observe human activity like bush burning changing these environments. Komodo dragons already live in arid environments so they're well suited to surviving, they have an abundant food source in the introduced megafauna, and the new territory is a benefit to their population in a time where they have disappeared from some Indonesian islands thanks to illegal poaching. Introduced komodos should still be carefully monitored, but I believe native species are predisposed to surviving their reintroduction thanks to the presence of local monitors like the Perentie.

[@DanielSmith-x5v]

@@mousedeer7837 I mentioned that above. It would be very good to reintroduce Tasmanian devils to mainland Australia because they were extirpated by humans in recent history. This means the climate and environment has not changed since their absence and the environment has somewhat fallen apart without them. Tasmanian devils are not out of range in mainland Australia.

[@DanielSmith-x5v]

@@Mrcryptidsarereal Komodo dragons haven’t existed in Australia for 50 millennia. The Komodo dragon is no longer native to what Queensland is now. Despite this a Komodo dragon reintroduction still would in fact be a lot more logical than some of the other suggestions such as big cats or really any mammalian Carnivorans due to their history in the region. Still unlikely though and they should be reintroduced to neighboring Indonesian islands before we start thinking about Australia.

[@Lord_of_Snels]

the most likely reason Komodo's in particular went extinct in Australia is loss of prey quantity/diversity, not climate change, today they inhabit very similar climates and habitat types to much of modern Australia and would do perfectly fine patrolling the tropical grassland and scrubland of the top end for the wide variety of large prey like camels, pigs, water buffalo and horses that are now available, in a way the Pleistocene ecosystem structure has come back with massive grazers/browsers existing now that cannot be properly checked by current predators so a Pleistocene big game hunter should be brought back

[@DanielSmith-x5v]

@@Lord_of_Snels I have never heard the proposal that the only way to reduce invasive species (in this case ungulates) is to introduce another invasive species and dig a deeper ditch in the environment to make it truly unrecoverable. You’re proposal sounds like you want to completely ignore all the native fauna such as existing reptiles, birds and marsupials and try to turn it into the Pleistocene (which it isn’t) by releasing farm animals and then a giant non-native hyper-carnivorous lizard. Odd take is an understatement.

[@mnkash2007]

I feel like the realistic australian Serengeti would go like all native Kangaroos all native Wombats all native possums and other marsupials Tasmanian devils (which are still marsiupals) Emus (or cassowary's depending on the region) native monitor lizards (Perenties Lace monitors Etc) Freshwater (or Saltwater) Crocodilles Dingoes Introduce species Komodo dragon what you think theres more?

[@ethandoingstuff1433]

Homo sapiens

[@BiTurbo228]

Plus de-extincted thylacine if possible 👍

[@Andrey.Ivanov]

Australia is probably the trickiest continent for rewilding because there aren't really many good proxy-species options for most of the extinct megafauna. I believe it's important to preserve Australia as a marsupial dominated landmass because populating it with random foreign placentals (such as the ones that are also invasive there) would prevent marsupials to regain their biodiversity in the long run in my opinion. The Komodo dragon seems to be the best option for reintroduction, because the species actually lived in Australia and its return will not only benefit the ecosystem which is overwhelmed with invasive large herbivores, but also the komodo dragon itself since it currently has a very restricted range and is thus vulnerable to extinction.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@Andrey.Ivanov Yeah it definitely is the trickiest! Even if they somehow managed to get rid off all the placentals now it wouldn't really be a fully functioning ecosystem, when Europeans arrived Aboriginal Australians were maintaining the landscape through huge fires, something that had to be done to have an open landscape because there were no large herbivores remaining. Using fire isn't really something that can be done in the current landscape due to the way humans live now. So to agree with you, it really is tricky no matter what is done there

[@obambagaming1467]

Leopards are also a bad idea, since they also regularly hunt way smaller prey. And there are a lot of endangered small marsupials in Australia. They dont need more problems. Komodo Dragon could work, but it should still be carefully monitored. In a stable ecosystem without human intervention, species balance eachother out. In a stable ecosystem, it usually takes a long time until a species goes ectinct, and even then, it is often replaced by relatives, descendants or species with similar species. And Australia was one of the continents that were hit the worst when humans arrived (twice) So even if we introduce a once native species, many other species, that could be negatively affected, often never had a chance to fully recover. For example, while Komodo Dragons would hunt invasive mammals, they could also hunt endangered native species. And young komodo dragons would do the same with smaller animals. The young ones would also compete with native endangered reptiles.

[@hyenaboy7504]

Nice unintentional pun in in the second paragraph, there.

[@obambagaming1467]

@@hyenaboy7504 when I noticed it after writing it, I found it kinda funny so I just left it there

[@eclectic.explorations]

Some FERAL CATS in Australia are growing to larger sizes and becoming MEGA CATS. In a thousand years or so, they may be big enough able to take down neonates of ungulates as prey like Leopards and Lions do.

