Friday, Jan 01, 2010 at 19:33
I heard a comment once that there were more Sugar Gliders in North America than Australia. The reason is there is a market for them & it is legal. In N America they are called Pygmey Possums. In Australia we are not allowed to keep them & they are endangered. If we were allowed to keep them like the N Americans the accidental releases would probably restock wild populations.
Another classic is the Golden Shouldered Parrot. They breed quite freely in captivity & are down to a few hundred in the wild. The EPA takes as many steps as it can to prevent captive breeding. Bird breeders in NQ have offered to do captive breeding programs for restocking in the past & been denied. They come into one of the highest cattegories for licensing. You can't even be licensed to keep them in the old
Mareeba &
Cook shires.
Take a look at the humble budgerigar. The most kept bird in the world.
There are, only god knows how many, more Gouldian Finches in captivity than in the wild. There is a captive breeding program going on in
Mareeba.
What about the Kangaroo. You can eat them, feed them to your pets, cull them, wear them on your feet & even export them as prime beef. But take a joey
home for the kids & the Urban Yuppies who know SFA will scream blue murder.
How about the Northern Quoll, aka Native Cat. We had one when I was a kid untill he got let go. They would make a wonderfull pet & would displace cats for sure. They are endangered.
Probably make better environmental sense if all non native species required a special permit & we had natives for household pets.
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