Dawn’s secret herbs and spices in ibis war
DAWN crichlow has a simple answer to the city’s ibis crisis – dose them up on chilli.
The veteran city councillor said she used the secret weapon to rid the Gold Coast of the feathered pest in the late 1990s, and it was time to do it again.
She suggested feeding the nuisance birds “minced meat with cayenne pepper in it”.
Council, in partnership with the State, has reduced the ibis population numbers (Gold Coast and Tweed) from 12,500 in 1998 to 2500 today.
This was done through disturbing their breeding environment, without physically injuring any birds.
Cr Crichlow said State Government gave council a permit to take the eggs and “smash them”.
“They robbed the nests,” she said. “They disappeared but they are now coming back.
Her spicy advice comes after the Gold Coast Bulletin revealed a group of Surfers Paradise eateries were hiring “bird shoo-ers” to stop pesky ibis and pigeons from fighting diners for their food.
Currumbin Wildlife Hospital’s Dr Michael Pyne said ibis, which could carry diseases such as salmonella, learnt quickly where to find food and their behaviour in the cafes was habitual.
“They learn and adapt very quickly, they are not frightened (easily),” he said.
Dr Pyne said he rated ibis “very highly” as they were “intelligent and confident”.
A council spokesman said cafe owners were responsible for keeping the birds away.
“Council cannot remove the birds,” the spokesman said.
“Even if we did, ibis fly up to 20km daily from the hinterland to Surfers Paradise as they know there are food scraps left on dining tables,.
“Council has ensured its public bins have lids and we do our daily bin collections pre-dawn seven days a week.
A Department of Environment and Heritage Protection spokeswoman said licensed bird relocators could be called in if birds were a threat to human health or causing financial loss.
Taking or killing an ibis without a permit carries penalties of up to $126,150 or one year imprisonment.