Global Courant 2023-05-10 12:55:00
SYDNEY — Australia’s kangaroos could die in “catastrophic” numbers if the population explosion doesn’t end, ecologists warn, while supporting industrial-scale culling of the marsupials.
To outsiders, the kangaroo is an instantly recognizable symbol of the Australian wilderness, but in the country, the native animal creates a major environmental problem.
Kangaroos have a “boom and bust” population cycle – when food is plentiful after a good wet season, their numbers can increase by the tens of millions.
Hopping bands of kangaroos can clear paddocks quickly, but ecologist Katherine Moseby warned they would starve en masse if food ran out.
“The last drought, we estimated that 80 or 90 percent of kangaroos died in some areas,” she told AFP.
“They starve to death — they go to public toilets and eat toilet paper, or lie on the road starving while their joeys try to eat,” she added, referring to events of the latest population explosion.
Ms Moseby said the kindest way to save kangaroos from this fate was to shoot them and harvest the meat, as a way to control numbers.
“It keeps the numbers down so that when we get a drought, we don’t get these welfare issues,” she said.
“If we viewed them as a resource and managed them that way, we wouldn’t get the catastrophic deaths that we’re seeing.”
Kangaroos are protected in Australia, but the most common species are not endangered – this means they can be shot and killed in most jurisdictions, but government permission is required.
As many as five million kangaroos are shot each year as part of a homegrown industry, which harvests their carcasses for meat, pet food and leather.
Mr Dennis King of the Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia believes the country is on the brink of another kangaroo boom.
“After three years of La Nina along the east coast, we have seen the perfect growth scenario for kangaroos in the coming years,” he told AFP.
“The breeding cycle is really speeding up.”
King said the national kangaroo population fell below 30 million after a crippling drought in the early 2000s, but could soon rise again to as high as 60 million.
