How the ACT Government produced a shoddy Kangaroo Management Plan, to justify killing off Kangaroos for Development Proposals!In March 2009 the ACT government released a ACT Kangaroo Management Plan that could easily have been written by your average school student....except for the deliberate misinformation it contains. We think it is long on words (190 pages) and short on facts or credible data. You can read the 190 pages by downloading it from our link below. We've put it online because it will probably disappear from the ACT government website now that the public comment period has closed. Copy and paste this link to your browser.
http://www.kangaroo-protection-coalition.com/support-files/draft_act_kangaroo_management_plan.pdf
Some of the media reports have been posted below, and also some comments on the "Plan". The reason we post these ACT media reports is that after the Belconnen massacre, many of the Canberra Times articles were removed from the CT database. WE put them online on our kangaroo website so they will be there forever!
The Majura Kangaroos
Kangaroo numbers have ballooned at another Defence site in Canberra, threatening the survival of several endangered or vulnerable species. The uncontrolled population has overgrazed the Majura Training Area to such an extent that a report suggests up to 5000 eastern grey kangaroos have starved to death. The Canberra Times understands Defence Department land managers are demoralised no action was taken after they reported to Defence that it needed to manage the population. In 2008, Defence contracted the culling of 514 kangaroos at its Belconnen Naval Transmission Station. Defence and the ACT Government said the cull was needed to protect native grassland and threatened species on the site, and to prevent the kangaroos from starving. It took place almost a year after Defence concluded overgrazing was a problem.
ACT RSPCA chief executive officer Michael Linke said the RSPCA was disgusted that Defence had allegedly allowed animals to starve if the report proved correct. ''To think that Defence have allegedly allowed kangaroos to starve is reprehensible. It borders on mismanagement and incompetence,'' Mr Linke said. 'If Defence have allowed that, despite the advice and information that we've provided them in the past two years, it just shows a total lack of regard for animal welfare.'' A Defence spokesperson said Defence was considering all options for the management of the kangaroo population at the training area. The spokesperson said Defence was working with the ACT Government, the ACT Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment and leading experts to develop a best-practice approach to kangaroo management at the training area. ''Defence has constructed a kangaroo exclusion fence around threatened natural temperate grassland and instigated a monitoring program focused on measuring kangaroo numbers, the recovery of endangered grassland communities and the monitoring of the other endangered communities. This information will inform future management actions for the site,'' the spokesperson said. 'Action will be taken when all options have been considered.''
The spokesperson said Defence conducted monitoring of the Majura training area twice a year. The last count in November 2008 indicated the kangaroo population was more than 9000. In November 2007, the population was more than 6000. Limestone Plains Group co-convener and consultant botanist Isobel Crawford said Defence conducted a study which showed up to 5000 kangaroos starved to death in one season. She said it had carried out estimates to try to determine how many kangaroos had died. She said the scientists that carried out the study found no signs of disease; ''it was starvation pure and simple''.
But Ms Crawford said the big issue was about the habitat the kangaroos were destroying and 300-400ha of grassy woodland had become ''completely bare grass''. Group co-convener David Shorthouse, a visiting fellow in ecology with the ANU's Fenner School, said the group would like to see the landowners and other experts come together to find a solution. 'You'd need a coordinated kangaroo management plan across the whole valley. And February to July is the ACT's culling season, so we're in it now. The ACT Government can issue licenses and it could do so on a coordinated basis.'' *Canberra times
Ed Comment; Shane Rattenbury, the Green Speaker of the House, came out in the Sunday papers with commments that showed he was totally uninformed of the kangaroo situation...not just around Canberra, but Nationally as well. At least one other of the Canberra Greens is similarly uninformed, and in fact supports the ACT governmentss views on kangaroo management ....which is to shoot 'em! Meanwhile arrangements are being made by locals to speak to the ACT Greens. We fear it will be a waste of time. There are a large number of kangaroos at Majura,an Army Training Ground in the ACT, and they can come and go. They seem to stay there because there is some feed, and if they stick their heads over or under the fence, local farmers shoot them. Why would they leave? More on this issue later. * More "shootem up" nonsense from the Canbera Times..... Wildlife watchers fear for the survival of threatened and vulnerable species on a Defence site in Canberra where kangaroo numbers have escalated. The Canberra Times has obtained images of an endangered grassy woodland at the Majura Training Area, which show expanses of dirt resulting from heavy overgrazing. The site is home to two vulnerable ground feeding birds as well as the rare army spider orchid, Arachnorchis armata. Botanists have found only a handful of these plants, and only in the Majura Training Area. They also believe the site contains the endangered Canberra spider orchid, Arachnorchis actensis, found on the lower slopes of Mt Majura and Mt Ainslie. Peter Milburn, who has monitored the Canberra orchid population for 20 years, said he would like to see the orchids at the Majura Training Area but had not been allowed in. Dr Milburn said there was no evidence to show whether kangaroos ate orchids, but trampling could cause problems. 'I'd like to monitor them, put some cameras on these things and see what happens to them, because we just don't know.'' 'We're talking fewer than 100 [Canberra spider orchid] plants in the whole world and at the moment, and we can't just go, 'Oh, I hope they're going to be all right'.'' He said kangaroos scratching disturbed the surface layer of the ground and could act as vectors for soil fungi and create conditions where weeds could germinate. The Majura Training Area is also home to the brown treecreeper and hooded robin, both ground-feeding birds, which are listed as vulnerable in the ACT. Canberra Ornithologist Group conservation officer Jenny Bounds said she was concerned about the birds' survival at the training area.
