kangaroo management zones

Through a FOI report obtained from the Department of Climate Change and Environment, it is clear that the calculation of kangaroo numbers in kangaroo management zones as they pertain to the FATE program in Mudgee, Molong, Hunter and Central West NSW is a total sham.

On page 2 of the report it says:-

"In order to set harvest quotas with the intention of ensuring sustainability, it is necessary to have reasonably accurate and precise estimates of the sizes of kangaroo populations proposed to be harvested.”

However, on examining the report closer, it is patently clear that no such accurate estimate has been obtained. How can such a killing plan be sustainable or viable and how can cruelty to animals be avoided when the data collection method used is a simple point-in-time head-count using short-run helicopter surveillance with human observation which takes no account of the following important factors:-

1. age or size (young at-foot joeys and very old would be unviable for the kangaroo industry)
2. physical condition
3. gender (which seriously impacts 'sustainability')
4. the changing characteristics over time of the land (water, grass, shelter etc.) on which the kangaroos reside
5. how kangaroos move across the landscape throughout the day and the seasons in response to many factors (wind, heat, cold, feeding time, resting time, breeding time, fires, water supply, human presence, predator presence etc).

Assuming that a single head count at a single point in time in a number of set locations will accurately account for any of these variables and therefore how kangaroos spread across the available landscape at other points in time is a indeed junk 'science'.

Therefore, conclusions from this analysis about kangaroo ‘abundance’, density or any increase or decline in numbers over time are completely useless. Obviously shooters will target the largest kangaroos leaving a surplus of orphaned young who may not be able to survive without their mothers and have no idea how to survive in a mob without male guidance. In such cases young males often try to mate with immature females or females not in oestrus.

There is a very high probability that the figures are overblown due to not allowing for the above important factors and contributes to the myth that kangaroos are in 'plague proportions' and need to be 'culled' by the kangaroo industry before they become too much of a 'pest' to farmers. The public is already brainwashed to believe that there are 'milllions out there' when in fact kangaroos are on track to extinction (see report by Australian Society for Kangaroos at http://www.stopkangarookilling.org ).

The report accepts very high levels of coefficient variation (obviously determined by the cost of helicopter hire and the size of the zone studied). The coefficient of variation for the Central Tablelands, is more than 30% (95% confidence interval) suggesting that in the Central Tablelands the estimated kangaroo numbers are somewhere between 210,100 and 860,000 - a difference of 650,000! How can the kangaroo industry expect a sustainable yield when estimated numbers are so inaccurate?

Finally, since the whole point of the FATE program is to help farmers by removing 'pest' kangaroos and reward them financially, why would areas where kangaroos are not a problem be surveyed? Shouldn't they be excluding land that is not cultivated? Why should the remaining uncultivated land be accepted as an area in which humans could consider the kangaroo a ‘problem’?

In the Upper Hunter zone, 43% of the total zone land area is cultivated, meaning that on 57% of the land kangaroos are not a problem so therefore no killing should be necessary. Additionally, they should only be surveying cultivated sections of land in the analysis, which would obviously diminish density numbers considerably.

Due to all the above, it is impossible for conclusions about past trends in kangaroo numbers nor future trends to be made from the report either towards ‘abundance’ or ‘quasi extinction’.

On the issue of animal cruelty, the myth that a single gunshot to the head of a healthy kangaroo is humane needs to be rejected. Even in the unlikely possibility that a kangaroo shooter will be 100% accurate every single time, what actually happens in practice is more than enough to remind us that kangaroo shooting is inherently cruel.

When its mother is ‘humanely’ shot, the orphaned ‘pouched’ joey is ripped from its mother’s pouch, decapitated, stomped on, or swung repeatedly against the nearest hard object until its head is crushed and its fragile limbs fractured. The ‘at-heel’ offspring of the dead mother is deprived of its mother’s company, milk, warmth and protection and forced to flee and fend for itself against predators such as foxes, marauding dogs and even pythons.

Not all shot kangaroos die instantly. Some flee, in great panic, and die a lingering and excruciatingly painful death which could take months. Some have part of their face blown off which leads to gangrene or starvation from being unable to eat. Pain, exertion and anxiety create physiological and biochemical changes in metabolism leading to lactic acidosis and muscle damage, including to the heart muscle, the release of myoglobin, renal failure, tissue hypoxia, paralysis, and progressive damage to the liver, adrenal gland, brain and lymphatic system. No fair-minded human with an ounce of compassion could possibly believe there is anything ‘humane’ in any of this killing.

In conclusion, the data and analysis of kangaroo numbers that the DECC relies on to implement commercial kangaroo killing programs in zones around the State are so flawed as to be totally useless in determining SUSTAINABILITY, industry VIABILITY and animal CRUELTY and should be halted immediately before irreversible damage to kangaroo populations occurs.

Additionally, a more scientific appreciation of the dynamics and value of the kangaroo in the landscape and ecosystems needs to be incorporated into management of kangaroos away from the archaic pest model which has never been scientifically proven and is strictly anecdotal.

Please write to:

The Hon Ms Carmel Tebbutt MP
Minister for Climate Change and the Environment
Level 30
Governor Macquarie Tower,
1 Farrer Place,
SYDNEY NSW 2000
(p) (02) 9228 4866
(f) (02) 9228 4855
(e) dp.office[AT]tebbutt.minister.nsw.gov.au