Venomous Dragon
Archeon
The Varanid
The Ora, King of The Lizards.
Posts: 2,037
|
Post by Venomous Dragon on Feb 25, 2012 2:27:21 GMT -5
I think they should try to clone prehistoric Australian megafauna, but never introduce placentals. Cloning would be better but not as easy and could take many years. Out of the group Komodos make the most sense,They would prey on alot of introduced species, everything from rats to camels and foxes to dingos/feral dogs. The biggest problem I see with the dragon is future conflict with humans, other than that the animal seems talor made for this task. The only reason I see elephants and rhino as ok is the fact that they would not be hard to get rid of if everything turned sour. However Given the history of projects like these, I would say its not worth the risk.
|
|
Taurus
Invertebrate
Posts: 162
|
Post by Taurus on Feb 25, 2012 10:12:13 GMT -5
African snakes have lived along side buffaloes, giraffes, elephants, and rhinos for thousands of years, they probably know the areas where large mega fauna roam. Australian snakes wouldn't be able to adapt fast enough. ? Do you realized that there are HUGE populations of feral herbivores already existed? Bantangs, water buffaloes, scrub cattle, donkeys, horses, camels, goats, sheeps, red deer, feral hogs etc....The only one thing that Australian snakes have to be worry about is the cane toads.
|
|
Taurus
Invertebrate
Posts: 162
|
Post by Taurus on Feb 25, 2012 10:27:33 GMT -5
I think they should try to clone prehistoric Australian megafauna, but never introduce placentals. Cloning would be better but not as easy and could take many years. Out of the group Komodos make the most sense,They would prey on alot of introduced species, everything from rats to camels and foxes to dingos/feral dogs. The biggest problem I see with the dragon is future conflict with humans, other than that the animal seems talor made for this task. The only reason I see elephants and rhino as ok is the fact that they would not be hard to get rid of if everything turned sour. However Given the history of projects like these, I would say its not worth the risk. Introduce Komodo Dragons sounds like really waste of time, they will have little or no effect on populations of feral herbivores given the fact that environment is different and the prey animals of Komodo dragons were used to them. Water buffaloes and deer were grazing along the komodos on the island about few feet away from the komodos. I don't think that feral animals would be closer to the dragons. IMO elephants should be left out. If they want to introduce the elephants, they better use mature bulls along with few orphan bulls or a second opinion would be use elephants that come from orphanage (prefer females). Breeding herds should not be introduced since their social complex is too sensitive. Introduce rhinos to Australia sounds a good idea for firs time. Rhinos suffers poaching very badly and they reproduce slowly but since there are no predators that will challenge a mother rhino for the calves, there will be low death motality in calves. Rhino calves motality rates in Africa are pretty high, most of them were killed by lions and hyenas.
|
|
Venomous Dragon
Archeon
The Varanid
The Ora, King of The Lizards.
Posts: 2,037
|
Post by Venomous Dragon on Feb 25, 2012 14:05:17 GMT -5
Cloning would be better but not as easy and could take many years. Out of the group Komodos make the most sense,They would prey on alot of introduced species, everything from rats to camels and foxes to dingos/feral dogs. The biggest problem I see with the dragon is future conflict with humans, other than that the animal seems talor made for this task. The only reason I see elephants and rhino as ok is the fact that they would not be hard to get rid of if everything turned sour. However Given the history of projects like these, I would say its not worth the risk. Introduce Komodo Dragons sounds like really waste of time, they will have little or no effect on populations of feral herbivores given the fact that environment is different and the prey animals of Komodo dragons were used to them. Water buffaloes and deer were grazing along the komodos on the island about few feet away from the komodos. I don't think that feral animals would be closer to the dragons. IMO elephants should be left out. If they want to introduce the elephants, they better use mature bulls along with few orphan bulls or a second opinion would be use elephants that come from orphanage (prefer females). Breeding herds should not be introduced since their social complex is too sensitive. Introduce rhinos to Australia sounds a good idea for firs time. Rhinos suffers poaching very badly and they reproduce slowly but since there are no predators that will challenge a mother rhino for the calves, there will be low death motality in calves. Rhino calves motality rates in Africa are pretty high, most of them were killed by lions and hyenas. Sounds to me like you doubt the ability of the komodo as a hunter. I doubt you even know how they hunt. They hide in tall grass along game trails and then they wait, They ambush there prey, attacking the lower legs (If the animal is large, if its small they just pull it to the ground and and eat it). The animals on komodo are eaten by dragons if anything they would be more unsettled by ones presence, aussie animals would just relate them to lace monitors and perentie, which are harmless to many large animals, as the largest animal taken by either is the grey kangaroo and that is a rare prey item for the perentie.
