kangaroo newsletter archives11

Kangaroo newsletter Archives 11

Tasmanian Demo

As you would be aware, the Taste of Tasmania and the arrival of the Sydney to Hobart Yachts is a time that sees thousands of tourists flock to Hobart. We want to have a demo at this time and need as many people there as possible.

When - December 29 at 11am. Where - meet at Parliament Lawns Bring - your own placard if possible. We will have some available and will also have leaflets. What - hand "War on Wildlife" leaflets to passing members of the public.

AACT member Jeremy Johnson is coordinating this demo so please let him know if you can make it. Jeremy's email is jjsmailau@yahoo.com and his mobile number is 0407 554 511.

Thanks everyone - I know it's a busy time of year but if you spare an hour or two to help our beautiful native animals then it would be much appreciated. Consider it a festive gift for them from you!

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Kangaroos thumping their Feet

Farmers may one day blast out a recording of kangaroos thumping their feet to scare them off, new research suggests. Researchers think using the kangaroo's own alarm signal will be better than existing deterrents, which rely on artificial squeals that pest roos can grow used to.

Dr Helena Bender, who was a PhD student at the University of Melbourne when she did the research, has published her findings in the latest issue of the journal Wildlife Research.

Australia's iconic marsupials are often seen as pests as they can damage crops and property, and compete with livestock for food and water. But using the sound of foot thumps may be a deterrent.

Kangaroos thump their feet, hitting one on the ground ahead of the other, when they sense danger and take flight. Often nearby kangaroos will also take flight when they hear the sound. Until now, the only commercially-available kangaroo deterrent devices have used recordings of non-natural sounds, often a high-pitched squeal. But studies have found no evidence that these high frequencies are effective for problem species or that they work for anything other than a very short period of time.

Dr Bender used a recording of an eastern grey kangaroo (Macropus giganteus) foot thump.

She determined its effectiveness compared with a recording of background noise, the sound of rustling eucalypt leaves, over a seven-week period. She found that just over 60 per cent of kangaroos took flight in response to both the foot thump and the control signals, but more kangaroos took flight in the first three seconds when the foot thump was played. While the percentage of roos that took flight was almost identical, only the foot thump signal increased the level of alertness of the roos.

Dr Bender says she hopes her research will benefit rural Australia. "Reducing the presence of kangaroos in an area should result in a significant decrease in the amount of damage caused, and an increase in harvest yield," she says. "Moreover, for those kangaroos that remain behind, most of these will be in a state of alertness.

"When kangaroos are alert they cannot feed. This also means less damage to the agricultural property." She says the foot thump sound could also be used to guide kangaroos away from roadways, thus reducing the number of vehicles damaged by kangaroos and the number of kangaroos injured or killed by vehicles. * Media report*

It’s not a bad idea. Reminds me of the time a farmer who lived next to me used a "bang" device to frighten away magpie geese, because we stopped him from shooting them. This thing was gas powered with a gas bottle and used to go off at different intervals sounding like a shotgun. It was real pain to us, the neighbors, because it used to go off all night. It didn’t worry the magpie geese too much, once I saw a couple sitting on top of it, using it for a perch.

Anyway, he put it at the edge of the Lake, and we got some heavy rain, the water levels rose, the device went under water, and when it next went off it exploded, blowing itself to pieces. Very sad for the farmer, but us neighbors held an enjoyable wake for the device.

But imagine a device that could make the sounds of kangaroos thumping their feet! It could even have little legs on it, and stamp its feet as well, so the vibrations would carry through the ground! Further development could actually have it walking through the crops, making thumping noises and stamping it’s little feet. It might even be able to sing “Waltzing Matilda” at the same time.

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Kangamail 27/11/05

A competition is under way to rename kangaroo meat to boost sales in restaurants and supermarkets. A claim that 300 entries have been received from the food (read kangaroo) industry in a bid to rebrand kangaroo meat, to make it more palatable for Australian and overseas consumers. The kangaroo industry claims to worth $200 million a year, but believes there is great potential to increase the market.

Names like marsu, marla, and wallagang have been suggested. (I wonder if they know about ‘truth in advertising’!) The story has appeared on many overseas web news sites too. In Queensland in Charleville in the south west of the state a kangaroo processing plant is to open by the end of the month. The Shire expects to export millions of kangaroo sausages to Russia, supposedly desperately short of meat and protein, and to France, as a table delicacy!

According to the media, the Russians have put $7million into this venture along with capital from local investors. Where would a Russian company find 7 million dollars? Someone has suggested the Russian Mafia. I didn’t say that, but if the shoe fits…… However it now appears that it may not have been financed with Russian money, and the media may have got it wrong…again.