''They're both vulnerable species and they're reliant on a healthy ground layer they feed on the insects on the ground. Any degradation of the ground layer is likely to have impacts.'' The Department of Defence reported last week that kangaroo numbers had jumped from more than 6000 to more than 9000 in one year at the Majura Training Area. A separate estimate suggested up to 5000 kangaroos died of starvation in one season, although a spokesperson said Defence had ''not undertaken a formal analysis of the mortality rate'' in the training area. 'Defence is currently assessing the options for managing kangaroos and threatened species at the Majura Training Area,'' the spokesperson said.
The Australian Defence Force training area, which lies to the north and east of Canberra airport, contains about 130ha of endangered natural temperate grasslands and a much larger area of critically endangered yellow box red gum grassy woodlands. Defence has fenced off the grasslands from kangaroos to conserve species found there, including the endangered earless dragon. There is no fence that shuts kangaroos in or out of the woodlands, but ecologists believe the behaviour of the eastern grey kangaroo ties the animal to one area despite having no food. Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said, ''The Department of Defence was aware of its land management responsibilities under the relevant Federal legislation.'' So what Stinks... What stinks about dead Roo figures "You don’t have to look, you don’t have to see, you can feel it in your olfactory," sang Loudon Wainwright in a chirpy song about skunk roadkill back in the 1970s. Likewise, it could be argued that if, as claimed, 5000 eastern grey kangaroos have died of starvation "in one season" at a Federal department of defence training site in Canberra, our noses would know about it. Do the maths. Even if 5000 kangaroos had died in one year, that’s roughly 14 animals a day, building to 98 carcasses a week.
There would be, as one kangaroo ecologist dryly observed, "a murder of crows" descending on the site. If we interpret "one season" as three months, the carcass count would be over 1600 a month – which would amount to a serious health hazard for any troops using the training site as well as a unique waste disposal problem. Let’s be blunt here, as well as a murder of crows, the decaying corpses would also attract a buzz of blowflies and a heave of maggots. Can this estimate be accurate? Or does it simply reveal the usual flaw in using walked ground surveys, or line transects, to estimate kangaroo numbers? This accuracy of this method, and the correction factors required, have been debated since the mid-1980s. These issues were the subject of a paper published in the "Australian Zoologist" almost a decade ago, which argues a case for aerial surveys to gain a better estimate of kangaroo numbers.
And are kangaroos starving at the site? If such large numbers are dying over such a short period, then are we in fact looking at a fatal virus – similar to outbreaks recently reported in northern NSW - which attacks the brain and eyes of kangaroos. Or a macropod alphaherpes virus – similar to that now attacking the immune system of koalas – which was identified in nasal swabs taken from eastern grey kangaroos that died in captivity in Queensland. Has someone done the necessary pathology? Research in universities across Australia is revealing that macropod biology – that's the biology of more than 50 species of creatures that are usually lumped, by the unobservant, into the generic category of "kangaroo" - is far more complex than previously thought. Recent developments include the revelation that climate change is affecting the breeding patterns of red kangaroos.
Heat stress is killing young animals, because they need to work harder – an increased rate of shallow panting and bigger breaths – to cool their bodies. The late Alan Newsome, a senior CSIRO researcher, also did pioneering research that found high temperatures reduced the fertility of male red kangaroos. Has anyone looked at the impact of temperature extremes on mortality rates in eastern greys? Is there a link between drought and increased gut parasite burdens? Wildlife ecology should not be the domain of popular myth, casual speculation or media manipulation. It is a serious science, requiring mathematically based field work, an understanding of environmental complexities and a formidable intellect. At its best, it’s an enthralling, exhilarating science that’s right up there with the best of astronomy and quantum physics. It’s not about patting critters and taking a stroll through the bush. As a nation, our politicians are mostly woefully uninformed about our biodiversity, and as a recent Australian Audit office report pointed out, our policy makers often are not fully across the complexities of environmental issues.
