Kangaroo and other wildlife incidents that occured in 2009!

Kangaroo and other Wildlife Incidents in 2009!

2009 Wildlife Incident Summary

Without doubt the biggest wildlife disasters this year occured in February, when wildfires tore through Victoria, and killed millions of animals, and the North Queensland floods, which again killed millions of native animals. Following is a summary of wildlife incidents during 2009. We suggest you place this email in a folder so you can refer to it later when you have time, or when you need the information. Best wishes from us at WPAA for the New Year. *WPAA

January 2009

A 10 year old alligator was found at Bega in NSW, and in Dunedin NZ, an albatross chick was been found dead with 272 pieces of plastic in its gut. Redland City Council, Queensland, announced that residents who have koalas on their properties are being offered cash incentives of up to $12,500 not to kill them or destroy their habitat. Japanese whalers and environmentalists have clashed in the Antarctic.

February 2009

1000's of wallabies and other wildlife died in the Nth Queensland floods, while in Southern Australia, wildlife carers have been swamped by calls for help to save heat-stressed native animals, while fierce fires in Victoria took a huge their toll on humans and wildlife. It is estimated that millions of wildlife died, and many needed extensive treatment by wildlife carers. Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett has again called for restraint in the ongoing fight over whaling in the Southern Ocean, an adult tiger that is believed to have killed three people was captured alive on Indonesia's Sumatra island. Wildfires swept through Victoria, and again in Tasmania, a possum and wallaby harvesting scheme was touted by farmers to stop native animals eating crops and pasture, and the Federal Government decided the rare Christmas Island pipistrelle bat's tiny population was a reason not to embark on a captive breeding program. Again, cowardly killers armed with bows and arrows have shot two kangaroos on a Melbourne golf course, and other bow and arrow attacks on kangaroos in other areas seem to be increasing.

March 2009

The NSW government approved a new kangaroo killing zone in NSW in spite of many protests, also in March the ACT Government flagged that more kangaroos would need to be killed, a view supported by the ACT RSPCA. A 6m python on the Atherton Tableland was chopped to pieces alive while its attackers showcased its slow death on the YouTube internet video site, and about a dozen animal welfare activists shadowed duck hunters on Tasmania's east coast in a bid to warn birds away from the area. The ACT government released a dodgy draft kangaroo management plan that recommends keeping kangaroo numbers below 1.5 animals to each hectare of land, and called for more kangaroos to be killed.

The Federal Government announced it won't release its whale kill tapes taken from the Steve Irwin in 2007-2008 for fear of annoying the Japanese, and an International Whaling Commission special meeting has ended with no sign that Australia is advancing in its demand for Japanese whalers to quit their hunt in the Southern Ocean. Protest action started over the running of a Repco car rally in the Tweed Valley, amid concerns over wildlife impacts, and Russia has banned the hunting of baby harp seals after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin criticised the "bloody practice".

April 2009

Sealers taking part in Canada's controversial yearly hunt have slaughtered more than 19,400 seals so far this year, their full quota, and scientists warned the grey-headed flying-fox population in NSW is in serious decline. Australia's kangaroos are genetically similar to humans and may have first evolved in China, Australian researchers said, and Japan's whaling catch in its latest Antarctic hunt fell far short of its target after disruptions by anti-whaling activists. Another 2 Fraser Island dingoes were shot by the Queensland government last week in their unrelenting war against the last purebred dingoes left in the World. Wildlife officers celebrated the discovery of a rare marsupial in the Perth metropolitan area, the chuditch, or western quoll.

An airforce base at GinGin in WA has had one kangaroo shoot, with another shoot expected this week. New populations of the western spiny-tailed skink have been found on farmland and in towns in the northern wheatbelt of WA. A seven-year study of birdlife in the central west of New South Wales has found the bird populations are in decline. The new commercial kangaroo shooting zone in NSW has had a quota declared of 150,000 eastern grey kangaroos annually - a "sustainable 15 per cent" of the one million eastern greys in the area.

May 2009

The offices of Animal Lib NSW in Sydney were raided by Federal and State police. All documents relating to their kangaroo campaigns were seized and confiscated, including computer hard drive contents. Defence announced that up to 6000 kangaroos will be culled at the Majura Training Area site within the next three months, (and they did) and an ACT AAT Appeal against the kill failed. The European Parliament voted to ban most seal products from the European market, eliminating a primary source of revenue for the world's seal hunters. Queensland axed a program intended to help save one of Australia's rarest birds from extinction, the decision to suspend the breeding in captivity of eastern bristlebirds was made in defiance of opposition from NSW. The move is set to trigger debate about the worthiness of funding captive breeding programs for threatened wildlife .