Unfortunately its very difficult, almost impossible, get any positive kangaroo stories in print. Both Packer and Murdoch, who own almost all the Media, are large pastoralists and support the Industry. Last year the Australian newspaper sent two of their best journalists to one of their properties. They did a big two page spread in the Australian about how there were too many kangaroos and they had to be killed so the poor farmers like Packer and Murdock (Murdock earned $24 US million this year) could survive. So for anyone wondering why there are no good news stories about kangaroos in the mainstream media, now you know why!

We also have the problem of the State and Federal government web sites supporting the kill, and espousing the fantasy that there are more kangas here now than ever before, because farmers have provided water and food for them, which is simply not true. Noone knows how many kangaroos were here in 1860, but early writings report many large kangaroos everywhere.

Dr John Auty’s modeling suggests there was enough native grassland available in 1860 to support 400 million kangaroos. With five major river systems running across Australia, plentiful rain, and abundant clear and clean billabongs, apparently kangaroos couldn’t get a drink until the farmers arrived and dug dams? Gimme a break!

One reader has suggested that we need to develop a "five year" Plan, so that we become less defensive, and more pro-active in our campaigns to stop the killing. Shooting kangaroos is no longer a crop protection practice, all State governments are now saying the kangaroos are a "natural resource" and the kill is a "sustainable industry".

However, there’s no evidence of any sustainable wildlife industry anywhere in the world. In fact, the opposite is the case. What do our readers think? Should we attempt to develop a "Five Year Action Plan" to close down the Industry? Or is five years to late for the kangaroos? There is no doubt that we need to develop effective strategies to defeat the government-funded kangaroo Industry campaigns.

There will be a kangaroo Forum at Parliament House in Sydney on Monday February 6th. More details later. It’s being organised by the NSW Greens. Some people have suggested we may need to have a group strategy meeting at a different time either before or after the Forum, or the next day, while we are all in Sydney. Another suggestion has been to hold a Rally somewhere where the media may become interested.

What do our readers think? Tell us your ideas for effective strategies. These are desperate times for our kangaroos, we will listen to anything constructive! * WPAA

pat@wildlifeprotectaust.org.au

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Kangaroos are being blamed for the spread of Patterson's Curse to previously unaffected areas of the ACT. Environment ACT's manager of Parks and Conservation, Geoff Wells, says the weed has appeared this year in unexpected places. He says it is likely kangaroos have spread the seed by carrying it in their stomachs.

"It's very likely that during the drought that Kangaroos have carried it in from roadsides or whatever and have carried it in their guts to the new places where it's appearing for the first time this year," he said. "So we'll obviously need to be on to that in future years." But Mr Wells says the weed, which can seriously harm horses if they eat it, has not yet spread to all horse paddocks.

"Areas where horses are likely to graze, there are at least some paddocks available to horse owners that don't have patterson's curse on it," he said. "That's the major factor, that we need to get the horses through this time without getting too much of the dangerous toxins in their livers." *ABC

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'Hazards' are a traditional part of golf. How to deal with them is even written into the rules of the' royal and ancient game'. But it seems that some 'moving hazards' just don't go by the book. And this is creating a problem for Lithgow Council and for the Lithgow Golf Club. At issue is the increasing number of kangaroos invading the golf course.

They've been there for years and there has been something of a mutual level of tolerance developed between the golfers and the roos. They've accepted the presence of each other, but now some golfers are becoming concerned about the kangaroos. There has also been attempt to restart a kill at the Yanchep Golf Club in WA. They started a kill two years ago and after some lobbying it was stopped. I’ve written to the Club and the Minister about it, and contacted CALM, who say they have only been asked to “assess” the number of kangaroos.

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Sometimes you win! I am so elated! Sometimes you win and boy it feels good, albeit a small victory but a victory none the less. I recently found out that a local eatery was serving kangaroo meat.

I happen to know the owner, who is also the chef of this place; he is a nice enough guy, married, two teenage girls. I battled long and hard (actually it wasn’t that long really as I had to make my call pretty fast) what to do, do I take on this local identity?, my mum and her friends regularly eat there, or do nothing after all it is only a small restaurant in the scheme of things and that way I could avoid any “unpleasant repercussions”.

With this darn conscience of mine telling me to look into the eyes of a kangaroo and tell it “sorry brother, too hard basket” my action was confirmed, and hey what was another one after my hide anyway!

I drafted a letter, bashed it about, and got some advice and hand delivered it to the proprietor last Thursday. This morning I got a message to call this chap as he “had some information he wanted to pass on to me”. “Oh dear” I thought and made the call, dreading the response but never regretting my action.

