https://archive.md/VZEPi
"It was a fine place for a spot of sport. For 200 years, uninhabited Phillip
Island was overrun by pigs, goats and rabbits introduced by British officers
overseeing the penal settlement at Norfolk Island, seven kilometres of rough
seas away.
Known as the Uluru of the Pacific for its steep valleys and slopes of red rock
bare of anything but hip-breaking scree, its feral animal invaders had razed
everything on Phillip.
They destroyed the habitat of everything from tiny snails to a giant
bird-eating centipede unique to the island.
They ate the reptiles, including geckos and skinks. And they felled plants and
trees, robbing the island of places for seabirds like the Kermadec petrel to
roost or nest.
“There was not a scrap of vegetation left. All the topsoil washed away, there
was very little for the plants to cling on to,” says Mark Scott, a local guide
and citizen scientist who has been working to propagate some plants – such as
the island’s hibiscus – that were down to the last specimen.
“It is an amazing place, a myriad of colours, reds, oranges,” he says."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-tropical-diseases-womens-china-miyawaki-amazon/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
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