Issue link: http://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/131994
Illustration: w ww.jimrogers .co.uk insider Wild (mon)goose chase We were sitting around the other night talking about animal sex.* We noted that male southern hairynosed wombats have a 68 per cent chance of leg-over in a typical courtship pattern, and that female spiny stick insects can reproduce asexually, and we discussed why female ferrets have to be mated annually or they die. And then someone asked, "Why are there no mongooses in Australia?" Asia and Africa have healthy populations of the ferretlike carnivores. Australia, with a similar climate, similar habitat and loads of ground-dwelling prey, has them only in zoos. How come? Turns out it's all due to an early case of industrial sabotage. There's also the chick-magnet horsedrawn buggy factor … but more of that later. Two academics, David Peacock (from South Australia) and Ian Abbott (Western Australia), studied nearly 200 records of the mongoose in Australia. They discovered the first imports came in 1855 and others swiftly followed as new colonists grappled with rabbits, mice, rats and snakes. They also fancied mongoose-versus-snake fights as sideshow entertainment. And while the imports might pose a threat in the chook yard, they could become interesting quarry at a later date, it was suggested. Parliamentarians argued – during the third reading of the Rabbit Nuisance Bill in 1883 – that mongooses were heartless bloodsuckers. Being politicians, they should know. Regardless of the persiflage, at least 1,000 mongooses were released at 14 locations; this provided a habitat, gene pool and feed base that should have assured survival of the species. So, why no mongooses today? The pair of researchers scoured newspapers, Hansard reports and the Government Gazette of various states. They conducted a climate-match analysis and genetic modelling. In the end they reported: "The only reason stated for the failure of the mongoose releases to control rabbits is destruction of the mongoose by rabbit trappers, both inadvertently and in seeking to protect their employment." In 1884, The Argus noted that across New South Wales, 1,000 men were employed in rabbit destruction at 25 shillings per week. And in 1890, The Sydney Morning Herald clucked that the income earned from rabbiting "allowed men who had never previously owned more than a … shearing cheque to lord it in country hotels with orders worth hundreds of pounds, to invest in dogcarts [horsedrawn buggies] of eccentric colour but expensive make". After that, things went downhill fast. The last recorded importation of a mongoose into Australia was in 1942 with returning servicemen. The animal was seized at the port – and destroyed – for fear it might be carrying rabies. *Animal as in a noun, not an adjective, but thank you for asking. A journalist, novelist and public speaker, Sue Webster is part of the third generation of a dairying family and the director of a company that specialises in agricultural and financial writing. 87