Australia to shoot 6,000 kangaroos

Originally posted by NightSkyeB4Dawn


Just out of curiosity......how were their numbers managed before man interfered?

Before man interfered there were far less grasslands. Now with massive clearing of the Australian bushlands, grasslands have now taken hold increasing the kangaroo population exponentially. It has nothing to do about predators as an eastern Grey stands 6 foot high and can easily outrun and wound a dingo.
Of course Dingo's in the themselves are an introduced species.

The real problem is not that there are too many Roos in Australia, it is that there are too many Roos in the area that man has inhabited and has claimed for himself.

"This place just isn't big enough for the both of us partner." "You have to sundown to get out of here."

I am almost as guilty as the next in this calamity. I moved out into the middle of the woods and I attempt to live in harmony with my non-human neighbors and for ten years we have shared this space without problem. I tried to make as little impact on the area as possible. I only removed as many trees as was necessary to build my house. This was very costly because builders don't want to work around obstacles. They want to clear everything and then throw in some spindly saplings; they don't even care if they are indigenous or not.

So far I have a 130 acre buffer zone that is very rapidly dwindling making the area that I live heavier with wildlife every year because more and more people are moving out here.

What can I say? I moved out here, how can I tell anyone else that they can't.

They are not very good neighbors though and sometimes very stupid. They move into a wild animal's territory, clear off all of their natural vegetation; throw down some foreign green ground cover that requires an over use of the water supply and strips the soil of essential elements that supply the food chain. They then put out doggies on the chain and tender plump babies in the swing appetizers and go ballistic when the hungry animal does what animals do.

We are a stupid lot and we have never learned to live, work and play well with others.

reply to post by NightSkyeB4Dawn


I ran into that problem when I worked on all the condos when Disney first opened up. They would plow under an orange grove, establish a pond for the ambiance and start building. In one week or less there would be a gator living in the pond. I was working on a porch on one of the units and they where selling them as fast as we could build them then. the next unit was being moved into and the mother turned the 5 year old loose in the back of the unit. The little girl made a beeline for the pond. I came to my senses just in time to run my butt off and grab her before she became the dinner for a 6 footer that was headed her way. Her mother almost fainted when I showed up with the child in my arms at her door and informed her what had happened!

Zindo

I'm getting sick of some of the ill-informed anti-cull attitudes. Is it because it's Kangaroo's? I didn't see a thread on horse culls in the US last year. If you are going to knock this cull then knock all culls; be it rats, mice, birds or whatever.

Animal-Rights Groups Protest Wild-Horse Cull

reply to post by ModernAcademia


In the USA this would be equivalent to slaying 6000 rats

only these rats are huge and eat ALOT

Thanks for ruining my day chuclles...

reply to post by ModernAcademia


Ok ModernAcademia, what is so barbaric about this? Are they endangered? Nope. Is this all for the sheer joy of blowing some roos brains out. Nope. Maybe the ones doing it are enjoying it, but that's just how they are. But it's legal and it's something that needs to be done. Are you against gator population control? I could go on with examples, but you know what, it seems that you are determined to think that what is being done is wrong and horrible that it's obviously not worth my time to go through it all. Just out of curiousity, in fact this goes out to the rest of you that think this is such a horrible barbaric thing, do you have the same compassion for humans as you do the animals? Is there the same kind of compassion for humans that are starving, suffering, disabled, you name it, as you do the cute little creatures? So would the killing of these roos be worse than people starving in a third world country? Doesn't even have to be there, even in the states, the homeless die of starvation too. Dont get me wrong, I love animals, I love nature, but I also have that same compassion to humans. All life. But sometimes you have to choose, the animal or human. Survival of the fittest. Just how it is. Killing animals for kicks is wrong, killing these kangaroos isn't, it's something that needs to be done. Again none of you who say this is wrong aren't coming up with any real solutions either. I still say go and round them up yourselves if it's that easy.

reply to post by tamusan


There used to be predators of them over there. However they also ate sheep so they were hunted to extinction by the Australian farmers.

-Cauch1

reply to post by Cauch1



yes there were predators of the kangaroos. they were the aborigines.

and they were perpetrated by the 'farmers'.

reply to post by Cauch1



yes there were predators of the kangaroos. they were the aborigines.

and they were perpetrated by the 'farmers'.

Originally posted by Cauch1
reply to post by tamusan

 

There used to be predators of them over there. However they also ate sheep so they were hunted to extinction by the Australian farmers.

-Cauch1

Nope - no there wasn't.
Thylacine did not eat sheep - myth - were hunting dogs.

However 60,000 years ago there were predators, giant carnivorous onces - Tim Flannery - author of "The Weather makers" also wrote "The Future eaters".
Cheers.

reply to post by audas


Sorry I may be mistaken (does happen) but I thought there used to be some sort of predator of canine or feline descent on the islands. Don't know if you have seen the images of it. The creature which had stripes on the back half of it (please don't let me be going mad).

-Cauch1

yeah its too bloody tough. i like ym steaks medium rare, but kangaroo meat is too tough... prefer beef.

reply to post by Cauch1



You arent going mad - but you're thinking of the wrong predator

The one you are thinking of is a Thylacine - or Tasmanian Tiger.

Mostly the predator for the kangaroo was the dingo. Which pretty much has also been culled by farmers because it would attack sheep & cows as well.

There are still wild dingoes but their numbers are small compared with the kangaroo.

reply to post by mulberryblueshimmer


Right thanks for the correction. I did think that Tasmanian was involved but every time I did I assumed that I was thinking about the Tasmanian Devil. Also how about they try breeding some more dingos and setting them loose then they could control the population for you plus it would not be like you were introducing a new species as they are native to Australia.

-Cauch1

reply to post by mulberryblueshimmer


Like I said all of these problems can be laid at the foot of mankind.

We have never learned that we have to live and adapt to the world in which we live.

Not live and try to make the world adapt to us.

That is why we keep making a mess and making a bigger mess every time that we interfere.

I heard some info about this from a Canberra resident who is involved in wildlife and research. He stated that there is a belief that the land the roos were on is contaminated and that they are suffering some sort of illness or disease. He went on to state that the Defense force wanted to sell the land to developers for housing estates and that they didn't want it to get out that the land was contaminated.
Another interesting point made was that conservationists and wildlife groups and individuals offered to relocate the roos at no charge to the government and their offers were refused.
I cannot prove any of this nor reveal my source, but someone out there may be interested in looking further into this.

New member here. A couple of things that should be considered on the Roo issue. The first is the fact that they breed at a frightning rate when conditions are good. The second is that European farmers brought with them perminant good breeding conditions in the form of massive wheat farms. Also out west a decent boomer will rear up above six foot ant easily tear ventilation holes in a dingo.

I don't see the issue here. It's not like they're promising to capture, detain and torture the animals - it's simply a cull. So what?

Solution is simple, give the Aussies back their guns and then sell permits to thin the Kangaroos out.