[@mnkash2007]

i feel like the main counter argument for Komodo's is just that these animals already have coexisted with large monitor lizards in the pleistocene with both the komodo and megalania and they still do perenties and lace monitors are some of the largest lizards on earth no where near the size of a komodos

[@Sephiths]

I'd argue 3 times. There was the original aboriginal Australian migration. There was vitiations from Seafaring people (maybe the Indians?) that introduced the Dingoes. (Dingoes did damage but have since then earned their spot as the apex predator). Then there was the Europeans that introduced... Well. You get the gist.

[@hircenedaelen]

I think all the things you suggest here would be great actually. Replacing cows with rhino's would be particularly good imo. We can't get back what was there, but we can try to replicate it

[@SonLucasX]

I simply love this theme. I have a video suggestion, the introduction of some species of megafauna in South America, more precisely in Brazil, as I am Brazilian. African elephants from savanna to open areas such as the Brazilian cerrado and pampas. Asian elephants or African forest elephants for regions such as the Pantanal, Amazon and Atlantic forest. Asian water buffaloes for regions such as the Pantanal and Cerrado, Brazilian breeders even use them in these regions and the animals are well adapted. Camels and Guanacos for semi-arid regions such as the caatinga, but also the cerrado. Bengal tigers from a region of India that is characterized by many swamps, so they would adapt well to the Pantanal, but because they are tigers they could adapt well to other areas. Great primates like gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans could do very well too. Rhinos could also bring benefits if they were introduced, Bears could also be good additions, since there were bears around here too.

[@SonLucasX]

Just a few examples of animals that could cause benefits when introduced. Present-day elephants in place of the ancient Proboscidea of South America, water buffaloes in place of toxodonts, present-day camelids in place of extinct camelids, tigers as apex predators larger than jaguars, and great apes in place of small giant sloths, they would not occupy similar niches, but the function of distributing seeds would be of great help to ecosystems.Dholes or African wild dogs could be excellent substitutes for the packs of wild dogs that existed throughout South America. I spoke about Brazil because it is my country, but South America is very vast and has many different biomes that could benefit from the introduction of some megafauna animals.

[@canonbehenna612]

@@SonLucasX what about African or Asian lions in place of the American lion

[@andre2815]

acho que seria mais legal usar zebus no lugar dos bufalos

[@SonLucasX]

@@andre2815 também funcionaria, o gado zebu por ter vindo da índia já tá bem acostumado ao nosso clima, como nosso Nelore da vida. Mas ia precisar que fosse gado selvagem e outra que uma coisa não exclui a outra, o búfalo d'água poderia ser mais para o Pantanal e o gado zebu feral mais para o cerrado ou pampas, gostei da sua idéia. Inclusive temos rebanhos selvagens de burros na caatinga e cavalos ferais por aí, só precisam crescer em números, no Brasil também tinha equídeos selvagens.

[@SonLucasX]

@@andre2815 idéia legal a sua, gado zebu tá bem adaptado ao clima do Brasil, mas teria que ser um gado zebu feral. Mas daria para ter búfalos d'água no Pantanal e gado zebu feral em outros biomas, como o cerrado e os pampas. Já existem burros ferais na caatinga e cavalos ferais no Brasil andando por aí, só precisariam estar em maior número.

[@royhay5741]

Swamp buffalo, scrub bulls, banteng, dromedaries, brumbies, Australian wild asses, razorbacks, Papuan hogs, and common ostriches are great. River buffalo, Bactrian camels, and blackbucks also inhabit Australia, but they're rare. Water buffalo fill a similar niche to the marsupial hippo (Zygomaturus trilobus), while the common ostrich fills a similar niche to Newton's thunderbird. Despite being introduced 500 years ago by Iberians, rangeland goats fill a similar ecological niche as wallaroos and rock wallabies, making feral goats invasive. I'd like sambar, red deer, fallow deer, axis deer, and Indochinese hog deer to be eradicated so macropodine kangaroos can replace short-faced kangaroos. However, big-game hunters introduced deer to Australia to hunt. I think Komodo dragons should be reintroduced to the Australian savanna in northern Australia and arid and semi-arid Australia. Cuban crocodiles should be introduced to Queensland and Melanesia as proxies for land crocodiles. The Sunda tiger should be introduced to southeastern and southern Australia as a proxy for the marsupial lion. Perhaps the Sumatran rhino could be introduced to New Guinea as proxies for Tomasetti's marsupial panda (Hulitherium tomasettii)

[@Misto_deVito6009]

I think putting Komodos in Australia would be great since they can deal with invasive camels, water buffalos and other ungulates.

[@stevensibbet5869]

they would be my first choice too.

[@bardroyal7893]

This is a cool video. You're like David Attenborough junior. Keep up the great work

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@bardroyal7893 Haha thank you very much!

[@Joseph13163]

An Irish Attenborough

[@roryoneill9444]

Brilliant, one program about feral cats in Australia has got as big as a 16lb, which only makes them a tenth the size of a Puma but that is after only a few generation. Cats could, easily, evolve into the large predatory niche as they tend to do.

