The Bowerbird, the Cat, the Antechinus and the Peas
Dennis has recently made some contributions to the Country Viewpoint segment of ABC Radio National's Bush Telegraph... this is broadcast just before the midday news on RN.
Here are recent items:
2 September 2005 - the Tomerong Markets and School of Arts
21 September 2005 - regarding WWOOFing
Here, below the picture, is an item recorded on 5 October, for use soon.
[broadcast text begins]
It’s been a pleasure to have the close company of a bowerbird this spring.
Early last week we took visitors to a window from which they saw the bower bird dance while a female inspected his bower and his blue treasures.
...Not any more. Sunday we again had visitors but we had nothing to show them. No shining male satin bower bird making constant passes across the garden. No bower - dusky young birds have taken it down; the blue pegs and other gems are stolen.
We think a cat has got him. We have seen the cat, he's large and he’s feral, with a big head and a thick neck.
...Hearing this story, our visitors, who are moving in nearby and who have cats, said: "We'll have to think about the cat question."
==
What is the niche of the cat out here?
The cat, my observant spouse notes, has clearly also dealt with the creature who has been eating the garden peas. The evidence in the garden is interesting — pea pods carried to a feasting spot; peas nibbled out and the shells left, like crusts in a school yard – an animal that fiddles with its food! Not a bush rat, but perhaps an Antechinus... perhaps indeed the vulnerable Yellow-Footed Antechinus, Antechinus flavipes - a handsome small marsupial.
Eating the Antechinus, the cat has, I suppose, done us, if not nature, a small service. But cats need to eat 300 grams a day and one bower bird plus one antechinus scarcely adds up to a hundred.
We are still trying to catch that cat in our cat trap. Meanwhile – birdsong in the garden is much reduced while peas grow unmolested.
===
From the internet I learn that Australia's feral cat population may be 12 million. The cat is out of the bag, indeed.
However, there is an irony in being upset about the cat taking the bowerbird. We net all our food producing gardens — otherwise they would be devastated by bowerbirds.
===
My story points up the dilemma and debate about which species we should love, which to protect, which to cull.
Advocacy for the rights of any one species must be in a broad ecological perspective.
[end of recorded text]
There is some good news in the days since recording this. A young bowerbird (who has the Shantung silk look of the female) has begun retrieving the blue objects and made great progress in reconstructing the bower.
However, the cat is still at large and a serious threat to the bower, especially located as it is next to the underhouse.
... Julian, with his professional criminal lawyer's concern for the cat, wrote:
Dennis--I think your prosecution of the cat is at best (may I say)
circumstantially flaccid. Every suspect deserves a fair trial and it
sounds like a "Star Chamber" down there at Bundor...I hope I avoid the
prosecutorial glare of Justices Argall & Pettigrew...
However I do support the summary execution of some species--commencing
with every mosquito and fly in and around the Darwin precinct...
I am perambulating...
=== I replied (and this has been edited to slightly obscure identities... :-)
Julian
You worry about our prosecution!! :-)
Litigitation is a minor side show down here in acxtion land...
Consider this:
At 3xxx Hxxx Rd, Tomerong, Axxxx, 70+ years apporx, having died in
hospital last year twice, having resumed house rebuilding, tree felling
and chain smoking, having failed with the borrowed cat trap in his yard
(using a deceased goldfish... we spent an interesting few minutes the
other day watching a possible replacement goldfish which was listing 20
degrees) fashioned a spear and in our absence the other dusk went
sprinting into our front yard at blood curdling sound of bird or possum
at point of feline ingestion. (Umm, can you, counsel, advise us on
likely cover of our insurance in event of senior citizen on premises
without notice for purposes of felicide falling on his own spear?)
At 3xxx Hxxx Rd, gentleRxxx, husband of the postmistress ...
notorious for stopping on the highway to
remove
fallen kangaroos from the carriageway,
is
[quote] bloody sick of it
staring at the chooks [unquote]
[quote] I've seen the chooks give it a biff
[unquote]
[quote] I've seen it going over your fence unquote quote if I had
a gun I'd shoot it [unquote].
Alas, the next recorded item may need to be called,
a la Edward Gorey: "The Unsprung Trap"
... though, dear Julian, our greatest preference is for a trial
with the cat present and able to plead.