by north-north-west » Sun 21 Jul, 2019 9:19 am
The history as far as I recall:
There used to be distinct species - or possibly sub-species - of Tasmanian Emus. These were shorter legged and had much thicker feathers than the mainland variety. Colonial settlement finished them off. At some stage (and I don't recall when) there was a project to try to "recover" them and see if it was possible to replace them in some parts of their former range. So a bunch of mainland emus were collected, all withh noticably shorter legs and thicker feathering, and transported to Maria to breed and see what happened. No offspring, through all the subsequent generations, displayed the desired short-legged, thick-feathered characteristics, so eventually the project was declared a bust.
I wouldn't swear to it, but I think the emus were removed around the same time the sheep were. This was after my time with TasPAWS (I left Tassie at the end of 1981), so I can't give you a date.
"Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens."