Cull of the wild buffalo
QUESTION Did Australia’s TB eradication programme succeed in removing wild buffalo from the Outback?
The Asian water buffalo, Bubalus bubalis, has been used as a draught and food animal across Asia for centuries.
They were introduced into the tropical monsoon region of north-central Australia by europeans settling on Melville Island and the Cobourg Peninsula in the mid19th century.
When conditions proved too harsh for the colonists, they abandoned their settlements, but the buffalo remained. They thrived in the swamps and freshwater springs of the Top end of Australia. From 80 animals, numbers increased to 350,000 by 1960.
With a body size ranging from half a tonne for females to more than a tonne for bulls, they are the third largest species in the Bovidae family after Gaur and American bison.
They are distinguished by their dark black coat and horns that grow straight out of the sides of their head and curve upwards and backwards.
By the mid-20th century, feral buffalo were an environmental disaster. They caused soil erosion, the intrusion of saltwater into freshwater habitats and the destruction of wetland vegetation.
Many native flora and fauna failed to thrive in the polluted water. Crocodiles, barramundi and freshwater turtles declined, and water birds, such as magpie geese, lost their habitat.
Matters came to a head with a major outbreak of tuberculosis and brucellosis across Australia. A national eradication campaign ran from 1970 to 1997.
From 1979, feral buffalo were culled by sharp shooters in helicopters. Numbers in the Kakadu National Park plunged from 20,000 buffalo to fewer than 250 in 1996. Today, there are 150,000.
Some Aboriginal communities depend on the buffalo for food and have permission to maintain domesticated herds.
Tom Davies, Gerringong, New South Wales, Australia.
QUESTION Why did General Patton say: ‘The two most dangerous weapons the Germans have are our own armoured half-track and Jeep.’
ThIS remark refers to the casualty levels suffered by drivers and passengers who took the all-terrain description of these vehicles beyond their limits.
The Willys Jeep was the most common vehicle used by the Allied forces. More than 640,000 were manufactured during World War II. They were used for every task, from transporting ammunition and evacuating the wounded to staff cars for senior officers visiting the front line.
however, they offered little protection to their occupants as they were opentopped, open- sided and did not have seatbelts. In rough terrain, it was easy for a driver to eject a passenger by breasting a rise or taking a corner too fast.
If the vehicle rolled over it was likely to crush anyone who wasn’t thrown clear because there wasn’t a safety cage or roll bars. even with the canvas ‘tilt’ roof, there was little protection because it was supported by thin aluminium tubes. The low sides left the occupants open to fire.
The M3 half- track was a lightly armoured vehicle with wheels at the front to steer and a caterpillar track at the rear to help it operate across rough terrain. It earned the nickname Purple heart box, a reference to the medal awarded to U.S. soldiers injured on active service.
Its open-top design meant it offered no protection against air-burst artillery shells, which would rain down shrapnel on the vehicle’s occupants. Its armour was too thin to protect against heavy machine-gun fire. Initially, the caterpillar track often failed crossing rough terrain, but this was overcome by modifications.
U.S. General Omar Bradley defended the M3, saying it wasn’t so much the design that was at fault, but that it was used for the wrong purposes.
It was supposed to carry soldiers to the front line, where they would fight on foot. however, some tried to use it in a similar manner to a tank, or a German half-track, to fight their way through the enemy.
A large, slow-moving vehicle offered a target for artillery and machine gunners. Up to 54,000 M3s and variants were used in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France and Germany during World War II.
Bob Dillon, Edinburgh.
QUESTION What is the origin of the phrase willy-nilly?
ThIS expression has two slightly differing yet related meanings. It can mean with or against your will or to act in a disorganised, haphazard way.
Though we commonly use the latter meaning nowadays, the origin lies with the first.
The early meaning of the word nill was a contraction of the phrase not will, the opposite of will, as in wanting to do something. Combining the two words — I am willing, I am unwilling — expresses the idea that it doesn’t matter one way or the other.
The phrase dates back at least a millennium, with the earliest known version being the Old english text Aelfric’s Lives Of Saints in 1000AD: ‘Forean the we synd synfulle and sceolan beon eadmode, wille we, nelle we.’ This means: ‘Therefore we are sinners and shall be humble, willingly or unwillingly.’
Shakespeare used the expression in The Taming Of The Shrew. Petruchio says to Katharina: ‘Thus in plain terms: your father hath consented that you shall be my wife; your dowry ’greed on; And, Will you, nill you, I will marry you.’
he is telling her that they will wed, whether she likes it or not.
By the 19th century, the phrase came to mean a person was not sure whether to do something, and so suggested they were undecided or indecisive. More recently, it has been used to describe embarking on a project without direction or planning, or in a disorganised way.
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