Conservation and Conundrums: Bats and Rats (original) (raw)

2018, Nature and Environment in Australia

As so many of the world's extra-human habitats are lost to so-called "development", "productivity", and the pandemic pressures of human overpopulation, protection of wilderness areas, (for example in National Parks), and the animals and plants they have retained, is of primary importance. But even where conservation areas can be legislatively set aside from human encroachment, their ongoing protection and maintenance still raise numerous problems. Protecting species which cannot be confined within Park boundaries, or determining the most appropriate protection measures can be confined within Park boundaries, or determining the most appropriate protection measures can be contentious. While the attempt to maintain biodiversity is a worthy goal, what are the most appropriate strategies in an era of radical climate change? While ecosystem categories such as "aliens", "invasives", "natives", "endemics", may seem to offer philosophical and practical bases, evolution is itself a continuous process, rendering such categories both protean and often inappropriate. Moreover, the philosophies of ecosystem conservation and animal welfare are increasingly at odds, making proponents of extra-human preservation, antagonists, rather than the allies they might ideally be. The paper discusses two examples of such philosophical and practical entanglements: protecting native Australian East Coast bats (flying-foxes), and an experimental move to eradicate rats from Lord Howe Island by chemical carpet bombing.