[@arkprice79]

I really hope we see komodo dragons be reintroduced to Australia 🇦🇺 🦎 They would be really helpful to the Australian ecosystem as they can kill many of the non native herbivores such as camels, buffaloes, horses, deer, wild boars, ETC

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@arkprice79 It would be amazing to see them reintroduced to Australia! Hard to know the effect they'd have but it would be fascinating to see in a trial area even

[@arkprice79]

@Eco-Nerd Yeah, true P.S. I'm a subscriber

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@arkprice79 Thanks for the support 🙌🙌

[@Polosatiy_Varan]

Komodo dragons and Cuban crocodiles can help destroy invasive animals. And Asian water monitors help in the fight against the cane toad.

[@Richard-gy1pq]

@Econerd some people's obviously had your thoughts around 100yrs ago. Government claim's no proof but leopard and cougar are here in Victoria 100%

[@AjayMahabir-ii1gh]

Alternate title- recreating Satan's original unhinged petting zoo

[@MrSurguy-fb2hy]

You forgot one megafauna apex predator that is still around,. Australia’s elusive Yowie!

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@MrSurguy-fb2hy And the bunyip too!

[@MrSurguy-fb2hy]

@@Eco-Nerd they’re out there ☝🏻

[@waldenian4883]

All this is very risky. The "safest" introduction that comes to my mind is experimenting with the Iberian lynx to control the overpopulation of rabbits, since they are its main prey and in theory it won't breed in areas without rabbits. But even then there is a big risk, since Australia is huge.

[@HectorJosuéHuancaTenorio]

No estoy acuerdo q introduscan pumas en Australia yo prefiero el dragón de komodo para mi son la mejor odsion ❤

[@Littlekoji-df1cf]

Clad that this channel is starting to grow. U have brought me a new intrest on rewilding ecologies, thank u. All love qnd support from Finland

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@Littlekoji-df1cf Thank you! Really nice to have that kind of support 🙏

[@dougharrison7844]

The introduction of any species of cat is madness, they might eventually prey on introduced species like goats, donkeys and pigs, but not until after they wiped out all the low hanging fruit that is our smaller native species.

[@vladline1882]

Komodo dragons could replace Megalania. It might become much bigger

[@johnscanlon8467]

The Komodo dragon is an island dwarf

[@maxim34457]

I have a crazy plan to restore the Pleistocene ecosystem in Australia. I want to grow one selected population of wombats to the size of a Diprotodon and then populate it with Komodo dragons I doubt that an artificially enlarged wombat would be as big as its extinct relative, so a Komodo dragon would be just about the right size.

[@maxim34457]

I'm still thinking about the Megalania theme. You can take a separate type of monitor lizard, but smaller, so that the Komodo dragons cannot mate with the new megalanias I also want to use selection to increase the size of the marsupial quoll so that it looks like a marsupial lion.The marten climbs trees and may be able to replicate the marsupial lion's hunting tactics.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@maxim34457 That's an interesting idea!

[@shmee123ful]

I have to admit it's amusing that after making arguments about the nessary culling of many invasive introduced species you think introducing more would be a good idea. I also really don't think bringing kodomod dragons back to Australia would be a good idea they may prey upon thr nests and chick's of already crucially endangered cassowaries

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@shmee123ful I'm suggesting researching the potential benefits of introducing certain animals as proxies for extinct animals. A practice that's becoming more popular and shown to work in some famous examples like Siberia and Mauritius. Two of the animals I suggested researching, were to help manage the introduced herbivores. I don't know if it would be a good idea but I think it's a worthwhile topic to research as we learn about the loss of ecosytem function in the absence of megafauna and we're losing species at a rate 1000-10,000 times faster than natural extinction rates.

[@Lord_of_Snels]

Komodo dragons are native to Australia and we have an extensive fossil record of them here, its unlikely they'd cause too much damage as it would be a reintroduction

[@noneed4sleep64]

If Komodo dragons were reintroduced, they wouldn’t be inhabiting the same dense tropical rainforests as the cassowary, and even if they were, they’d just be competing with the other goannas which already prey upon cassowary eggs - it wouldn’t be some grave new threat to them.

[@shmee123ful]

Good points were made regarding the reintoction of a komdoo dragons back into Australia. As they and cassowaries both evolved here and their preferred environments may not have overlapped over much in the past. And it's quite true the dragons smaller relatives already prey upon cassowarie chick's and eggs. But my concern is when they both shared the same country cassowaries did not face the same threats as they do today. And covered a far greater range but introducing one of the largest and most indiscriminate apex predatory reptails back were they would ba able to prey upon the already demisnided cassowarie population's among other threatened and indangered animals could very easy go very rough. Ideally they could provide a nessary service in culling invasive animals. But we do not live in an ideal world and history is littered with examples of man trying to play God and this back fireing spectacularly.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@shmee123ful There are very few examples of humans introducing animals for ecological reasons and it going badly. Almost all introductions prior to the 90s were done for commercial gain for humans and little thought was put in to how it would otherwise affect the ecosystem. There have been several successful introductions in recent years, that have worked because they've been done for the right reasons and the research has been put in. That's not to say that Komodo Dragons or any other introduction would work, it's just to say that researching a potential introduction is worth while as anything that could potentially reverse biodiversity loss, is worth while.