The chap told me he had contacted the supplier of his kangaroo meat and the meat was not as he thought obtained from “farmed” kangaroos. In fact the method of killing was consistent with what I had informed him of. As a result of this he advised me that he cancelled his order with the supplier and he would no longer be serving kangaroo meat in his restaurant, and thanked me for alerting him to the issue.

One small step, but the longest journey begins with but one small step. I encourage you all to take one small step today for the animals, below is my letter. *A reader

Ed Comment; Its surprising how many such restaurants will stop serving kangaroo meat once they are approached about it nicely. Other people have had similar success. These eateries often don’t know about the cruelty unless we tell them. The letter is below for anyone who needs a template for a local restaurant.

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Dear xxxxx. This is probably one of the hardest letters I have written, for I do not wish to cause you any angst or pain but I cannot sit by and let a great travesty go on and do nothing. I was shocked and appalled to read that you are to serve kangaroo meat in your restaurant.

I trust this comes without your knowledge of either how this meat is brutally obtained or the environmental damage it causes, as I find it hard to imagine how any compassionate individual could even entertain the thought of kangaroo products having knowledge of the methods of killing. Reluctantly accepting that people will eat meat, there already exists a plethora of dead animals to dine upon without adding more suffering and destruction.

And when one looks to right the wrongs of what is happening to animals on “our watch” we look towards the most egregious, and not too many industries are more egregious than the kangaroo killing industry.

The kangaroo killing industry is truly a blight on our nation for it is the largest land based massacre of any mammal in the world. Having spoken to you I understand you to be a compassionate man. Perhaps you are not aware of the “collateral damage” caused by this callous industry.

By serving kangaroo meat you are compliant in the bashing to death or decapitation of over one million baby joeys each year as they are callously ripped from their mothers pouch. Ex-pouch but still dependent joeys flee in terror after their mothers are shot only to die a lingering death from hypothermia, starvation, predation and maternal depravation.

Conducted at night in remote outback areas, makes policing difficult at best, shooters target the biggest of the species. In targeting the largest animals namely the alpha males, his immediate rivals and older females, (all the educators of the mob), means females are left to mate with inferior males weakening the gene pool.

Animals surviving today have already endured the ravages of drought thereby being genetically important, continuing to take out these animals further places the species in danger. In the 1960’s the average age of the Red Kangaroo was 12 years today it is around two.

Given that our Olympic marksmen have difficulty obtaining 100% accuracy, shooting live animals at night questions precision. The mouth of a kangaroo can be blown off only to see the kangaroo escape to die of shock and starvation.

Forearms can be blown off, as can ears, eyes, noses and jaws. Stomachs can be hit, expelling the contents while the kangaroo is still alive. Backbones can be pulverised to an unrecognisable state. Hind legs can be shattered with the kangaroo desperately trying to get away on the other or without the use of either.

We are repeatedly told that the Kangaroo Industry is environmentally friendly but this denies the destruction caused as night after night shooters drive their heavy four wheel drive vehicles off road creating gullies and causing erosion, trampling indigenous vegetation and destroying small ground dwelling native species.

If you are not moved by the inherent cruelty of this insidious industry perhaps health concerns will cause you to review your menu. Kangaroos are shot in the wild in unhygienic conditions at night, disembowelled amongst the faeces of other animals, dirt and dust.

There is no inspection prior to shooting kangaroos and ante-mortem inspection is performed by unqualified shooters. Kangaroos were declared Game in 1989 causing me to think you would have to be game to eat them! Please, dear XXX I implore you to rethink your menu and pledge to protect our native wildlife by never selling kangaroo meat again. I anxiously await your response. Yours sincerely, yyyyy.

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Results of a recent SMH online poll about wether we should kill kangaroos.…... There's plenty of them, keep hunting - 41% We must stop immediately - 59% Total Votes: 4939 Poll date: 21/10/05

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Australians are being urged to start eating more kangaroos, defying a traditional reluctance to tuck into a national icon. The continent is home to millions of kangaroos and wallabies but for decades Australians have been averse to eating them, partly because of sentimental reasons - what some call the "Skippy factor".

The fact that a kangaroo graces the country's coat of arms - opposite an emu - has also dissuaded many Australians from tossing a 'roo steak on the barbie. To many people it seems somehow wrong. Even the kangaroo industry admits that killing an "iconic" wildlife species for commercial gain is an emotive issue. However, it has now launched a five-year plan to help Australians overcome their squeamishness.

