General News
20 June, 2025
Rewilding
BARRY'S CORNER: Because so many species of our wildlife has gone into extinction there are always people who would like to breed some of these animals and birds on a bush block or where they live.
Generally there are restrictions to this proposal and permits can be hard to get.
Permits are needed to monitor the process with the future and health of the animal as a priority.
Any one with an interest in particular species must apply for a permit, sometimes for any one or two animals in mind.
All native animals, including reptiles and birds are protected
A case could be organised to hold animals in an enclosure and release the excess numbers into the wild when numbers grow too large.
Which brings me to the health consideration.
Not all cages or enclosures are suitable and can be expensive to build.
Unless the enclosure is constructed to exclude cats and other pests, birds of prey might take to the animals inside and have supplied lunch.
Both cages and enclosures can have trouble with conditions like now when it is so dry and unless there has been careful planning beforehand.
Hand feeding livestock gets wearing after many days.
Depends where the animal is sourced then thinking about releasing them a while later can create genetic problems with any similar species. It is a fraught discussion.
But consider the species.
These animals are not meant to be kept in a zoo type habitat and do not like to be molly coddled as a domestic animal.
Seeing the animals in their wild state and natural conditions is a delight to any one and should be cherished.
It is not always easy but preferable to come across uncared animals in poor health in cooped up confinements.
Some of the enclosures I mentioned last week contain substantial hectares of habitat where species can live a natural area to move and survive.
If a predator breaks through the fence extensive efforts can be made to get rid of it.
Once numbers exceed the carrying capacity of the reserve some could be captured and transferred to a more suitable space.
Along the way all the checks, tests and data could be collected and maintained to hold a valuable understanding for future growth.
Holding rare species is not as easy as it first appears and it can all come to grief.