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Deer in Australia
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Deer farming in NZ commeced illegally in the early 1960's and legally in 1969. Australia followed in the early 1980's.
Sources:
Australian Museum Complete Book of Australian Mammals 1983
Deer Refresher Course - Uni of Sydney Post Grad Foundation in
Vet Science 1984.
Source - "Australian Museum Complete Book of Australian Mammals" 1983
Regarded by some as a ferocious wild beast, the Water Buffalo or Swamp Buffalo is descended from placid domesticated stock introduced to Australia from Indonesia between 1825 and 1843. It became firmly established as a feral animal in the 'top end' of the Northern Territory where the annual rainfall is 1000-1500 mm. In Asian countries it has traditionally been a farm animal rather than a feral animal.
An export industry built up in the Northern Territory based mainly on the export of buffalo meat, using feral buffalo and later domesticated buffalo. As part of the national campaign to eradicate Brucellosis and Tuberculosis from cattle in Australia, all feral bufflao were destroyed in the Territory during the ninteen eighties.
Originally buffalo farming was confined to the Northern Territory, but in recent times herds have been established in southern Australia. At present herds are believed to exist in the Milton, Nowra, and Gerringong areas of the NSW south coast.
Of about 15 million One-humped Camels (Camelus dromedarius) in the world, only about 25,000 live in the wild, all of these in the Australian outback. These are descendants of animals introduced between 1840 and 1907. Initially a valuable beast of burden, the domesticated Camel reached a peak population of about 20,000 in Australia in the 1920's but, as motor vehicles became popular, the need for camels declined. Many unwanted animals were released and gave rise to populations of feral or wild camels.
The camel is well adapted to desert life, having a low metabolic rate and a slow turnover of water. It loses minimal amounts of water through sweat, faeces, and urine. Partitioning of the body water in favour of blood plasma and at the expense of other body tissues is the Camel's defence defence against dehydration; a dehydrated camel can drink 100 litres or more of water to restore its fluid balance, while still restricting output of urine. The fat in the hump of a well nourished camel provides a reserve food supply for about six months.
There is currently a small export trade of live One-humped Camels from Australia to the Muddle East, where they are in demand as racing Camels.
(Reference - D.M.R. Newman - in "The Australian Museum Complete Book of Australian Mammals" Angus & Robertson 1983.)
A recently published book "Camels - A Compendium" by G W
Manefield and A H Tinson (Post Grad Foundation, University of Sydney
1997) contains a wealth of information about camel husbandry and medicine.
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