[@saroruhagoswami9202]

Pretty awesome 😮

[@paleo-zoo-keeper-association]

In the case for the jaguar, there are some pros that can work: - they will be more likely to hunt feral pigs then the mountain lion would - they are more likely to hunt the bigger prey animals than mountain lions do. - Jaguars rarely if ever see humans as prey The cons: - they are the strongest bite force of any living big cat, which helps them be able to hunt crocodiles and crack open turtle shells. So this will make them a problem for native reptiles.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@paleo-zoo-keeper-association For sure there are definitely benefits! I just think the fact that they only really live in a couple of habitat types would coke against them. A lot of Australia is really open habitat

[@paleo-zoo-keeper-association]

@Eco-Nerd that might not be a bad thing since both that the types of habitats that Jaguars are found in (rainforests, savanna/cerrado, and deserts) are relatively plentiful in Australia and a lot of the feral animals are found there. Also, the limited amount of habitat could be able to make them more manageable for wildlife management.

[@canonbehenna612]

@@paleo-zoo-keeper-associationspeaking of rewinding think of doing Australia giant apex reptiles how would they restore or destroy Australia ecosystem’s

[@aderyn50]

Beavers may be a good fit.

[@krisinsaigon]

wouldn't the pumas hunt all the small native mammals? Lions would be better, they would focus on the big invasive species and leave the marsupials alone

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@krisinsaigon Not particularly. Pumas typically prey on large animals and only take smaller animals if it's an easy opportunity. 68% of the puma diet in North America are ungulates, mainly white-tailed deer, mule deer and elk but they regularly prey on feral horses and donkeys where they occur. I think people maybe forget how large pumas are, they're larger than leopards even. They're also a good control for medium sized predators which would be a great benefit in Australia as feral cats and foxes are such an issue. Lions are definitely better at preying on the largest animals but pumas would target the species that have the least benefit in Australia like deer, goats and feral pigs. Also I was suggesting a proxy for Thylacoleo, which was a solitary, ambush predator and that's why I suggested the 3 animals in the video 😊

[@krisinsaigon]

@@Eco-Nerd the cat and fox thing I hadn’t even thought of

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@krisinsaigon Yeah it wouldn't fix the problem completely of course but it would definitely reduce the numbers and behaviour of foxes and feral cats which in turn would benefit the animals that are at huge risk for those

[@nojorooney]

Lions would likely be a big problem for the smaller predators, they would dominate and kill any smaller predators and none of them could fight back aside from crocodiles and really big dingo packs, and even then, the ladder could really only be able to take down a lone lioness realistically, they would dominate scarce water sources and prides would require a lot of food to maintain themselves. I’d say tigers would be a better option, they are solitary hunters which means they wouldn’t require nearly as much food or water to maintain themselves, and they are also specialists of deer and wild boar, while also being able to take down the rest of the herbivorous megafauna present in Australia, although they would still put an unnecessary pressure onto dingoes, perenties, and crocodiles, it likely wouldn’t be nearly as catastrophic as lions, as they are solitary predators and usually try not to waste as much energy eliminating competition as lions do

[@Lord_of_Snels]

@@nojorooney realistically the only small predators they'd actually cause problems for are foxes and cats though, so hardly a bad thing

[@youtubejosephwm6699]

Do you research information for your videos

[@Joseph13163]

I would leave it to the dingos as they will get bigger breeding with domestic dogs

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@Joseph13163 I think allowing dingoes to spread across Australia free from persecution is the best thing that could be done for the ecosystem!

[@RomulusTheWild6693]

To see australian during the pleistocene would have been a dream if john hammond wanted to this would be a great jurassic park mimic huge flightless birds giant terrestrial crocodiles, huge monitor lizards and gaint turtles with clubed tails and giant snakes where all roaming the land down under. Fun fact: even though meiolania died off around the same time as other Australian megafuana on new Caledonia a species in this genus actually survived until as recently as 3,000 years ago, around the same time as dingoes arrived on the mainland

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@RomulusTheWild6693 That would be really cool 😎 Oh cool, I must read up on that! Thanks for sharing

[@mistersir3020]

These policies will seal the coffin for the majority of marsupials.

[@storiesoftheaustralianbush3818]

I definitely would never support the introduction of another large mammal to Australia... too much damage already done and too many unique species here already teetering on the brink of extinction!

[@purplehaze2358]

I love how only _now_ are you considering the potential for proxy species to go into conflict with humans. You did want lions back in the Americas, afterall.

[@francogiobbimontesanti3826]

I normally am fond of this vidoes but i am not a fan of introducing lineages of animals that aren´t native to the area, big cats have no history of being in australia. We should allow marsupials to keep their roles as predators, maybe breeding tasmanian to be larger and faster.

[@MatthewTheWanderer]

But, there used to be marsupials that were lion-sized and filled the exact same niche as lions. Tasmanian Devils are TINY compared to that!

[@francogiobbimontesanti3826]

@@MatthewTheWanderer so let those animals slowly fill up tho niche agains. It will take many generations, but just how a wolf managed to shrink down to the size of a chihuahua smaller marsupial predators can grow up to the size of wolf

[@MatthewTheWanderer]

@@francogiobbimontesanti3826 It would take MILLIONS of years for that to happen naturally!

