Around here aggressive snakes are removed quickly & painlessly. We have had 2 dogs killed, the result of a silly little bitch who attacked them.

We are of course the only species who stupidly protects it's predators. Back in the day, when I gathered much of my food under water I carried a power head. A spear with a shot gun cartridge armed head. Illegal now when the safety of our predators trumps our safety.

I spent a week with the shark callers of the Solomon Islands in the 70s. That took painted cray off my menu, I have not gone into the ocean again, unless I had to, unless surrounded by a lot of other human bait.

Defining dingoes as native animals raises interesting questions in other areas. The dingo is a recent introduction to Australia, believed to be about 5 - 6000 years ago from India. It effectively eradicated marsupial carnivore competition such as the Tasmanian tiger and Tasmanian devil which were also on mainland Australia. The competitors survived in Tasmania which was isolated from the mainland about 12,000 years ago. In other debates at what point do we consider incursions of other peoples to now be native.

We change the natural world to suit ourselves.
But we must be wary of making too many changes.
We don't want to destroy the very system which supports us.
'Gooses' and 'golden eggs' come to mind.
We should leave the natural world alone when we can.
And this includes not encroaching unnecessarily on the main living areas used by other life forms.
If you want to swim, do it in a pool, not the sea.
Or a 'fenced off' part of the sea perhaps?
The sea, and all it contains, is vitally important to our survival.
Leave it alone.
Leave the vegetation alone when we can too.
Minimal disruption to natural processes is best for us.
If we mess up the world, it will recover over time.
But we won't.

I have an arrangement with the sharks, they don't come on the beach, and I don't go in their ocean.

Natural swimming holes may come with a few nasty surprises. But hardly, the community swimming pool.

Those spear guns with a shotgun shell in the head were good protection from what you could see, but not what you couldn't. Safety first means you don't dive alone.
Alan B.

There are a couple of sides to that Ipso Fatso. Don't forget we are still part of that nature.

Over 50 years ago now I was running the boats for a resort island in the Whitsundays. We had a few sun birds on the island which most of us were very fond of. They seamed to know humans were their friend & sort our protection. The boss had a broken Louver in an office window, & in no time the sun birds had found this & built one nest hanging from the light fitting, & another from a cup hook screwed into the ceiling. I did wonder where & when that had appeared.

Strict instructions were issued that the broken louver was not to be replaced. Meanwhile up in the workshop the tough bikey type who ran the power system had fashioned chicken wire netting around a couple of sun bird nests hanging from the rafters. The sun birds happily passed through the wire, but he hoped it would keep out the Currawongs which destroyed the nests to get at the chicks, as soon as their cheeping was heard.

I happend to be there one day when the bikey was bending up a Y from some 1/2" steel rod. A mechanic asked him what he was doing. Making a catapult to chase the Currawongs was the reply. The mechanic, a bit of a greeny, horrified said you cant do that, it is part of nature for Currawongs to eat chicks. The reply, I've got news for the Currawongs, I'm part of nature too, & I don't like them attacking my sun birds.

I guess there must be a bit of bikey in me too, as I agreed with him completely.

Life is so full of surprises, and interesting twists and turns, that I fail to see why some get bored with it.
Open you eyes, and there it is, right in front of you, in 3D and brilliant 'technicolor'.
Thank you for that heart-warming story Mr 'Certainly Is'.