Feral Future: The Untold Story of Australia's Exotic Invaders

Front Cover
University of Chicago Press, 2002 - Science - 394 pages
A decade ago, Tim Low journeyed to the remote northernmost tip of Australia. Instead of the pristine rain forests he expected, he found jungles infested with Latin American carpet grass and feral cattle. That incident helped inspire Feral Future, a passionate account of the history and implications of invasive species in that island nation, with consequences for ecological communities around the globe.

Australia is far from alone in facing horrific ecological and economic damage from invading plants and animals, and in Low's capable hands, Australia's experiences serve as a wake-up call for all of us. He covers how invasive species like cane toads and pond apple got to Australia (often through misguided but intentional introductions) and what we can do to stop them. He also covers the many pests that Australia has exported to the world, including the paperbark tree (Melaleuca) that infests hundreds of thousands of acres in south Florida.
 

Contents

SETTING THE STAGE
1
INVASION BY STEALTH
93
Ballast Blues Something in the Water
108
Where Have All the Flowers Gone? Phytophthoras Curse
116
The Sick and Dying Exotic Diseases Strike
122
The Price of Free Trade Opening the Door to Invasions
129
AUSTRALIANS AS PESTS
137
A Source of Perverse Pride Australianising the World
139
The Ultimate Pest Our Destructive Ways
200
WHERE ARE WE HEADED?
205
Expanding and Infilling Pests Old and New Tighten Their Grip
207
Sleepers Wake The Pests that Bide Their Time
215
Whither the Wet Tropics? A Hot Wet Case Study
229
The Homogocene Visiting the Future
237
The New Architects Redesigning the Land
245
Cryptogenic World Native or Not?
250

Colonial Revenge British Wallabies and Budgerigars
144
Ecologically Entwined Australians in New Zealand
150
Colouring the Landscape Our Animals Abroad
157
Inheriting a Degraded World Exporting Our Flora
165
Its Civil War Natives can be Pests Too
172
A ROGUES GALLERY
177
The Shuffled Pack An Alien Whos Who
179
Seizing the Advantage Exotic Roads to Success
184
Scoundrels or Scapegoats?
190
Where the Deer and the Antelope Roam Hoofed Introductions
195
It Happens Naturally Invasion as Natural Process
261
THINKING AND ACTING
267
Seeking Magic Bullets Biocontrol Often Misses the Mark
269
The Quarantine Quandary AQIS Wields a Small Sword
279
Are We Blind? Barriers to Enlightenment
290
Appendices
318
Glossary
332
Bibliography
349
Index
376
Copyright

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About the author (2002)

Tim Low is an author who wrote Where Song Began: Australia's Birds and How They Changed the World which won an ABIA Award 2015 in the category of General Nonfiction Book of the Year. This title was also shortlisted for a NSW Premier History Award 2015 in the category of Australian History. It was also shortlisted for the 2015 Australia Book Prize presented by the Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.

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