Garrett and the bats out of hell. What is it with Peter Garrett and bat(t)s? His claims that the Botanic Gardens Trust has to meet “strict conditions” before they can proceed with the dispersal of flying foxes from Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens are increasingly seen as toothless and hollow by conservationists. The radio tracking program has been severely compromised by Garrett’s department caving in to the Trust ‘s demands and reducing the number of female bats that have to be fitted with tracking devices from 60 to 30. DEWHA originally demanded 60 female bats be collared as a means of monitoring the impact of the dispersal on the breeding success of this vulnerable species.
Why did the Trust ask for the number to be reduced? Because the condition of the animals they’re trapping is so poor, probably as a result of food shortage, that they simply can’t find as many bats capable of carrying a radio tracking device as was originally required by the Commonwealth’s conditions. Conservationists expected Garrett’s department to enforce those conditions and are dismayed at how quickly they’ve rolled over to BGT’s request. The reduced data they’ll be able to collect from the scaled back monitoring program will now be next to worthless.
Where’s my Vanity Fair app? For some reason Vanity Fair’s iPad app is not available to Australian iPad users. When I sent a inquiry to Vanity Fair, I got a pro-forma email back saying, basically, “thank you for your inquiry” and they then referred me to Apple. Other CondeNast titles are available to Australian iPad users. Does this mean that a local version of Vanity Fair is in the works? It seems very odd that the app is not available here.
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