Laura is a science news writer, covering a wide variety of subjects, but she is particularly fascinated by all things aquatic, paleontology, nanotechnology, and exploring how science influences daily life. Laura is a proud former resident of the New Jersey shore, a competitive swimmer, and a fierce defender of the Oxford comma.
ArticleBody:Sheep farmers in Australia could save millions of dollars a year with the help of some giant lizards. The dinosaur-like heath goanna serves as a natural clean-up crew when they scavenge and clean up maggot-ridden animal carcasses from the landscape. Fewer carcasses like this reduces the emergence of blowflies, which hurt sheep by laying eggs on their backsides that eventually hatch into flesh-eating maggots.
Tom Jameson What is fly strike? When blowflies lay eggs, the flesh eating maggots burrow into the sheep’s flesh and start to eat it alive. The disease called fly strike causes painful wounds that not only affects the sheep’s market value and reduces breeding success, but it can kill them. It also costs the Australian sheep farming industry roughly $280 million a year. “Blowflies are a massive problem for the Australian sheep farming industry,” said Jameson.
Marna Banggara They compared the scavenging activity of different animals in parts of southern Australia. He left hundreds of dead rats at feeding stations, with camera traps. After five days, he returned to see whether the rats had been eaten, and to count the number of blowfly maggots present on any remaining carcasses. The footage revealed which scavenging animal found the rat and how quickly. “It was disgusting–we were counting maggots.
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