Taking the piss out of dingoes

…and spraying it over Tasmania’s new growth forests.

Now this is an interesting “weird” science story. Dingo urine has been chosen as an innovative natural marsupial repellant.

But what sort of threat do kangaroos pose to lumberjacks and pulp mills exactly? Why is cyanide being used to kill native fauna in the first place?

Okay, I’ll admit I think I know the answer. The removal of natural apex predators like the Tasmanian Tiger, Tasmanian devil and quoll species has damaged the ecosystems – causing herbivorous marsupials to occasional bloom into plague-like proportions. Still, I think research could be better spent trying to restore the ecosystem imbalance by reintroducing native Dasyurid (Tasmanian devils, quolls and some further 90 species of predatory marsupial rat-like ferrety things) species.