Australia has a problem, and this time it’s not the
poisonous spiders, venomous snakes, or sharks. Australia’s problem is its
grass. Giant African Gamba grass was introduced in the 1930s and has taken over
the outback and with Australian’s recent bush fire track rate, this is
worrying.
The solution? Elephants. David Bowman of the University of
Tasmania has recommended rewilding an elephant population in the outback. “I’m talking about
using elephants as a machine or ecological tool to manage [the] grass,” he told
the Guardian. Rewilding is a
conservation movement, which involves reintroducing species to areas in which
they became extinct at some point in recent history.
Clearly, there are risks as well with this solution.
Australia has a background with being overrun by invasive species and it would
be difficult to manage the elephants once released.
“If we did go down the road of
introducing elephants to Australia, we had better develop the technology to
clone saber-tooth tigers to eventually control the elephants,” [said Ricky
Spencer, senior lecturer with the Native and Pest Animal unit at the University
of Western Sydney.]