[@francogiobbimontesanti3826]

@@MatthewTheWanderer Not with artificial selection, probably could get it done in 200 years or so.

[@deatherutts]

Hell build a few large watering hole's and add some Lion's Cheetahs and leopard's or Jaguar's maybe some other predator fish and Crabs and few bird predator's fight invasive never know might work

[@سلامسالمي-ر6ذ]

The best predators to introduce as proxy for extinct Australian megafauna are: 1.komodo dragon: as proxy for megalinia 2.lion: Yes, you heard that right Lions could hunt most of Australia invasive megafauna, unlike jaguar, leopard and cougar these three will also target the smaller endemic animals of Australia like (wallaby, many species of possum,many species of quoll, Tasmanian devil,numbat, bandicoot,koala and wombat). Specially leopard which is a good climber. Also lions could live in semi-arid environments of australian outback with almost no tree cover and feed on camels and donkeys and reduce their numbers effectively. Leopard and cougar will go mostly the smaller easiest prey available to reduce the risk like kangaroo,wallaby, feral goat and some deer species

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@سلامسالمي-ر6ذ I totally understand your take and can definitely see the benefit to lions but I still think cougars would be a better option. Cougars would have more of an impact on feral cats and red foxes which are the real threat to the smaller native animals you mentioned. I think the fact that they'd more specifically target deer and goats is a good thing as they don't really have any significant benefits in Australia. Preying on kangaroos and large wallabies isn't really a negative either, Australia have to manage their Kangaroo population anyway because the population is too high. Lions would be a better predator for the largest animals though you're right in that for sure but I actually think a predator that would focus more on the deer, goats and pigs and still prey on the large animals would be more effective.

[@FromTheGong]

Not going to reply again, tried twice but none were shown for some unknown reason?

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@FromTheGong No idea! I can see this reply. Did you use a word that KZbin thinks might be offensive maybe?

[@Lord_of_Snels]

Komodo's are not a proxy for Megalania, we had Komodo's in Australia long before they got to Komodo island, Komodos would be a "proxy" for Komodos

[@FromTheGong]

@@Eco-Nerd I think it might be po!son so I tried it this way and ok?

[@edwardfletcher7790]

Why would Australia want Rhinos ??? We've got no predators for them !!

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@edwardfletcher7790 Rhino populations aren't regulated by predators. They're mainly regulated by food availability and slow reproduction rates. Predation has almost no affect on their population 😊

[@edwardfletcher7790]

@@Eco-Nerd Oh ok, thanks, I wasn't sure if young Rhinos got taken by Hyenas & Lions...

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@edwardfletcher7790 They definitely get taken by predators it's just not enough to have a significant affect. A lot of the largest herbivores are controlled from bottom up (food availability) rather than top down (predation) such as elephants, bison, rhinos and buffalo 😊

[@Polosatiy_Varan]

@@Eco-Nerd Large Nile crocs prey on rhino, as well as on hyppo. In some regions of Africa, Nile crocs regulate the hippo population.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@Polosatiy_Varan Hi, that's right that rhinos and hippos are predated on to a certain extent (as are elephants even) but their populations are bottom up regulated (food availability) not top down regulated (predation)

[@alanbstard4]

Ausralia should be rewilded with Adrican pecies. We have the space and room. Who'll pay for the fencing, the way Kruger national park is. Animals dangerous to humans can then be considered

[@MorganHJackson]

Noooo bringing cats here will make the bush dangerous!

[@franciscomarques2867]

They problem is that the ecosystem has changed alot so, most of the ancient wildlife would not fit there anymore. The objective should be to restore Australian ecosystems to a pre-english time.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@franciscomarques2867 Yeah I get you and some would agree with you. When Europeans arrived the ecosystem was already severely damaged and relied on regular burnings from native Australians to manage the ecosystem. Burnings that became necessary because all the large herbivores were wiped out. The largest native browser that remained in Australia is the swamp wallaby, an animal the size of a raccoon. They lost an untold amount of ecosytem function and trophic levels. And with that said, unless humans manage to wipe out all the introduced herbivores, Australia is still lacking predators. Though if dingoes are allowed to distribute across Australia that would seriously help with the herbivore problem

[@ooblah10]

Can't really do that without rezoning alot of agriculture land and that's a political issue not an environmental one.

[@deatherutts]

Who let the animal's out wwwooo wwwooo wwwooo

[@juliegreenslade2878]

I think humans have already done so much damage to Australia (and many other places) by bringing so many animals into the land that I think it would be a very bad idea to introduce even more non-native animals. Manage intelligently what is left, otherwise leave things alone.

[@sno4439]

Why would you want to make Australia even more dangerous? Don't you think we got enough problems

[@woopersupremacy6081]

lets go

[@tvbnine793]

Would Tigers be a possible candidate for rewilding Australia instead of cougars? Tigers are already endangered and I could see them being safer from poachers in Australia than in Asia

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@tvbnine793 Yeah potentially for sure but tigers aren't really found in arid areas. They live in dense vegetation like forest and mixed savannahs. Most of Australia is arid so they wouldn't suit a lot of the country

[@72Beo75]

I’d have thought cheetahs might be suitable in the grasslands and even deserts?

