by Rod_outbak » 21 Sep 2018, 10:36 am
I'm not condoning the blokes actions for a moment, but eagles CAN become a problem in certain circumstances.
A few points:
1). During the year, we might have a dozen mated pairs of Wedgies on our property; spread across some 256 square kilometers of country(CW QLD). For the most part, they seem to prey on roo joeys and other small animals, so of little concern to us, and part of the ecology. Regular occurrence to see a pair hassling a doe to get her to abandon the joey. Also seen a pair following a cat who was out for a morning walkies, and Puddin never realised that I was only the second-worst possible ending to his day... BIG thumbs-up to Wedgies for this sort of predation!
2). When we start lambing (July-Sep), we can suddenly have 50-60 eagles here for the duration of lambing. And they dont just take a handful of lambs. And they dont just take the weak or unattended lambs. And if each pair is only taking just one lamb every two days, that still adds up to a LOT of lost sheep!
I have seen a healthy lamb snatched from right beside it's mother. They are a very successful predator.
Thankfully, most years, the availability of other food means we have little concern for the eagles through lambing, but there have been some years when they have been a problem, and DAFF and other government agencies dont want to address the issue AT ALL.
VERY frustrating.
Stewardship of the land is about management, and NOT putting your head in the sand when it gets a bit tough.
3). I'd be freaking AMAZED if the bloke is using 1080 dog baits to nail Wedgies. The amount of 1080 in a properly prepared dog bait is too low to kill a Wedgie; even if Wedgie eats every bait he finds. The LD50 toxicity of 1080 on birds is 14mg/Kg of bodyweight, wheras a dog's LD50 toxicity is 0.08mg/Kg. When dog baits are prepared correctly, they should have roughly 2mg of 1080 on the outside of the 250gram meat bait. Now, a Wedgie would have to weigh in around ~8kg, so is going to need to eat around 100mg of 1080 to croak. That would require fully consuming around 50 meat baits(supposed to be around the size of a cigarette packet each), to get close to a lethal dose. Working on a dog bait being around ~250 grams, you would be looking at 12 kilograms of dog baits, and probably all consumed inside 24 hours, to be lethal.
Even for a seriously peckish Wedgie, that is a stretch.
Also, as properly prepared PIG baits are injected with ~6mg of 1080, it makes slightly more sense if the Wedgie is being nailed by pig 1080 baits. That way, he'd only need roughly 17 pig baits to nail him. Due to the injection, the poison is in a more concentrated spot in the bait, and so the eagle has a higher chance of consuming all of the poison in each bait.
Pig baits are usually slightly larger, but you'd still be looking at ~ 6-8kgs of baits consumed for it to be lethal for a Wedgie.
Still a stretch, and I'll still be amazed if he nailed the Wedgies in this fashion.
4). There are VASTLY more effective poisons to nail birds of prey. Many of them are commonly available from any farm chemical suppliers, and many dont require a permit or signature. Some of them will kill a Wedgie in a matter of seconds (as in; find the corpse 2 feet from the roo carcass that was baited).
My money is he was using one of these poisons.
Still awful.
Still wrong.
Still senseless.
5). I'm not saying I love 1080(Sodium Fluroacetate), but it is an extremely effective poison to use. Main incentive is that most native Australian animals have a much higher tolerance to it, compared to introduced species. That means that if applied properly, you have a much lower chance of nailing any natives when baiting. It's not perfect, but there isnt another poison that is as selective in Australia, at this point in time.
Being derived from native plant species, it also breaks down in water, which further reduces secondary poisoning likelihood.
I have heard experts say that the first thing that shuts down in a 1080-poisoned animal is the pain-reception area of the brain, so IF this is true, the howling that a dog makes when dying from it, mightnt be the animal feeling anything much at all. I cant verify this, and I'd be happy to not poison any animals, but then I'm also not a big fan of how some of the animals I've found ended their lives in a rubber-jawed trap, either.
The least traumatic solution for any animal I've seen, is a bullet through the head, while they are scratching themselves....
I've also spoken to a few vets who have successfully saved 1080-poisoned dogs. The trick is to hit them with Valium ASAP, and then they put them into a coma in a darkened quiet room for a couple of days, and the body will break the 1080 down. Not 100% effective, but the vet I spoke to said they had achieved somewhere around 80% success rate with saving poisoned dogs like this. I keep a shot of dog Valium in the coldroom for this purpose.
I've also seen 6-month lambs come into the sheepyards, with large festering dog bites, and in obvious pain from the infection. In most of these cases, the lamb needs euthanizing, to be kind to it. When a bitch is training a litter of pups, they can easily maul a few dozen sheep in a night, and while many will die that night, some will be found weeks later, and in pretty miserable shape. As much as I dont like the pain and suffering 1080 causes when animals are being poisoned by it, it doesnt come close to the pain and suffering those same animals cause to livestock.
My 2 cents.
Rod.
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Sharing the extreme love with cats in Outback QLD