20,000 koalas to be shot in Oz.

[Terry Penrod]

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Somehow this is just so sad. Probably necessary but still sad.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040430/sc_nm/australia_koalas_dc

P.S. Kalbrecht- Fire-up the fuzzy little bear cooker. We're eaten good tonight!

Cheers, Terry

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[Mara]

The koalas are so hungry they are eating pine needles,"

:(:

Tragically, it seems to be a real necessity.

[DejaFu]

I read that. That is horrible but I understand. I remember when the national park service killed like 400 deer on the gettysburg park because they were eating things. Now you don't see them any more. They did it for a few years, but there skilled marksman weren't hte greatest because i found a few dead ones

[Ravanor]

Necessary to reduce their population but not the right way.
The South Australian state government has rejected calls for a cull, preferring sterilization and relocation.
That's the right idea. They should capture them and release them on the mainland. You hardly ever see a koala anymore, they're all getting turned into roadkill.

[Kalbrecht]

Yeeehaw!

Get thar shotgun, Ma! We's halp'n th' eeecowlogy!

An fire'p thar BarrrrBeeeQQQQ! We's havin' us some bear tonite!

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Relocation is a good idea, but the problem is the cost. We're talking a mass relocation, and a suitable location would have to be found in which a mass relocation wouldn't suddenly disrupt the natural balance of the local ecosystem. Additionally, relocation has it's own massive disruption costs on the population being moved.

Furthermore, the actual human cost and material cost of moving the population is too high to be politically expedient at the moment. People are too obssessed with other problems at the moment that we haven't had the luxury to be worried overly about the ecology.

Sad though. More koalas on the mainland is always a good thing.

[DejaFu]

It'll be like the crodile hunter with guns hehe