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@72Beo75 Yeah I've seen people suggest cheetahs before but they'd likely do more harm than good. Cheetahs rarely prey on anything over 60 kg and mostly even under 40 kg. The only introduced herbivores under 60 kg are goats and rabbits (and the babies of the other animals) so most of their prey would likely be native animals unfortunately.

[@72Beo75]

@@Eco-Nerd​​⁠they certainly hunt impalas and I’ve seen them hunting wildebeest, too.

[@72Beo75]

Ultimately if we’re talking about larger mammals then the only predators capable of controlling their numbers are likely to be larger, themselves! I don’t really see the objection to leopards, given their adaptability, range of prey items and the fact they already live alongside people and their domestic animals throughout their range. Leopards also aren’t too big, either. Better suited to Australia than pumas, I’d have thought.

[@72Beo75]

Having said that, to tackle full grown buffaloes would need either tigers or lions. I’d love to see a combination of true apex predators like tigers, plus cheetahs. That would keep the cheetah numbers in check as well as handling all sizes of introduced herbivores. Might as well throw a few hyenas in there, too!

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@72Beo75 Yeah impalas are pretty small though. The biggest females weigh 50 kg and the biggest and males are between 40 and 75 kg so they're a prime target for cheetahs. Yeah occasionally bands of male cheetahs prey on bigger animals like wildebeest and zebra but those instances are very rare. We just see it more on documentaries because it's very cool!

[@deatherutts]

That's what they all say bro 😅😅😅😅😅

[@gabrielg.2401]

Very interesting topic as always 👍 We must not forget the human element in all of this, namely aboriginal tending and fire management. I highly recommend you check out the book "The Biggest Estate on Earth" by Bill Gammage. The role of indigenous people in shaping and enhancing natural environments cannot go unnoticed. Indeed Aboriginal religions revolved around taking care of country both for human and nonhuman life and their knowledge of plants and animals was and still is Immense. The people of the land will always be the original environmentalists and it's important to learn from the locals before embarking on any restoration project.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@gabrielg.2401 Thank you! Yeah for sure many indigenous cultures learned to value biodiversity and found ways to live in harmony with nature! I'll put the book on my list!

[@FromTheGong]

Fun fact; the three 'big cats' that aren't by definition big cats mentioned, cougars leopards and jaguars already have established exotic wild populations throughout Australia.

[@WILD__THINGS]

No they don't, what are you talking about?

[@noneed4sleep64]

@@WILD__THINGSseems like every rural town in eastern Australia has the same story about an American unit stationed there during the war, who had a big cat (usually a Panther) as their mascot, but when they shipped out they couldn’t take it with them, so they released it into the wild. Gonna assume they’re talking about that.

[@FromTheGong]

@@noneed4sleep64 I'm seeing phantoms then. What would you know? Think we can't tell the difference between a big feral and something else? Get a life

[@noneed4sleep64]

@@FromTheGong I’ll believe you when you have DNA evidence. Until then, we don’t have mystery big cats roaming the nation.

[@M4DBMX]

Rewilding... We do that through immigration

[@jordanapgar8907]

I believe they’re going to introduce elephants and lions to Australia as part of the Australian rewilding like the elephants eating the invasive African grass there on the continent and lions hunt in the Buffalo in Australia too!!!

[@canonbehenna612]

What about your future world video’s

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@canonbehenna612 I'll do another one eventually I promise 🙏

[@canonbehenna612]

@@Eco-Nerd that go because i have my own ideas for a future world

[@grendel8342]

Sumatran tigers, komodo dragons, sun bears, and Sunda clouded leopards as introduced predators. While introduced herbivores would be the sumatran rhino, javan rhino, malayan tapir and asian elephant. Tigers show great promise in everything from arid to tropic environments, sudan clouded leopards would work wonders in the now vacant jungles of australia, and the kommodo dragons speak for themselves. The real interesting predator here would be the sun bear, while largely known for their diet of invertebrates the sun bear is also known to take deer and birds. Along with acting as an important seed dispersal species in their native range. Now you have the introduced herbivores, while you went over the rhinos in your vid, i must also state the asian elephant would make a great soft footed browsing herbivore to start taking over some niches of long extinct megafauna. The asian elephant is known to dig up water and make it far more accessible for the wildlife around them which would be one of the most beneficial traits this species could offer. Now for the last introduced herbivorous animal, the malayan tatpir, a nocturnal forager that works as a great seed dispersal animal for most of the jungles and other foliage heavy environments. The reason i have used these few specific animals is because i think that using near by organisms fits the billing a bit more than introducing even more wildly alien species. We already have an abundance of extreme introduced organisms like horses, camels, the european rabbits, deer, and few other organisms on that list. If we want australia to be a bit more authentic with the hypothetical project, mimicking a natural migration would be our best bet when picking predators and large herbivores imo.