|
|
Taurus
Invertebrate
Posts: 162
|
Post by Taurus on Feb 25, 2012 15:50:25 GMT -5
Actually I do know how the komodo dragons hunting the large prey but the prey on the island has used to them and are less wary as the wildlife documentaries has revealed. Honesty I can't picture of an island predator hunting a much wary prey in Outbacks and the large animals of Outbacks do not get used to the presence of dragons. I just think it's waste of time with dragons...they need put a much better predator such as endangered species of bigcats and canids (African wild dogs, Chinese/Amur leopards, Chinese tigers, Asiatic Lions etc...)
|
|
Venomous Dragon
Archeon
The Varanid
The Ora, King of The Lizards.
Posts: 2,037
|
Post by Venomous Dragon on Feb 25, 2012 16:00:40 GMT -5
Actually I do know how the komodo dragons hunting the large prey but the prey on the island has used to them and are less wary as the wildlife documentaries has revealed. Honesty I can't picture of an island predator hunting a much wary prey in Outbacks and the large animals of Outbacks do not get used to the presence of dragons. I just think it's waste of time with dragons...they need put a much better predator such as endangered species of bigcats and canids (African wild dogs, Chinese/Amur leopards, Chinese tigers, Asiatic Lions etc...) Whole point of it being Komodos is the fact that they fit megalania's niche almost perfectly and are the closest thing to nartual large predator australia would be able to get. Using a big cat or a canid defeats the purpose. A better predator? Explain what makes them better? Can take down larger prey? no thats not it, group hunting? no dragons do that too. So what is it?
|
|
Reticulatus
Ichthyoid
http://fantasyfaceoff.proboards.com
Posts: 709
|
Post by Reticulatus on Feb 25, 2012 16:01:52 GMT -5
Wonder if the dragon would loose its size if left in open country survive?
|
|
Venomous Dragon
Archeon
The Varanid
The Ora, King of The Lizards.
Posts: 2,037
|
Post by Venomous Dragon on Feb 25, 2012 16:07:26 GMT -5
Wonder if the dragon would loose its size if left in open country survive? Probably not. The dragon would still need its size to bring down the large game that its used to hunting.
|
|
Reticulatus
Ichthyoid
http://fantasyfaceoff.proboards.com
Posts: 709
|
Post by Reticulatus on Feb 25, 2012 16:15:59 GMT -5
yea but it would be missing its denser supply of ungulates provided by its island home and adapt to a smaller nitch. Just a theory.
|
|
Venomous Dragon
Archeon
The Varanid
The Ora, King of The Lizards.
Posts: 2,037
|
Post by Venomous Dragon on Feb 25, 2012 16:27:01 GMT -5
yea but it would be missing its denser supply of ungulates provided by its island home and adapt to a smaller nitch. Just a theory. Considering the fact that australia has problems with boar,goats and dogs which are all regular prey items and camels I dont think prey density would be a problem. On top of that feral and domestic cattle and other farm animals would be on the menu, the roo family would be added aswell as the reptiles of australia. I doubt Its niche would change as dragons already dominate The feral dogs on the island and feral dogs are the biggest threat to its possible crown in australia. I thnk Dragons are freaks amoung island predator in that they can hold there own and even dominate mainland predators.
