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Exotic Dung Beetles Introduced into Tasmania |
The first exotic dung beetles were introduced into Tasmania in the early 1980s. Doug and Dawn Kershaw, dairy farmers from Tulendeena (NE Tasmania), received their first batch of O. binodis in 1981. ![]() Doug Kershaw (OAM) and Dawn Kershaw
Doug and Dawn eventually gave away well over 1 million beetles to landholders from across the State. Furthermore, Doug initiated many Landcare grants to introduce new species into the State, and undertook several state-wide surveys to determine the success of previous releases. Doug was honoured for this work with the Order of Australia Medal. A total of thirteen exotic dung beetle species have been introduced into Tasmania since 1972, however only five species have successfully established; (Geotrupes spiniger, Bubas bison, Onthophagus binodis, Onthophagus taurus and Euoniticellus fulvus). Also introduced (accidentally via the first settlers) was the dung “dweller”, Aphodius fimaterius. Dung beetles can be classified as either winter active (G. spiniger and B. bison, both of which fly at dusk and dawn and have life-cycles of ½ year or more) or summer active (with life-cycles of around 30 days which fly during warm sunny days). Unverified releases Those species unverified (not found during several on-ground surveys) and the areas in which they were released include;
Possible causes of dung beetle failures
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copyright G.Stevenson
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