"Kangaroo was the red meat of choice in Australia for 40,000 years," said John Kelly, the executive officer of the Kangaroo Industries Association. "It's only in the last 100 years or so that we've had a bit of a hiccup." As part of the drive to put kangaroo back on the nation's dinner tables, the industry plans to publish kangaroo recipe books and develop new products such as ready-to-eat meals, kangaroo burgers and kangaroo sausages.

Restaurant chefs will be encouraged to use more kangaroo meat and doctors and dieticians will be told of its health benefits as a low fat alternative to beef and lamb. Farmers claim that kangaroo numbers have exploded since white settlement 200 years ago because reservoirs have increased the availability of water in the Outback.

Some scientists say the sharp hooves of introduced European animals such as sheep and cattle cause devastating soil erosion. They say the land should be used for the rearing of soft-padded kangaroos, which are in tune with the environment and could be farmed for their meat.

Europeans are keener to eat kangaroo than Australians. Of the 300,000 tons of meat produced each year, 60 per cent is exported to countries such as Germany, France and Belgium, 20 per cent goes to the domestic market and the rest becomes pet food. Ranged against the industry, however, are animal welfare organisations. They say that the killing of kangaroos by hunters with spotlights at night is cruel.

"Often the shooters don't manage a clean head shot, so the animals are left to die," said Maryland Wilson, the president of the Australian Wildlife Protection Council. The council is lobbying for the annual cull of kangaroos - the quota this year is four million - to be ended."The cull shames Australia," Ms Wilson said. "We are turning our beautiful kangaroos into sausages for Russia. It's a disgrace." NewsTelegraph

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Sydney - Animals caused more than 17 000 crashes on Australian roads last year, with kangaroos accounting for most of them, an insurance company said on Wednesday. Other animals involved in collisions included wombats, foxes, dogs, cats, horses, cows and sheep, SGIO insurance warned in a statement pointing to the winter month of July as a particularly notorious time for kangaroo crashes. "Traditionally kangaroos are a problem on regional roads during the winter months," said SGIO's Western Australia (WA) manager Garry Moore.

"During winter it gets dark earlier and motorists spend more time driving with their headlights on. Unfortunately, lights can startle and confuse animals," he said. "In regional WA, animal-related collisions make up a greater proportion of all collision claims." Nationally, kangaroos were involved in 13 003 out of a total of 17&nsp;748 animal-related accidents, research showed. Most of Australia's millions of kangaroos are nocturnal, and motorists were urged to take extra care at night and around dawn and dusk when collisions are frequent. * Media report

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Last week former Federal Environment Minister Barry Cohen launched a vitriolic attack on wildlife and animal welfare groups in the Sydney Morning Herald. For those who didn’t see it, the full letter will appear in the next Kangamail. He was a Federal MP from 1969 until 1990, and has accused us of lying and scare mongering about the kangaroos.

What is it with these geriatric politicians? First we had Bob Hawke telling us a couple of weeks ago that we should take all the Worlds nuclear waste, now we’ve got Barry Cohen telling us we have to kill the kangaroos to save them and other wildlife!

When in Government Barry used all the unlimited resources of the Federal Government to discredit wildlife groups in the 70's and 80’s who were working hard to stop the kill. When we were campaigning against the live sheep trade back in the 70’s, Hawke was the one who negotiated an agreement that would allow one ship to go overseas, and the next two be processed here in Australia.

Of course, within a year, all shipments were going overseas, anything that had a woolly face and two ears was sent, possibly a woolly sheepdog or two went by mistake as well.

These guys, when they were in government, had their chance to make a difference with the environment and with wildlife, but failed, and failed miserably. It’s not as though they can say they had any environmental success.

With Greenhouse upon us, and with wildlife populations crashing around the country, we are seeing the end results of their failed regimes now. I wonder why they just don’t grow old gracefully and quietly as most people do, and let us just get on with the job of trying to fix up their mistakes! *

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This response to Barry Cohen's letter above from a Melbourne Academic;

I am an academic psychologist and an author of one of the chapters in the recently published book- Kangaroos: Myths and Realities. Your recently published article authored by Barry Cohen is grossly misrepresenting the truth. The book brings together information from some of the most knowledgeable and esteemed of Australia's scientists (and indeed some international experts), conservationists and animal welfare representatives.

Mr Cohen fails to acknowledge the scientific integrity of the facts that are brought together in this volume. As a psychologist, I can only ask, why? Why is it important to him that he speak out for an industry that is responsible for animal cruelty on a massive scale?

This is an industry that hides behind the invisible veil of a Code of Practice that cannot be monitored. It is an industry that is built of guesstimates of kangaroo quotas, arguing that there a plagues of kangaroos when historical documentation indicates that numbers, if anything, are down on what existed pre-European settlement.

