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Inspiring and Supporting Photographers of Australian Birds

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Brush turkeys taking over Sydney? 6 years 7 months ago #1278

  • Bruce Terrill
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Hi Peter,
I'm so happy that you were able to contribute. . .
Bruce

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Brush turkeys taking over Sydney? 6 years 7 months ago #1330

  • Glenn Pure
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Hi all, there are some references on the web that placing teddy bears around the garden can deter scrub turkeys. As mentioned, my mum is in a losing battle with one and a friend gave me a teddy bear to pass on to her when I was in Brisbane recently. The photo shows how effective they are! The bear was placed on the turkey's mound and was ignored!
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Brush turkeys taking over Sydney? 6 years 3 months ago #1508

  • Con Boekel
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Last year I visited parts of the northern boundaries of Sydney as part of a team which was looking at the last free Indigenous camp in Sydney which was, from memory destroyed some time in the 1960's. The purpose was to develop an online digital recreation of the camp for use by school children. It is a work in progress. My task was to recreate the birdlife of the time and provide sources of calls to make the camp sounds as true to time as possible. When talking to one of the survivors of the camp (the inhabitants were simply forced onto the back of a truck and dispersed around Sydney) the subject of Brush Turkeys came up. Yes. They were eaten. It then occurred to me that much of what is happening is Brush Turkeys re-inhabiting its former range rather than expanding its distribution. During the Great Depression the surrounds of Sydney (and other coastal localities) had thousands of rough campers. They lived in makeshift huts, camps, and caves. Many of these people were hungry and would have welcomed a Turkey for the pot. My theory is that what is happening is that Turkey may, in part, be rebounding after the Great Depression.

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Brush turkeys taking over Sydney? 6 years 2 months ago #1558

  • Andrew Rock
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Scrub turkey numbers are burgeoning in Brisbane too, and reduced predation has to be be a factor, but I don't think it's fewer hungry swaggies. I work at Griffith Uni, Nathan campus, which has a lot of bush still standing around the buildings. Over decades I've seen scrub turkey numbers rise dramatically, correlated with fewer sightings of large mature lace monitors. Some managerial genius decided that the monitors needed to be relocated. I got educated early that they weren't dangerous, but if they did get spooked, try not to look like a tree.

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