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Kangaroos: Myths and Realities
By Martin English | October 28, 2005
The Australian Wildlife Protection Council has released a new book, called Kangaroos: Myths and Realities, with the stated aim of of stopping the annual government-sanctioned aim “cruel murder” of millions of kangaroos that it claims is putting kangaroos in danger of extinction.
Forty years ago, conservationists were predicting the extinction of the kangaroo, yet despite an annual cull quota averaging about 3 to 4 million (this year, it’s just under 4 million) the population of the culled species is still in the tens of millions. How is that?
There are 51 recorded species of kangaroos (macropods) of which seven are believed to be extinct, with many others rare, endangered or vulnerable. Smaller species, under five kilograms, such as the parma, yellow foot, brushtail and bridle nail-tailed rock wallabies, are very rare and highly protected.
The species culled are the Eastern and Western Grey kangaroos, the Red kangaroo, the Wallaroo, Whiptail, Agile and Bennett’s wallaby. Increased crops, pastures and dams and the lack of natural predators ensures these larger species are often in their tens of millions and in plague proportions. If we didn’t control their numbers there wouldn’t be any farmers left.
Mike Archer, a professor of science at the University of NSW, has started the FATE (Future of Australia’s Threatened Ecosystems) program, which promotes (amongst other things) kangaroo harvesting. If farmers can earn a decent return on kangaroo, Archer argues, they will see the animal as a resource rather than a pest. And by farming kangaroos instead of sheep or cattle, they will help save ecosystems.
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