Feral Dogs

[MSR]

While the damage done by feral / wild dogs to domestic stock is well documented, they also have significant impact on native wildlife.

My shooting mate was night stalking for pigs and other ferals with permission on a property in the Brisbane Valley when he spotted a couple of dogs heading toward the water. He lost sight of them but then heard what sounded like dogs fighting. He made his way toward it and when he got a thermal image of a dog on the waters edge from about 150m he nailed it with the 308. The other dog bolted. He went to where the dog had dropped and found what it had been fighting - a koala. It was dead, but had given the dogs a good account of itself before it died. Bastard mongrel Feral vermin.

[several]

Bastards, give em hell.

[magoo]

Poor bugger got caught out of the trees.

You don't seem to hear much about the damage they do to natives, I don't anyway.

[several]

Cattle will stomp the poor little bastards to death also .

[MSR]

True? Did not know that. Domestic dogs and motor cars clean up plenty in the SE corner. But there are prob lots more out in the bush of Southern Qld than is generally believed, based just on my own observations.

[magoo]

Numbers must be good if you can judge it by roadkill like rabbits, but it is prob just one of the ideal habitat pockets up there.
Could be why they are susceptible to problems and may get wiped out, fighting that disease, fires, development and weather change.

My mate up on the Nth coast told me there is a Koala friendly town, prob set up by some of the Byron Bay nuts that moved out of Byron.
They had big gaps under their yard fences so as not to inhibit their movements and may have banned dogs and made bear safety crossings.
Not too sure as it was a long time ago and don't know what became of it.

[17Hornet]

Magoo, on the South Eastern freeway here in SA, they have koala 'climbing fences' so that the buggers don't get trapped on the road by the concrete separator wall.
They walk along until they hit the fence which is just some mesh they can climb on and go over the top to cross the roads.
We see more in the suburbs than anywhere else, to be true.

I have been ask to be a koala rescue volunteer.... next year maybe.
The subject came up when I spoke to them and said I was also a shooter, some discussion about euthanasia followed from the 'organisation'.
Bush fires are hell on the buggers, and they are often put down apparently , sucks I reckon.

[magoo]

Yeah, it's pretty sad to think they could go into extinction, then you learn that even the cows stomp them.

I think they made some weird overpass climb tunnel things on our NSW northern freeways many years ago, never really heard if they worked or even if they were aimed at the Koalas. With the greenies and current crop of politicians, they may have been for possums.

Don't know if it is true or just in the hot crowning fires but a bloke told me they literally explode like the gums.

[NoFerals]

@ Magoo yeah I remember seeing those koala crossing tunnels years ago down from Sydney down the Hume .
Dunno how well they worked if the animals would go into a tunnel or not They were just like a water culvert thingy.
Lots of Koala crossing signs too .

No !!!! the hawks nest bridge is not just a BIG one these were only a meter or so round I wasn't imagining things< to many uppers > I only went on the Hume to escape Sydney and avoid Mel-burn when I had no choice turned off at Bowning most times or went home via the mountains .....quieter way out west......

[magoo]

Yeah, that was them Ferals, but going North is where I remember seeing them.
They prob removed them quietly when nothing used them.

Yeah, they are big on signs. I got done by this speed, red light camera trap, they set up for newbies to the road.
I went back to count the limit changes and signs in the short section to send them a filthy letter.
There were only about 3 or 4 speed limit changes but I had to walk and if parking signs were included, there were several hundred in about 3 blocks.

Then they quickly installed the proper flashing lights so you could see when the busy 6 lane hwy turned into a school zone among all the other crap going on in the short stretch coming out of Parramatta to the West.

What about that reflective paint they are using on the country roadsigns.
I just run a double row light bar and it's like a nightmare when I first turn it on with the flashback effect in the twisties.