Quotes from Tim Low

The irony here is exquisite - an endangered bird helping to spread a major weed. It's aa challenging example of the riddles of the 'new nature'.

By sniffing and licking anything that oozed from trees, colonial botanists found that Australia abounded in interesting exudates.

What all these stories show is that no law of nature forces native animals to prefer their natural foods, or even to recognize them. Some do (say koalas on gum leaves) but many don't. A currawong guzzling grapes might not look quite natural to us, but the bird doesn't see it that way. By nature it is an opportunist. For our native wildlife, the foreign plants and animals flourishing in Australia today afford untold opportunities too good to pass by.

Outback birds need regular water, and many of these are thriving. Those doing better than ever include zebra finches, wood ducks, Bourke's parrots and possibly emus. On the other hand many insect-eaters are doing badly, because grazing stock destroy the plants on which insects breed. Seed-eaters themselves suffer when grasses are grazed too low to set seed. Dams create plenty of losers as well as winners, and that's something to keep in mind.