AR-News: Agence France Presse: Australia mulls fox "morning after pills" to save penguins

[Karen Dawn]

Agence France Presse
September 4, 2003 Thursday 12:13 AM Eastern Time

International News


 Australia mulls fox "morning after pills" to save penguins

 SYDNEY, Sept 4

Australian rangers are developing a version of the so-called morning-after
abortion pill to wipe out foxes threatening the penguin population in one of
the country's most popular nature reserves.

Scientists at the Phillip Island Nature Park off Victoria state say that
each year foxes kill up to 300 of the park's penguins, whose nightly
"parade" from the sea to beachside nests is a world-famous attraction.

Efforts to control the fox population through shooting and gassing of dens
have been ineffective and criticised by animal rights activists as cruel,
said park biologist Roger Kirkwood.

As an alternative, he said, research is underway to see if the fox
population, currently estimated at about 120, could be eradicated using bait
laced with the drug Cabergoline, a compound found in morning-after pills.

Kirkwood told the Australian Associated Press since foxes only breed in
August and September and have a life-span of just five years, authorities
hope the drug plan could eventually eliminate the animals from Phillip
Island.

"If they can't breed for five years, that would help to get foxes off the
island," he said.

Cabergoline is currently available only in a powdered form and researchers
are investigating if it could be reconfigured into a pill or oil which could
be placed into bait like cooked liver.

Trials with the drug on foxes in Europe and Australia have proven
successful, causing abortions or still-born cubs, experts say.

Foxes were introduced to Australia by European settlers and have become one
of the country's worst pests, causing millions of dollars worth of damage,
killing livestock and hastening the extinction of many small native mammals.

In parts of Australia government scientists have already been experimenting
with contraceptive vaccines in efforts to control fox numbers.

A similar birth control method is also being developed for the European
rabbit, which has devastated vegetation across vast areas and costs the
Australian economy more than 600 million dollars (380 million US) a year in
lost agricultural production.

dm/bro