COULD camels or goats fill some of the ecological niche left vacant by the disappearance on Australia's megafauna 40,000 years ago? Professor Chris Johnson thinks they could.
Prof Johnson has studied the dramatic changes to the Australian landscape that followed the disappearance of the megafauna 40,000 years ago. He thinks the use of large introduced herbivores to manage today's environment is worth considering.
"We can tell there were significant numbers of megafauna, and they made a significant impact on plants, because we've still got lots of plants that were adapted to resist browsing by large animals - like acacias with spines, or tangled structures that make it hard for animals to take mouthfuls," said Professor Johnson.
"You can make a case that we still need large herbivores in the Australian environment, and they could help to control things like wildfire."
That doesn't mean that any large herbivore is going to be ecologically successful anywhere, he added, just that there are ecological niches that they might fit into.
"It makes me think much more closely about camels and goats as animals that could be replacing some of the ecological function we lost.
"Camels are being used in North Queensland to control certain woody weeds. They will eat those spiny woody things that practically nothing else will eat."
People have changed Australia in many non-reversable ways, and ecosystems have waxed and waned in response to climate change. There is no "gold standard" for what the environment should look like, Prof Johnson said.
"What we can do is improve understanding of things that cause ecosystem change and work out how to manage them better so we can get better environments in the future.
"That's why it's important to think about the role of large herbivores."