[@wallycrespo279]

Well banteng and hippo can survive in the marshlands of Australia so can jaguars lions are a nother good canadate for the marsupial lion plus lions can survive arid and scrubland regions but the smaller asiatic lion can be smiler size to tylacoleo and it more adapted to arid and scrubland part of Australia

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@wallycrespo279 There are no hippos in Australia. There are water buffalo but only a tiny percentage of Australia is the type of habitat that suits water buffalo. Yeah Asiatic Lions might be a suitable predator in Australia. I was suggesting a proxy for Thylacoleo with a similar ecology, being a solitary, ambush predator.

[@wallycrespo279]

But hippo can pontentialy survive in Australia and banteng are an invasive species in Australia well sloth bear eat insects so Australia has a lot of termites so sloth bears can be the first large insectivore in Australia

[@mchae3082]

Ok, Komodo Dragon is excellent predator adapt in Austrialian sites. But the Australia need specialized big herbivore hunter, intelligent, social that can hunt his competitors as dingos and Komodo: Lions (can hunt heavyesto animals) or cheetah. Solitary and opportunistic felines are not suitable, as the niche is already occupied by cats, foxes and the Komodo dragon.

[@Polosatiy_Varan]

Cuban crocs?

[@nicolasrodriguez4000]

You are mistaken about jaguars: they once roamed from Patagonia (a dry open environment) to the frontier of Canada (cold forests), with a big population in the North America deserts (nowadays, there are still few of those jaguars alive, like El Jefe of Arizona)

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@nicolasrodriguez4000 Those were different subspecies of jaguar that were adapted to those habitats and sadly those subspecies are all extinct (panthers once mesembrina and panthera onca augusta) The modern jaguar (panthers onca onca) prefers to stay close to water bodies and in dense cover, they'll occasionally venture in to arid scrublands but it's certainly not what they're adapted to and as most of Australia is very dry and open with a lack of water bodies, it would make them far from the ideal candidate for most of the continent.

[@nicolasrodriguez4000]

@@Eco-Nerd oh yes! But the panthera onca onca also had that range (they became extinct in many parts just around 200 hundred years ago due over hunting and habitat displacement); but you can certainly found jaguars nowadays in the Sonoran desert (that’s the image US colonizers have of the jaguar; even his biome represented in the AMNH of NYC is an arid one) and in Argentina the are reintroduction proyects in the pampas and in the Chaco; very different form a dessert of course but much drier eviroments than de mesoamerican and Amazonian rainforests. Although I understand that they are not as suited to the very harsh conditions of inland Australia than other predators, like leopards and cougars

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@nicolasrodriguez4000 Yeah they can definitely do well where there is a lot of vegetation and where there are water sources, no doubt about it! And i think they could survive in Australia and potentially benefit the ecosystem (of course in reality introducing any predator to Australia comes with huge risks) but I just don't think they are as flexible as cougars, and the evidence of that is that cougars are found in pretty much every habitat in South America and North America and the jaguars range is quite restricted. Cougars have suffered just as much persecution as jaguars, if not more but yet their range and habitat diversity is much larger

[@jameskelman9856]

North American Prairie Bison or European Bison

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@jameskelman9856Hey James, I'm not sure what you're referring to??

[@jameskelman9856]

@Eco-Nerd if Bison were introduced to the plains and scrub area's of Australia , would it benefit the ecosystem . Question : what vulture species currently exist in Australia

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@jameskelman9856 Aww I see. I don't think so really, I don't think they'd provide any benefit that the other introduced cattle species don't provide and even for those cattle species, it's arguable whether they are a positive at all. There is no vulture species in Australia but the Wedge-Tailed Eagle has similarities to vultures in behaviour and appearance, which is likely an adaptation to living on a continent with no vultures.

[@jameskelman9856]

@@Eco-Nerd do you think that the introduction of North American beaver could enhance wetlands and arid areas

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@jameskelman9856 No I don't think so to be honest. The only place I know where beavers were introduced to an ecosytem they didn't belong in, is in Argentina and the damage they have done there is insane. Probably the most significant damage to an ecosytem that I've ever seen from one species

[@WILD__THINGS]

I love the idea of cougars in Australia!

[@CheatsythePimp2]

One thing that could be interesting would be a type of vulture, given how Australia had a vulture back then, known as Cryptogyps lacertosus. After a lot of assessing, I thought the best vulture to go for would be the White-Rumped Vulture. It is the smallest of the Gyps vultures, which (As of current research) are the closest related to Cryptogyps; it is solely a scavenger, which should make its impact on the ecosystem lean towards a more positive one than negative; and it could help with increasing their population in a safer area along with chasing off invasive foxes, feral cats, and denying food sources for feral pigs. The Slender-Billed Vulture has too few individuals to risk this method of rewilding The Pondicherry Vulture is more solitary, which may make it harder to deal with competition. The Indian Vulture needs presumably higher cliffs to nest in, but may work as an alternative. The White-Headed Vulture would be the most likely to compete with native birds of prey in Australia, but it did have populations in Flores that could lead to a separate rewilding project. Maybe a flamingo of sorts, because IIRC, there used to be flamingos in Australia? Also, this one is bonkers and extremely unlikely, but I did play with the thought of having Cuban crocodiles in Australia to replicate Quinkana, as Cuban Crocodiles could hunt in packs and are more land-oriented than most other crocodiles.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@CheatsythePimp2 Interesting suggestions! I must research the history of vultures and flamingoes in Australia