Certainly, the numbers of adult male kangaroos particularly red kangaroos is down, so much so that, in his book 'Country' Tim Flannery, writes of a study by the highly regarded researcher Alan Newsome in 1980 "Newsome's study....also filled me with fear for the future of the large kangaroos in the face of global warming". Quite apart from the potential damage that the kangaroo killing industry poses to the genetic integrity of the large kangaroo species annually killed in the millions, there is the convenient omission of the horrendous cruelty faced by the thousands of orphaned joeys that annually result from the killing of adult females.

These joeys, still dependent on their mothers, are left to die a slow painful death by starvation, dehydration or predation when their mother is killed and they are left to fend for themselves. There are also the healthy pouch young who are cruelly taken from their dead or dying mothers' pouch only to have their head stomped on, chopped off, or to be clubbed to death. In fact, these are the killing methods recommended in "The Code."

And although the industry would have you think otherwise, there is also horrendous cruelty that exists in the shooting of the adult kangaroos since, although the code stipulates that kangaroos must be head shot, there is a very high rate of non-head, and indeed, non-fatal shootings. Many adult kangaroos run off into the night and into their slow painful deaths due to having had their mouths, legs, necks or stomachs shot.

The kangaroo killing industry has been able to hide its dirty dark secrets in the darkness and the remoteness of the Australian bush for too long. The fact that Kangaroos: Myths and Realities is turning the light on for many seems to be too hard to swallow for those who have heavily invested in this cruelly money making machine. *

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Kangaroos are Australia’s best known animal and adored by many, but just ask a farmer and you might get a very different picture. When it comes to kangaroos there are two very distinct camps. In one corner there’s the belief that the number of kangaroos is approaching critical levels and that culling must be stopped and then there’s the side believing that culling has its firm place in keeping the numbers of kangaroos at reasonable levels. Pat O’Brien from the Wildlife Protection Association of Australia is convinced that it is time to turn around our attitude towards the national emblem on our coat of arms. "We have to start treating it as an Australian icon rather than a slab of meat being sent to Russia or Mexico," he says. The group he represents is one of many organisations in Australia which would like to see the culling of kangaroos stopped entirely, because they are afraid that Australia’s favourite animal is in danger of dying out. "The numbers are not declining, they are crashing, they are really crashing and next year the quota will be down even further," he claims.

It is widely recognised that the number of kangaroos across Australia have gone down in the last few years. "Certainly the population in the east coast has declined with the drought," agrees Dr. Peter Mawson, the principal zoologist with the Department of Conservation and Land Management in Western Australia. But while this decrease in numbers is considered a problem by some like Pat for others it’s all in control.

"All states have approved management plans for the commercial harvest of kangaroos and air and ground surveys are used to determine the number of populations," says Peter. The number of kangaroos that are allowed to be culled is always adjusted to the number of kangaroos out there. "The culling quota is always set at a certain percentage of the kangaroo stock," explains Peter.

But there’s not just the problem with numbers of kangaroo, there also is the issue of the genetic stock. "We are seeing small groups of genetically impoverished kangaroos scattered around the country," claims Pat. He believes it’s part of the changed motivation for culling. In the early days culling was used as a method to keep kangaroos away from farms and pastoral leases.

These days kangaroo meat is a product for dog and cat food and it’s also promoted in countries like Russia and South Africa. "It’s cheap, it’s a free good, because the industry doesn’t have to buy land and it doesn’t have to buy breeding stock," says Pat. "They are trying to build up an overseas market for it when the levels are already at a dangerous level." The question of impoverished genes is something that Dr. Peter Mawson considers a myth.

"There has been a paper published recently showing that the genetics of the red kangaroos is consistent across the country," he says. According to that paper there’s enough movement of male and female kangaroos to maintain the same gene pool across the country.

The opinions in regards to the health of the kangaroo might differ, but what is for sure is that the natural habitat of the kangaroo has changed substantially and will never be the same. It can only be hoped that our national emblem will be hopping along in the future. *ABC Goldfields

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Western Australia's Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) has dismissed claims Australia's kangaroo population is collapsing due to the commercial harvest of the species. The Australian Wildlife Protection Council says more than 30 million kangaroos have been shot over the past 10 years, with a further three million joeys left to starve or be eaten by predators. The council wants the Commonwealth to outlaw the practice. Peter Mawson from CALM says although the population in some areas of the east coast has declined due to the drought, most populations are reproducing at a rate of 30 per cent per annum.

