Page 15 - 2008 NZ Subantarctic Islands

pretty stupid, these Aussie emigres are the intellectual equal of

dogs. Thus they are the most difficult of the exotics to control
and/or exterminate.

A little more information on the Aussie brushtails will make it

clear why they are impossible to eradicate completely. They are
nocturnal and arboreal and therefore very difficult to find. They
sleep in tree cavities thus depriving native birds of their usual

nesting places. Though they are herbivores in Australia, they have
developed a taste for meat in New Zealand so nest robbing for

eggs and chicks is now a normal behavior for them. But even if
they were not predating birds, they would still be quite

destructive as herbivores because the native New Zealand plants
did not evolve strategies to avoid or survive mammalian “diners.”

Birds, reptiles, and insects in New Zealand often do feed on native
plants, but these plants are adapted to the methods of
consumption practiced by native creatures. As if devastation of

the natural environment were not enough to indict these
transplants, they are also vectors of bovine tuberculosis. So not

only do conservationists and ecologists rue the presence of these
unwelcome immigrants, the dairy farmers are also very sorry they

were ever brought over to New Zealand from their own native
home.

Actually, DOC has many exotics to deal with, thanks to the
wholesale importing of mammals that the European settlers
accomplished in very short order. A list of animals DOC is

currently dealing with include the following: Argentine ants, deer,
feral goats, various fish species, feral horses, wallabies, possums,

rainbow lorikeets, rats, stoats, ferrets and weasels, tahr and
wasps! Of course, the list of exotics is incomplete because we

have not even mentioned all the non-native plant types which are
out-competing New Zealand’s own species. Needless to add, DOC

has a huge and never-ending mission.
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