by

Dave Kington
Visitor Management Officer
Brisbane Forest Park

In dealing with people’s problems with wildlife, I have come to the conclusion that very frequently the issue is a ‘people’ problem rather than a wildlife problem.

In most cases the wildlife have in fact adapted to changes brought about by people, who are then not happy with these adaptations.     Often the question is asked is “who is responsible for this problem?” “It must be the council or the government”.

Examples of this are numerous and ongoing e.g. “I have a carpet snake problem; a carpet snake is eating all the native birds!” How so? “Just near the birdfeeder, a snake lies in the guttering and as the birds land to feed, the snake grabs them!    Can you do something about the snake?”

“You know, you don’t see any little birds anymore.    When we were the only house here the garden was full of wrens, finches and even whip birds.    All you see now are kookaburras, butcher birds, magpies and currawongs.”

“We used to have and antechinus problem, but we got rid of them.    Now we have a mouse problem.”

“I have brought this baby scrub turkey up to be released into the Park.”   To which my response would be “you should really take it home again, the turkey belongs in your neighbourhood.    It was born there and knows the area.”    “The problem is if I take it home a cat will eat it.    The cat has been eating the baby turkeys as they emerge from the mound.”    When asked whether the cat could be locked up or removed a standard response is “no, it’s my pet cat.”

And on it goes, where do we as people, fit into the system?    Surely if we are even half as green as we are willing to promote ourselves, we should start to practice what we preach and be prepared to be responsible for our actions and impacts.

Because the balance of nature is so sensitive, we must realise every change we make to the environment (including our backyards) no matter how big or small, has some impact on wildlife.    These impacts can be positive or negative and can benefit one species but at the same time disadvantage another.    The next few editions of Kington Korner will discuss some of these impacts in detail, and what positive steps we can take on those issues…. So stay tuned.

This article was printed with kind permission from Brisbane Forest Park and the authors.    This article first appeared in the Spring 2001 edition of their quarterly newspaper the “Bush Telegraph”.

Brisbane Forest Park is found at 60 Mt. Nebo Road, The Gap, Queensland and can be contacted on (07) 3300 4855