Re: K-T Theories

[Bruce Wielinga <wielinga@kelvin.physics.uq.oz.au>]

On Tue, 31 Jan 1995, Dennis Burke wrote:

> Stan Friesen <swf@ElSegundoCA.ATTGIS.COM> writes:
> > 
> > As far as hunting and such like goes - it turns out to be far less
........
> > natural habitat.
> > 
> I watched a PBS special a few months ago in which they showed footage
> of the old rabbit hunts and the attempts to build a fence all the way
> across the continent (north to south) to stop the spread of the rabbits.
> In this documentary, they claimed that the rabbits were introduced by
> hunting clubs for sport.
> 
> They also discussed the introduction of a particular cactus which is
> still out of control in Australia.  I believe it was the pear cactus.
> And, they showed periodic population explosions of some sort of rodent.
> All of these were fascinating.

The prickly pear. Apparently it was brought under control by the 
introduction of a insect parasite. This encouraged people so much that 
they decided to introduce the cane toad to eat a surgar cane pest. This 
toad is now out of control.

 > Dennis Burke > 

Bruce Wielinga
wielinga@physics.uq.oz.au