Their results, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, showed that there were indeed more kangaroos and foxes inside the fence, where dingoes weren't hunting them down. With more of these mid-level predators around, though, there were fewer small mammals, such as the dusky-hopping mouse and a group of marsupials called dasyurids, which includes the Tasmanian Devil, the Numbat, and the quoll. Of 19 threatened native mammal species, the study identified 16 of them inside the fence that would be better off if dingoes were around. From the perspective of conservation, these findings suggest that dingoes might not be all bad, after all. "We make value judgments all the time about all sorts of things," Letnic said. "Really, our value judgments are usually based on hunches, ideas, and strongly held beliefs that are not always true. ... It's what the animal actually does and what niche it fills that we need to think about before we fiddle with the abundance of any species." In the western United States, wolves face a similar set of issues. Some people want to get rid of them. Others want to reintroduce them to places where they haven't lived in a long time. It's still not clear which plan is best. "Scientists are just now discovering how important these top terrestrial predators are," said Bill Ripple, an ecologist at Oregon State University, Corvallis. "These predators can be crucial for maintaining functional ecosystems." Related Links: |
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