ConservationBytes.com

A few years ago (ok, 6 years), ABC‘s Catalyst did a piece on our banteng research programme in Garig Gunak Barlu National Park in the Northern Territory. The show basically talks about the conservation and management conundrum of having a successful feral species in Australia that is also highly endangered in its native range (South East Asia). Do we shoot them all, or legislate them as an endangered species? It’s for Australians to decide.

I finally got around to uploading it on Youtube. I hope I haven’t contravened some copyright law, but I figure after such a lag, no one will care. I await the imminent contradiction from the ABC’s lawyers…

I hope you enjoy.

For the scientific papers arising from the work, see:

• Bowman, DMJS, BP Murphy, CR McMahon. 2010. Using carbon isotope analysis of the diet of two introduced Australian megaherbivores to understand Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions. Journal of Biogeography 37: 499-505
• Bradshaw, CJA, Y Isagi, S Kaneko, BW Brook, DMJS Bowman, R Frankham. 2007. Low genetic diversity in the bottlenecked population of endangered non-native banteng in northern Australia. Molecular Ecology 16: 2998-3008
• Bradshaw, CJA, BW Brook. 2007. Ecological-economic models of sustainable harvest for an endangered but exotic megaherbivore in northern Australia. Natural Resource Modeling 20: 129-156
• Bradshaw, CJA, Y Isagi, S Kaneko, DMJS Bowman, BW Brook. 2006. Conservation value of non-native banteng in northern Australia. Conservation Biology 20: 1306-1311
• Brook, BW, DMJS Bowman, CJA Bradshaw, BM Campbell, PJ Whitehead. 2006. Managing an endangered Asian bovid in an Australian national park: the role and limitations of ecological-economic models in decision-making. Environmental Management 38: 463-469
• Bradshaw, CJA, WH White. 2006. Rapid development of cleaning behaviour by Torresian crows Corvus orru on non-native banteng Bos javanicus in northern Australia. Journal of Avian Biology 37: 409-411
• Bradshaw, CJA, LW Traill, KL Wertz, WH White, IM Gurry. 2005. Chemical immobilisation of wild banteng (Bos javanicus) in northern Australia using detomidine, tiletamine and zolazepam. Australian Veterinary Journal 83: 616-617

CJA Bradshaw

P.S. Thanks to host Paul Willis (@Fossilcrox) for putting together such a great little exposé of our research.