Doctor Mawson says numbers generally have increased over the past 50 years. "With the changes that Europeans have brought to Australia, we've improved the quality of the pasture by providing introduced pasture species, we've provided artificial watering points and we've largely removed the principal primary predator of kangaroos in the dingo." *ABC

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Most people will have heard about the kangaroo entrapment in a Water Treatment Area controlled by the Brisbane City Council near Ipswich. We wrote to the Queensland Environment Minister about this asking that the Government prosecute the BCC. The response from the Ministers Office arrived today.

They claim they don’t have any responsibility for animal welfare matters, and the matter was handled by the RSPCA. The Office is unaware if the RSPCA is going to take any action against BCC! And another whitewash takes place! If anyone else kept 100 or so kangaroos in an enclosure for 17 years, and many died of starvation, the Environment Department would take action then!

They have no difficulty going to a wildlife carer’s property and removing a kangaroo if they think they are not being looked after properly! But they won’t take on the Brisbane City Council, who have been directly and deliberately responsible for causing the starvation of many of the kangaroos and joeys! * WPAA

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The recent drought has caused a serious drop in kangaroo numbers in South Australia's pastoral and northern agricultural zones, according to a recent survey. The annual Department Of Environment survey found western grey kangaroo numbers fell by nearly 25 per cent last year, while the red kangaroo population dropped by 12 per cent.

But department officer Glenn Shimmin is confident kangaroo numbers can bounce back. "When we do get consecutive years of good rainfall, the numbers respond very quickly," he said. "We just know that with a couple of good seasons there'll be enough pasture growth to allow successful recruitment into the population." *ABC

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A lawsuit that sought to stop the maker of Adidas shoes from selling soccer cleats made with kangaroo leather has been dismissed by a state appeals court in San Francisco.

The Court of Appeal said a state ban on the use of kangaroo leather would interfere with a U.S. policy of working with the Australian government to develop a kangaroo conservation program. Justice James Marchiano wrote, ``State prohibition of the import of kangaroo products interferes with the federal objectives of achieving -- and maintaining -- Australian kangaroo management procedures.'

'The decision was issued Monday in a lawsuit filed in San Francisco Superior Court in 2003 by Viva! International Voice for Animals, an animal rights group based in Davis, Calif. The defendants in the lawsuit were Adidas Promotional Retail Operations and sports stores in Sacramento County and Los Angeles.

Viva! Attorney Orly Degani said the group is considering an appeal to the California Supreme Court. Degani said, ``We're talking about a very cruel practice that the California Legislature does not want to condone.''The lawsuit alleged that Adidas manufactures at least eight types of shoes, including seven soccer cleats, made with the skins of the Australian red kangaroo, eastern gray kangaroo and western gray kangaroo.

The suit claimed sales of the shoes violated a 1970 state law that bans the commercial importation or sales of products from any of 23 animals including kangaroos.The three kangaroo species were listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as threatened species from 1974 to 1995, but were taken off the list after the agency concluded the Australian government had developed an effective conservation program.

The appeals court said California was in general entitled to have a law banning products from a species that was not listed as threatened, but said that in the case of the kangaroos the state law improperly interfered with federal policy. *Network Item

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This week I attended a teleconference in regard to 2006 Queensland kangaroo quotas. According to QPWS, the populations of all species is up slightly on last year, and the quotas will change accordingly. In two of the three shooting blocks the quota has been dropped to 16% of red, and 10% of grey populations, the reason given is that they didn’t spend as much effort on surveys in those blocks, and the reduction is a “precautionary” measure.

In the Central shooting area, the quota remains at 20% of reds, and 15% of greys. Statewide quotas in 2006 will be 583,892 reds killed, 1,144,430 greys killed, and 375,376 wallaroos.

The Industry is pushing for a reduction in the current 4 foot size limit of skins, they claim in some areas there is an explosion of wallaroos, and they are smaller than the kangaroos. If the skin size is not lowered, they are unable to shoot them.

This will be discussed at the next meeting, and of course I will oppose it. I suspect QPWS will too, because they know Ill go to the media about it. I was very pleased to hear QPWS state that it was likely caused through landscape changes. They explained to the Industry that dingo reduction through 1080 was a component, and land clearing was probably responsible for animals relocating in mass.

Extensive land clearing is still taking place in Queensland, some say even worse than ever. 1600 kangaroo shooting permits will be issued for 2006, which is another issue I will raise at the next meeting in February. Another matter of interest was that QPWS stated that the Federal Government has told all the States that any Kangaroo Management Plan must be backed up by solid scientific research.

