In the wake of Australia’s deadly bush fires, Aussie businessman Greg Twemlow is concerned. Not about lost homes. Not about the impact on business or tourism. His concern is greater.
Can Australia’s unique native animals species like koalas, wombats, fruit bats, emu and kangaroos recover or is extinction in their cards?
Meanwhile, invasive feral species like camels and brumbies will continue to thrive. Their strength, ability outrun fires, fast-growing populations, and voracious appetites will inhibit the ability on Australia’s beloved native species to rebound.
Says Twemlow, “More than one billion animals have perished so far as a result of the fires. However, it hasn’t been the feral animals like brumbies (horses) and camels that can run from the fires. It’s more the smaller native animals that tend to try and scurry to safety. They have truly suffered. After the fires it’ll be so important to try and ensure the balance between native and feral animals is restored.”
Several years ago, Twemlow met New Mexico entrepreneur Roch Hart whose company, Wildlife Protection Management (WPM),has a humane, high-tech solution for managing feral animal populations like horses, hogs and camels. Twemlow believes Roch’s technology could help Australia’s wildlife to recover through proper, proactive management.
“The WPM solution is the first I have seen that is based on humane methods that have the potential to get the feral animal population down to a manageable level and to keep it there. We can’t allow feral animal populations to grow to the extent they have because our native environments will literally be destroyed, and when that happens the feral animals will die slow and painful deaths and the environment will have been totally degraded,” he says.
Wildlife Protection Management could play a role in Australia in managing feral populations like camels and brumbies (horses) that are not native to the country and whose numbers are already unsustainable in numbers. So large, in fact, the animals were already suffering in the country’s ongoing drought. With the WPM system, the brumby and camel populations would be reduced through the systematic delivery of contraceptives and RFID microchips which would give each animal an ID number and the ability to track health, fertility status, location and more.
We need practical solutions. Here is one that is already working in New Mexico. Read the full article here>