September the 4th in the year 2k+8

[Caravan Ray]

I find it weird and maybe a little jingoistic that nearly all the Australian produce I see in the US has a big kangaroo on the sticker. As if you employed them as farmhands or something. It makes no sense.

Does all the US produce have a deer on it or something?

Also: Do Australians find deer and bighorn sheep to be as weird as I find kangaroos and koalas? Are NZ and AUS fauna distinctly mutually weird enough that you blokes only have to take a short boat ride to marvel at wildlife? How about bears? There aren't bears there, right? Your predecessors got rid of all those big carnivorous kangaroos, but the people that settled this continent left bears all over. I don't even go in the woods at night here.

Any US produce usually has big US flags printed all over it. I think you'll find most of that stuff is added at (or for) the destination, not the origin.

Deer are not weird - they are feral pests. And sheep in many cases (especially in NZ) are life-partner choices. (always be careful when using the term "big horn" in relation to sheep)

No - there are no bears in Australia. The only native placental mammals are bats. And maybe dogs, rats and humans - though is is debatable if the latter three are "native", but they were "introduced" almost 100,000 years ago.

And yes, the ecological equivalent of alpha predators such as bears would have been thylacoleo - the "marsupial lion", or "carniverous kangaroo" if you like. I don't think they were directly "gotten rid of by my predecessors" - they more fell victim to rapid ecosystem change due to the changing fire regime in the country, both from human burning and natural climate change. Smaller carnivores like thylacines lost out in competition with dogs - to be finally wiped out by Europeans in the 19thC. All that are left now are the increasingly rare cat-like carnivores such as quolls and Tasmanian devils. Australia's main alpha predators now (apart from humans) are salt-water crocodiles, wedge-tailed eagles and feral animals like dogs, cats and pigs.

And no, NZ and AUS fauna are not distinctly mutually weird enough that us blokes only have to take a short boat ride to marvel at wildlife. I must admit - I am finding NZ quite disappointing on that front. Firstly - NZ has virtually no native fauna. No native mammals at all. And of the interesting birds that still remain, such as kiwi and kakapo etc. they are extremely rare and never encountered casually. NZ ecosystems have become far more "Europeanised" than Australia. There are feral birds and animals and weeds everywhere. Looking out my window now here deep in rural NZ I see an oak tree and apple tree with blackbirds, sparrows, pigeons, starlings and Indian myna birds flying around. Not particularly inspiring.

And they have a big feral animal problem here. Far more introduced carnivores than we have in Aus. What native birds they have left are being quickly wiped out by these weird little things like weasels, stoats and ferrets. And Australian brush-tail possums are killing what's left of their native forests.

Admittedly - I haven't had much chance to travel here yet. And where I am is very disturbed as it is all farmland. I am looking forward to seeing some of the kauri forests in the north. And I do know from going there years ago, that the southern beech forests in the south-west of the South Island are very spectacular. Living remnants of the old Gondwanaland

[fluffy]

I like monotremes.

[Caravan Ray]

Yes. One hole is all anybody needs

[Paco Del Stinko]

Doesn't a koala bear count? Hey...they could sleep at you or something! And yeah, I've always called Chinese Gooseberries kiwis, but will now have to call them Chinese Gooseberries.

[fluffy]

Koalas are marsupials, and not actually bears.

[Billy's Little Trip]

[quote="Paco Del Stinko"Chinese Gooseberries.[/quote]
Oh no you di int. goose berry, goose berry, rah rah rah

[Caravan Ray]

Koalas are marsupials, and not actually bears.

Thank you Steve Irwin.

[Caravan Ray]

Doesn't a koala bear count? Hey...they could sleep at you or something! And yeah, I've always called Chinese Gooseberries kiwis, but will now have to call them Chinese Gooseberries.

I'm looking forward to visiting my local green-groceress to ask her if her Hairy Bush fruit is ripe.

[Billy's Little Trip]

Koalas are marsupials, and not actually bears.

Thank you Steve Irwin.

The Crocodile Fluffer.

[Lord of Oats]

I didn't realize you had deer running around destroying everything.

Did we get anything in the trade? Maybe some of your marsupials would act really pesty if we introduced them here.

I suppose I'm quite ignorant on matters of Australian fauna (the reason I asked in the first place), but I'm quite certain you don't have bighorn sheep there, nor dall sheep nor our other wonderful species thereof.

Domesticated sheep are likely descended from the mouflon, which for whatever reasons, seems to be the only species that possessed all the necessary attributes for domestication.

Anyway, I guess you have everything there and nothing is weird to you except bears. Just know that your animals are quite weird to some of us here. And that I've been working very long days and not sleeping much, and by the time I get over here to the animal forum, I am just about out of steam. And you have way too many marsupials.

I like goats.

[Lord of Oats]

Oh and

I mean, you said deer are feral pests, since they're from elsewhere, but in the US, deer are just native pests. They eat all your fucking vegetables and crap.

But they are delicious and rich in protein and essential fatty acids.

Aren't roos pesty? Do you see what I was getting at there at all?

We have a lot of feral pigs around here.

I have realized that the main point is that the best thing about all the animals running around in the forest is that they are all made of meat.

[Caravan Ray]

Did we get anything in the trade? Maybe some of your marsupials would act really pesty if we introduced them here.

Don't you live in Florida?

Take a trip to The Everglades. You won't see a marsupial, but the wonderful Melaleuca quinquenervia - aka Paperbark Tree. An escaped Australian native on the rampage.


In Florida, however, melaleuca is a pest, especially in the Everglades and surrounding areas, where the trees grow into immense forests, virtually eliminating all other vegetation. Melaleuca grows in terrestrial as well as in completely aquatic situations. The Everglades, the mostly treeless "river of grass", in some places has become the "river of trees", a completely alien habitat to the plants and animals that have evolved to live in the glades. During the 50 years since its introduction into the state, melaleuca has taken over hundreds of thousands of acres of Everglades, threatening the very existence of this internationally known eco-treasure.
http://aquat1.ifas.ufl.edu/node/264


And there are apparently some feral wallabies in Hawaii

Aren't roos pesty

Yes - sort of. Their populations boomed when Europeans came along and started clearing bushland to make pasture for sheep and cattle. Suddenly there was all this grassland that wasn't there before - and the roos loved it. Add to that - they have evolved in an El Nina climate - female roos, if pregnant during drought can actually stop gestation for a year or so until the rain returns - it means that in good yeras with lots of pasture - roo populations can explode.

When that happens they have to be culled. And yes - they are quite delicious. Hippy greenies get upset because we are the only nation that eats the animal on our coat of arms. I'd like to eat a hippy greenie.

[Billy's Little Trip]

Take a trip to The Everglades. You won't see a marsupial, but the wonderful Melaleuca quinquenervia - aka Paperbark Tree. An escaped Australian native on the rampage.

We have those trees around here. If you take a leaf and tear it in half, it smells like bubble gum.