They will not approve any quotas or additional changes that are not accompanied by appropriate comprehensive data. SA have apparently been told by the Feds to go away and fix up their quota application. * WPAA

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Kangamail 21/10/05

The NSW Greens have organised a * Kangaroo Forum * at 6 PM in the Jubilee Room, NSW Parliament House on Wednesday December 7th. I’m not sure yet what format it will take, but it’s sure to be an enlightening evening! *WPAA

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Australia's eastern grey kangaroos are moving inland to dine on tender young grasses and water 'on tap', new research shows. Like a gourmet seeking the ultimate meal, the kangaroos are attracted to the grass-like vegetation that can grow after overgrazing, washed down with water meant for cattle and sheep.

Scientists have long been baffled about why the eastern grey kangaroo would abandon its traditional wetter country to move inland to hotter, drier, 'sheep country'. They hypothesise that the roos do so because of the ready access to water supplied for domestic stock such as sheep and cattle. But this latest research shows that water is only part of the picture. Based at a university research station in Fowler's Gap, in far north New South Wales, Emeritus Professor Terence Dawson and colleagues tracked the water use, drinking patterns and thermoregulatory behaviour of 'visiting' eastern greys (Macropus giganteus) and 'resident' red kangaroos (Macropus rufus) over a summer.

Both species mostly foraged at night and relaxed during the day to reduce heat loads. But the greys were more likely to seek out shade. Despite this, the greys were also the greater water seekers, drinking twice as frequently as the reds. "What we came up with is, sure, water is involved [in the migratory behaviour of the greys].

But so, too, is the changing vegetation of the surrounding [arid] regions," Dawson says. He says stock overgrazing in recent decades had changed the face of some arid regions.

Gone were much of the shrubbery, saltbush and thicker perennial grasses, to be replaced by annual grasses and herbage. As 'grass specialists' these tender grasses would be particularly attractive to the grey kangaroos. Dawson says while there is no evidence to date, he believes increasing arid conditions due to climate change might one day see the greys move back to their traditional homelands.

"The eastern greys will only be able to handle the arid country if they have good water supplies and cover, unlike the red kangaroos, which will just lie out in the sun. "So I would think that as temperatures go up the greys will be pushed back a bit into their normal [territory]. Even the reds are likely to move back closer to the coast. "But so far we haven't seen that." * NewsinScience

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Bacteria that live in the gut of kangaroos could reduce agricultural methane emissions and make livestock farming easier in places like Africa, a researcher says. Dr Athol Klieve, a senior research scientist with Queensland's department of primary industries and fisheries and colleagues from Australia and Canada have conducted the first research on kangaroo tummy bugs and have isolated several new species of bacteria.

"Till we started doing our work we knew very little about the gut microflora of kangaroos," Klieve says. "Our first bit of work isolated 40 bacteria and 20 of those were different to anything that has been cultured or reported in the international database previously." Klieve publishes his work in the current issue of the journal Letters in Applied Microbiology and presented his findings at a recent conference on greenhouse gases and animal agriculture in Zurich.

Klieve says kangaroos have a similar gut to sheep and cattle, with a large pre-gastric stomach that's involved in fermentation. But kangaroos have evolved unique gut microbes specially matched to their native vegetation. And kangaroos don't produce methane, unlike sheep and cattle, which belch out some 60 million tonnes of the greenhouse gas a year as a by-product of digestion.

Cutting back on methane

As sheep and cattle digest their food, they produce hydrogen, which is removed from the gut as methane. This occurs when methanogenic bacteria convert carbon dioxide and hydrogen into methane, which the animals burp out into the atmosphere. Klieve says researchers now have "a pretty good idea" kangaroos produce acetate instead as a byproduct of fermentation in the gut, which they use as a source of energy.

"So instead of being lost to the atmosphere the animal gets more value out of the grass," he says. He says the aim is to replace sheep microflora with kangaroo bacteria, cutting back methane production. Better digestion

Kangaroo microbes could also make it easier for sheep and cattle grazing in Australia to break down native pastures, he says. This is because kangaroos, the pastures on which they feed and the microbes in their guts evolved together over millions of years. But the introduced sheep and cattle, and their gut bacteria, have only had two centuries to adapt to the Australian environment.

"We're looking at isolating the specific species of bacteria that are best able to break down the native pasture fibre and seeing if we can get them to establish and colonise in sheep and cattle," he says. Kangaroo microbes could also be helpful to livestock in tropical places like Africa, which have similar types of harsh vegetation.

Probiotics for cattle

Klieve's team is currently screening kangaroo microbes in an artificial stomach. "We've got a couple more years of research by which time we should have trialled these microbes to see which are best at doing the job we want and which can best establish in sheep and cattle," he says.