[@CheatsythePimp2]

@@Eco-NerdLMK what you find.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@CheatsythePimp2 So, Australia did have a vulture (only one ever) it died out around the same time as a lot of the megafauna, which makes sense as there were no large carcasses for them to feed on. They were called Cryptogyps lacertosus. There were a few flamingo species but they died out much earlier, the last of them dying out around 140,000 years ago long before humans arrived. They had a flamingo larger than any alive today but that died out around 20 million years ago 😊

[@CheatsythePimp2]

@@Eco-Nerd would this affect anything in what you have proposed?

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@CheatsythePimp2 Ahm I definitely think it would be cool to see a vulture introduction, especially seeing as Australia now has a lot of large animals again. They do actually have a lot of native scavengers though so I don't think it's an important missing factor but it would be cool all the same. For the flamingoes I think the extinction is too long ago and wouldn't have been caused by humans in any way. I'm also sure the habitat is there for them but i could be wrong. What do you think??

[@pm1136]

I would love that in those protected areas, forms of giant marsupials emerges a second time. Filling all those emptied ecological niches. Just like nothing ever happened to this fascinating endemic fauna. Marsupials must survive! And it hurt me a lot to see all this past biodiversity gone

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@pm1136 Yeah that would be absolutely amazing but I don't think it will happen in our life times sadly 😔

[@Dazzalingfossil6040]

Fun fact: Many people in Australia, including some aboriginal people now want all the introduced species to stay in Australia and they're reason is because they welcome all creatures both native and foreign and also many introduced species in Australia have been around for so long that many people have just gotten used to them so now they accepted them all as part of their culture and wildlife and therefore believe all creatures have the right to stay ( yes including the feral cats, foxes and cane toads. ) and honestly this is a very mature way of thinking because If the dingo has been on the continent long enough to be it's own species than eventually it will happen with all the other introduced species plus evolution does not go backwards which means no matter how hard why try we can never change ecosystems 100 percent back to what they looked like before humans changed it. Evolution and change does not go backwards, it just keeps going so all we can do is adapt to the new and cope with the introduced species and keep the native species around long enough to adapt to the introduced species. Besides as long as there are dingoes, feral cats and foxes won't be a problem. On a side note: In some places in Australia feral cats are starting to grow bigger to almost bobcat size animals so wouldn't feral cats be a suitable proxy for thylacolio?

[@WILD__THINGS]

Hey thank you for sharing this, that's quite interesting.

[@noneed4sleep64]

I cannot name a single Aussie who thinks this way, minus the most ignorant of politicians. The ferals are wiping out our native species, they aren’t coexisting, they have to go.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@Dazzalingfossil6040 Yep, I saw a video discussing what you just said when I was researching my last video. I think it was called 'Feminine Ferals'. It's definitely an interesting take and i understand the sentiment. Personally I don't think keeping feral cats, foxes and cane toads has any benefit but I do believe in compassion and any attempt at reducing numbers needs to be done as humanely as possible. Feral cats are responsible for 27 extinctions in Australia already, that's 27 animals the world will never see again and there are another 124 that are directly threatened with extinction with feral cats being the main reason. Of course the ecosytem would eventually adapt to the cats but not before 150 or so animals were wiped off the face of the earth never to be seen again sadly

[@Dazzalingfossil6040]

@@noneed4sleep64 In many parts of the world feral cats have already been accepted as part of the native wildlife. They've been accepted in Madagascar and Puerto Rico so the fact that many Australians have accepted them means that in the near future people might start calling them "Australian wild cats" or "shrub cougars" or something and even tho the cats did play a part in the extinction of many animals in Australia don't forget that many native animals were already in decline because of climate change before cats arrived on the continent so it's not all their fault. There's even a place in Australia called Kachana station where scientists are advocating for ALL introduced species to stay by studying both the negative and positive impacts of having them all around. I watched a documentary about it and in that video they said so themselves that many aboriginals in the area have accepted all the introduced species as part of the native wildlife just like the dingo so they're not just gonna let the cats and other ferals get wiped out you know ( Not without a fight anyway. ) so they're not going anywhere anytime soon.

[@noneed4sleep64]

@@Dazzalingfossil6040 If Madagascans and Puerto Ricans want to destroy their ecosystems that’s on them, I don’t see why we should follow suit. So what if native species were in decline? The cats still finished them off. They could have bounced back with human help, but now we’ll never know. I guarantee you they’re not advocating ALL invasive species, Kachana is in the Kimberley, which got RAVAGED by cane toads when they arrived there. I don’t see what aboriginals have to do with this, they’re people, they’re just as capable of being idiots as the rest of us.

[@bardroyal7893]

This is a cool video. You're like David Attenborough junior. Keep up the great work

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@bardroyal7893 Haha thank you!