ok well firstly, I am the biggest animal lover ever... and the thought of any animal in pain or suffering or being killed always gets me upset... but when you realise all the facts about the cull, it really is necessary and the best way to curb the problem.
My dad is an environmental planner and has been involved in doing a report on the roo's, so here are some cold hard facts for you all, that might not get brought up in certain "media" reports.
Sorry it's a bit of a long read.....
These are probably the key points:
1. Translocation of wild animals has a lot of practical difficulties as well as cost and is usually only undertaken for small populations of endangered or critically endangered species (ie ones in a desperate situation where the risks in leaving them where they are outweigh the risks in moving them).
2. The Eastern Grey Kangaroos at Belconnen are not an endangered species (about 3000 are culled on rural leases in the ACT each year, about 1000 killed on the roads, their densities in parts of Namadgi National Park are 450 to 500 per sqkm - the highest recorded in Australia).
3. A trial translocation would have taken years and would have involved only some of the population, in which time the remaining population would have grown even more (after the loss of many to starvation this winter at Belconnen). The ground cover would have been eaten out completely so destroying the habitat for other grassland species - some of which are endangered.
4. From limited translocations elsewhere (small numbers), knowledge of kangaroo biology etc, the difficulties with translocation are:
- kangaroos are long limbed animals which are easily damaged being moved under sedation, where they begin to come out of the anesthetic too early and when released. The process is potentially very stressful for the animal, hence the current ACT ban on such translocation on animal welfare (as opposed to animal rights) grounds
- a vet would have assess the ability of each individual to be moved (many would have to be put down)
- they could only be moved in small numbers and in padded type containers so they were not injured
- they would have to be released via a staging facility constructed so that they did not harm themselves. This would have to be staffed by professionals to supervise the recovery. Some animals would injure themselves here and would need to be put down.
-if kangaroos were to be released on properties in NSW where there are not already kangaroos filling the ecological niche (ie grazing the available pasture), one would have to ask 'what is the ecological or other factor limiting that population?' (there are only a few answers to this. They are: predation by wild dogs/dingos, unsuitable pastures or pastures heavily grazed by livestock limiting the kangaroo population capacity, or an existing rural culling program as occurs in NSW where kangaroo densities are commonly as low as 10 per sqkm (0.1 per hectare)
- kangaroos are known to suffer from a stress condition called capture myopathy ie numbers will die for some time after the event. Precise percentages and times are still uncertain on this but it has been documented. Ideally a sample of animals should be radio collared to enable data to be gathered on survival rates.
5. From this you can see that the task would require a high level of professional expertise, appropriate and expensive equipment, properties below their kangaroo population capacity, inter-state approvals (wildlife management is a state/territory responsibility) and a significant proportion of the animals are likely to die in the process or after release.
Many ACT native grassland where kangaroos occur are not just 'grass' they are critically endangered remnants of original native grasslands that contain endangered plants and animal species such as the wonderful little Grassland Earless Dragon.
Without predators, kangaroo populations have what is called a 'herbivore eruption' where due to their ability to rapidly reproduce, their populations climb rapidly and exponentially to levels where they eat out their food supply and then a significant proportion (eg semi-independent young) starve to death. this occurs commonly in the ACT during winter. A number of people at work are at the cull each day helping, no one likes having to do it and it could have been avoided if Defence had done smaller culls years ago.
By the way there is an immuno-contraceptive experiment underway at Belconnen which may one day provide the means to control enclosed populations like that. Again the people from work are heavily involved in that. They never get a mention in the press for all the work, out all night surveying kangaroos etc.
While there is all this attention to the second most common kangaroo or wallaby in Australia, there are tens of others endangered or almost extinct. Some of the animal rights groups oppose culling programs for feral goats, for example, which are one of the contributors to the decline of the beautiful Yellow Footed Rock Wallabies in South Australia.