"Then we'll take it to a commercial partner for development into a probiotic drench or feed additive ... a bit like yoghurt for cattle." There's also a possibility that kangaroo microbes could be harnessed to produce antibiotics, Klieve says. "There's going to be a lot of unique microbes in native wildlife and it's a biological resource that belongs to Australia that really hasn't been harnessed." * NewsinScience

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Monday 10 October 2005 Media release AWPC

The Australian Wildlife Protection Council today demanded that Australia’s annual kangaroo cull be abolished.

Launching a new book today, titled Kangaroos Myths and Realities, AWPC president Maryland Wilson said the annual slaughter was barbaric and the Australian Government should step in and outlaw it.

Over the last decade 30 million kangaroos have been shot, with a further 4.5 million joeys ripped from their dead mother’s pouches and clubbed to death with iron pipes, left to starve, or be eaten alive by predators such as foxes and packs of wild dogs.

“ Kangaroos feature on our Australian coat of arms for good reason, they are majestic and proud animals that reflect our national character.” Ms Wilson said.

“They cannot walk backwards and that is why they are representative of a forward looking nation.”

“ It is time the Australian Government took the forward looking decision to outlaw this 19th century barbaric practice.”

A coalition of scientists and other concerned Australians have authored Kangaroos Myths and Realities, which exposes the callous failings of control programs and the commercial exploitation for meat and hides.

Tony Bonner, the Australian actor who played the chopper pilot in the internationally acclaimed TV series Skippy is hosting the book launch in the NSW Parliament Theatrette at 11AM. Uncle Max an Aboriginal Elder will be on hand to give support.

The kangaroo population has collapsed in the past three years with alarming statistics:

�h The number of Eastern Grey kangaroos has decreased by 63 per cent to just over 11 million

�h The number of Red kangaroos has collapsed by 55 per cent to less than 8 million

�h The number of Wallaroos has dropped by 54 per cent to just over 3 million

�h The species with the smallest drop is the Western Grey, the least abundant of all the targeted species, which is down about 9 per cent.

Despite constant warnings that kangaroos were under severe pressure from drought and commercial killing, the Australian Government’s officially-sanctioned slaughter for meat and skin exports has continued unabated.

The annual kill is regulated by the Australian and state Government using licenses and export requirements. There are now 28 million less kangaroos in areas used for commercial killing than three years ago yet the federal government’s Rural industries Research and Development Corporation has allocated subsidies over five years to expand the markets into Asia for meat ( kangaroos turned into sausages for Russia) and hides.

In 2005 a further 3.9 million kangaroos have been earmarked for killing, a drop of only 500,000 on 2004. “ The collapse in kangaroo numbers was inevitable once a combination of rampant exploitation and drought came together, “ Ms Wilson said. “ The world’s largest wildlife massacre is being justified on the basis of so-called ‘scientific management’ programs in precisely the same way that fishing has been managed - and we all know what’s happened to global fish stocks ! ”

MEDIA CONTACTS: Halina Thompson - The Australian Wildlife Protection Council NSW Representative 0407 456 683

Pat O’Brien - The National Kangaroo Protection Campaign Coordinator 0408 711 344

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The Northern Territory's Parks and Wildlife Commission says rangers will begin trapping mala in Watarrka National Park tonight. The mala is a small wallaby that has become endangered in Australia and can only exist in environments where predators can be controlled.

The commission's Chris Pavey says any mala trapped tonight will be relocated to a special paddock in the Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park. Dr Pavey says it is important to spread the species into different areas and Uluru has been chosen because the mala is significant to Indigenous people in the area.

"As you pass that north side of Uluru there's lots of places there that have significance in the mala dreaming stories," he said.

"So the people there have always been very aware of the mala and it's had a great significance to them and obviously not having mala around anymore has been a considerable loss to them." The commission says it does not know when the mala will be able to survive unprotected in the wild. Dr Pavey says many people have been working hard to save the mala from extinction.

"Many years ago some animals were brought into captivity and they've been bred successfully and they've continued to flourish in these predator proof enclosures, so it's a bit of a success story, so I guess the story's not completely finished until they're successfully reintroduced into the wild," he said. *NT News

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October has been dedicated by many wildlife groups, as the month to hold a yearly WAM! Wildlife Awareness Month, which will be a national initiative. This year will be the pilot year. There are individuals and groups from all around the country taking part in their communities.

Activities range from education campaigns on the 'living with wildlife' type themes, media releases, letters to the Editors, as well as education on habitat needs for wildlife. The concept is basically to try to change the public perception of wildlife from being considered as a 'pest' to understanding what unique and fascinating creatures they really are. There is also a range of other activities being considered across the country.

During October each group or individual will just do a little extra to promote wildlife awareness! This month of awareness activities should become a positive and useful focus, and a tool to help aid and support our fast diminishing wildlife, in a positive and constructive manner. *WPAA

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