|
|
Taurus
Invertebrate
Posts: 162
|
Post by Taurus on Feb 25, 2012 17:34:09 GMT -5
Actually I do know how the komodo dragons hunting the large prey but the prey on the island has used to them and are less wary as the wildlife documentaries has revealed. Honesty I can't picture of an island predator hunting a much wary prey in Outbacks and the large animals of Outbacks do not get used to the presence of dragons. I just think it's waste of time with dragons...they need put a much better predator such as endangered species of bigcats and canids (African wild dogs, Chinese/Amur leopards, Chinese tigers, Asiatic Lions etc...) Whole point of it being Komodos is the fact that they fit megalania's niche almost perfectly and are the closest thing to nartual large predator australia would be able to get. Using a big cat or a canid defeats the purpose. A better predator? Explain what makes them better? Can take down larger prey? no thats not it, group hunting? no dragons do that too. So what is it? Camels, cattle, hogs and equines are not naturally fit into Australia's niches so your point is flawed. Warm-blooded mammals makes more kills than dragons and they can control prey number easily than dragons if the dragons were in large areas instead of islands. I see no evidence of dragons working together as groups when hunting a large prey.
|
|
Taurus
Invertebrate
Posts: 162
|
Post by Taurus on Feb 25, 2012 17:45:10 GMT -5
yea but it would be missing its denser supply of ungulates provided by its island home and adapt to a smaller nitch. Just a theory. Considering the fact that australia has problems with boar,goats and dogs which are all regular prey items and camels I dont think prey density would be a problem. On top of that feral and domestic cattle and other farm animals would be on the menu, the roo family would be added aswell as the reptiles of australia. I doubt Its niche would change as dragons already dominate The feral dogs on the island and feral dogs are the biggest threat to its possible crown in australia. I thnk Dragons are freaks amoung island predator in that they can hold there own and even dominate mainland predators. Again, the behavior of Austraila feral animals don't reflect to these animals of Komodo Islands as I said before the island animals are less wary of dragons, therefore it will makes things more difficulty for dragons to hunting these large prey in Mainland. In short words, the dragons will have less hunting sucesses.
|
|
Venomous Dragon
Archeon
The Varanid
The Ora, King of The Lizards.
Posts: 2,037
|
Post by Venomous Dragon on Feb 25, 2012 17:55:49 GMT -5
Whole point of it being Komodos is the fact that they fit megalania's niche almost perfectly and are the closest thing to nartual large predator australia would be able to get. Using a big cat or a canid defeats the purpose. A better predator? Explain what makes them better? Can take down larger prey? no thats not it, group hunting? no dragons do that too. So what is it? Camels, cattle, hogs and equines are not naturally fit into Australia's niches so your point is flawed. Warm-blooded mammals makes more kills than dragons and they can control prey number easily than dragons if the dragons were in large areas instead of islands. I see no evidence of dragons working together as groups when hunting a large prey. Groups of dragons attack the same animal all the time and then they all eat from the same kill, sounds like group hunting to me. No its not, my point is that the ora is the closest thing to megalania that is out there, thats my point. Mammals would make more kills but thats because they dont eat 90% of the animal they kill. Monitor have comparable metabolic rates to mammals when at the right temperature, so your point is flawed. The only success rate I see for komodos is "majority of attacks are initially successful" Many mammal predators dont have a success rate of over 50%. Just say it the only reason you dont think komodos are appropriate is because they are ectothermic.
|
|
Venomous Dragon
Archeon
The Varanid
The Ora, King of The Lizards.
Posts: 2,037
|
Post by Venomous Dragon on Feb 25, 2012 18:03:24 GMT -5
I looked on another site and it says the exact opposite, that most attacks fail (like most predators). The point is I dont think anyone has calculated the success rate of dragons, so you cant say mammal predators are more successful.
|
|
Taurus
Invertebrate
Posts: 162
|
Post by Taurus on Feb 25, 2012 18:03:43 GMT -5
I see no evidence of a group-hunting dragons besides surrounding an already injured animal that a single dragon attacked few days ago. If you said it happens all time, then why it wasn't capture on the video?
Still your point is flawed as Megalania has never encountered any ungulates back in its time.
|
|