Does anyone remember that episode of "The West Wing" (it's in the second series) where the White House deputy chief of staff (Josh Lyman) and the communications director (the usually erudite Toby Ziegler) are describing one of America's 12 subspecies of lynx as "a kind of possum’" when briefing the president on an emerging environmental issue? There's also an episode where Josh (a character with a formidable knowledge of political systems) is struggling to establish the difference between a panda and a koala. Given Australia's vulnerability to climate change, we can't afford this kind of muddle-headed confusion among our environmental policy makers. *Canberra Times
Ed Comment; Since rumours of these reports surfaced, Defence have denied any such reports exist. In early April it was confirmed by Defence that they are acting under instructions from Dr Mike Kelly AM MP, (Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Support) and so have applied for Permits to kill an unknown number of kangaroos at Majura Army Base in Canberra. It is also confirmed that there are plans to turn Majura into an "internationally significant night manouvers" firing range, where high tech. night responsive equipment is used. We are led to believe such equipment is sensitive to night ground movement including movement from kangaroos. In other words, they upset the night war games of the lollipop soldiers! And just on the outskirts of Canberra, and adjacent to many small landowners. What are they thinking? Another conflicting land use proposal for Majura is Capital Airport Group, (owned by the Spice family) who purchased Canberra Airport from the Commonwealth Government's Federal Airports Corporation in May 1998. At the time, the Airport consisted of the airport terminal, general aviation precinct and the RAAF Fairbairn base. It was bought by Terry Snow in 1998 for $66.5 million. It is now worth more than treble that based on recent valuations of world airports. Snow, who is valued at more than $600 million on BRW's Rich 200, has built a large business park ( Brindabella Business Park) next to the runway, as well as a discount retail outlet and other properties through the city of Canberra. Today, (according to the Airport website) ten years later, Canberra Airport has evolved into a multi-modal transport hub, business and retail destination. The multi award winning Brindabella Business Park (Editor, mostly leased to Federal Defence Force offices...think about that....!) is arguably Australia's greenest business centre.
It is home to approximately 5,000 workers and encompasses 18 A-grade commercial buildings totalling 100,000m2 NLA. The former RAAF base at Fairbairn (Ed. just across the from the Airport runway) is now our largest commercial precinct, and represents the second stage of the Airport's business hub and is currently occupied by approximately 2,000 workers. Majura Park is our newest multi faceted precinct, with an exciting combination of factory outlet retail (Brand Depot), "big-box" retail and commercial office accommodation (26,000m2 NLA). *From the Airport website.
We know that Canberra Airport has huge expansion programs planned, including a three lane highway and huge storage depots right on top of the Earless Dragons grassland habitat, that they claim the kangaroos are wrecking, and including some of the Majura Army base! So thousands of ACT kangaroos will be killed to make way for development ...again...... So the Protests in Canberra start this week!
Wed. 15 Apr. 12 noon. First Protest activity, Square between Canberra Legislative Assembly bldgs and Canberra Theatre (organisers at 11am). Anyone wishing to attend the ongoing and rolling protests will need to contact the ACT Animal Lib offices for further details. We will pass protest info on as it becomes available..... The Shonky Kangaroo Management Plan A Canberra statistician has criticised the use of two figures in the ACT Government's draft kangaroo management plan, saying they are ''grossly misleading''.
Mark Drummond, of the Canberra Kangaroo Coalition, said the deceptive use of statistics undermined the main argument used to cull kangaroos in the ACT: to reduce damage to threatened grasslands. He said they also undermined a supporting argument based on motor vehicle collisions. 'There's no way the problem is anywhere near the extreme end of what some people have claimed and people just need to far more patiently and carefully look at everything,'' he said. But the ACT Government said the plan was still at the draft stage and any concerns would be carefully considered. Department of Parks, Conservation and Land research and planning manager Sharon Lane said the very reason for having a draft plan was to allow members of the public to comment on any concerns.
''We have put together this document in very good faith, using the information that we have, with the expertise that we have, and we have not set out to misrepresent any of the information that is included in that document,'' she said. ''We have set out to represent what we think is correct and true, and if anyone thinks we have not hit the mark, it's incorrect or there's technical errors, then we will go back and have a look at it once we've received those submissions.'' Dr Drummond carried out an analysis on a graph in the plan, which described the number of kangaroo collisions with vehicles over about 15 years. The report states the data ''indicate there has been a significant increase in the rate per car of vehicle collisions with kangaroos''.
Dr Drummond said the significant increase, as indicated by the line of best fit, did not exist. ''It would have mitigated the crime here if they had a light dashed line, indicating a weak claim,'' he said. Dr Drummond also said the figure describing ground cover of grassland sites in Canberra exaggerated the adverse impacts of kangaroos. *Canberra Times
Ed Comment; We have to say that during our 20 plus years of responding to Government documents, we have never seen such an obvious and biased attempt to manipute data to gain a desired result...support for killing more kangaroos.
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