Four dingoes were destroyed after they threatened two rangers and a couple on Fraser Island, a total of 56 rare animals killed since 2001. The Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service has been scrapped in a Government cost-cutting move, and the Department responsible for forestry and farming will end up managing the state's National Parks and the new Environmental Protection Agency. On 19 May a 'Dawn Service' was held from 7.00am adjacent to the gates of the former Belconnen Naval Transmission Station (BNTS) off Baldwin Drive in Belconnen to commemorate the lives of the 460 or so kangaroos that were brutally killed at Belconnen one year ago. The launch in May of the Animal Liberation report "A Shot in the Dark" called for by the European Parliament, examined the concerns which led to the Russian Federation banning kangaroo meat for human consumption late last year. Fiona Corke's film Woundead was selected as one of 100 short films to be screened at the 2009 St Kilda Film Festival. She was director, producer and screenwriter.

June 2009

Chemical contamination was blamed for millions of fish larvae having two heads, and has been found in a creek at Noosa, and the head of the Tasmanian Environment Department had his $280,000-a-year job deal renewed the day before the whole department was axed. In June, Central Australia was brimming with life as waterbirds on South Australia's Lake Eyre begin breeding. The golden-backed tree-rat could be facing extinction in the Northern Territory after scientists failed to find any trace of the rodent during an expedition to western Arnhem Land. Three leopard geckos native to India, Pakistan and Afghanistan have been seized by police and environmental officers at a house in Bittern, on Melbourne's Mornington Peninsula.

A rare Nth Territory snake, the bronzeback snake-lizard was found 111 years after it was last spotted. Muttonbirders called on the State and Federal governments to undertake research into a steep decline in the muttonbird numbers. The Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia secured more than $215,600 in a government grant for a marketing campaign to help improve kangaroo meat demand from China. Two male platypus were found dead in a yabby net south of Canberra. A new bill that would open the state's National Parks and Reserves to recreational hunters who could be licensed to shoot native animals and birds has been condemned by the NSW Greens , the Liberal Party and environmental groups. A package from Sweden containing two live tarantulas and two live scorpions was intercepted at Sydney's international mail centre.

The International Whaling Commission's annual conference has ended in disarray, keeping in place a ban on commercial whaling amid deep rifts between hunters and conservationists. A python stolen from a Perth wildlife centre was found by using the tracking device on the animal it ate, and it was revealed that almost 400 brush-tailed possums have been culled by the Royal Botanic Gardens Trust since 2002. Federal Minister Peter Garrett has turned out to be one of the most useless Environment Ministers we have ever had, and last but not least, wildlife groups trying to protect the Pines Reserve on the Mornington Peninsula have grave fears that the Victorian Government will hand the Reserve over to the yobbos for a fishing and hunting playground.

July 2009

The first week in July the ACT Government said the West Jerrabomberra Nature Reserve and East Jerrabomberra Grasslands will be targeted for a controlled culling of Eastern Grey Kangaroos from today, Friday, July 3. The ACT Government plan to cull up to 550 kangaroos in the two locations along with Crace Grasslands Nature Reserve and Kama South Nature Reserve. Kangaroo shooting started in the Callum Brae Nature Conservation Park in Canberra on the Sunday night. 550 kangaroos are to be killed in five "Conservation" Reserves. Local wildlife lovers tried to monitor the shooting, and while photos of some shooters and ACT Parks and Wildlife rangers was taken, the shooting appeared to be taking place well into the Conservation Park. Chinese trade authorities approved protocols for the importation of roo meat for human consumption, after five years of negotiation.

A survey of wildlife on Western Australia's remote Kimberley Islands has uncovered new populations of threatened native rodents. Fears are held for the survival of the the giant Palouse earthworm (Driloleirus americanus) in the US. Villagers in Bangladese bashed to death an endangered tiger. The new AL Report "A Shot in the Dark" was delivered to the Chinese Embassy, and a man was fined $4000 and ordered to pay $114 in court costs after being convicted of attempting to smuggle 12 pythons out of WA. The Department of Defence finished its cull of 7,000 kangaroos on a Defence site in Canberra, and the ACT Government started an investigation into the shooting and dumping of around 20 kangaroos in Canberra's south, which of course went nowhere. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, announced there were more than 12.5 million active hunters over the age of 16 in the United States as of 2006.

Russia will ban meat imports from a number of enterprises in Australia effective July 10 and import of all kangaroo meat from August 1 due to violations of food safety standards. It was found that from 1 to 31 August 1927, Queensland held what was to be the last open hunting season on koalas in Australia. It was believed that 300,000 koalas would be killed. This figure was ridiculed in certain quarters, but as later events would show, the carnage was greatly underestimated. In all probability, the total was closer to 800,000 – a figure which exceeds the total number of koalas which remain alive today in the whole of Australia.

Brush turkeys were accused of invading suburban Sydney on a scale not seen since the ibis moved in many years ago. Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, approved the Four Mile uranium mine in South Australia, and a kangaroo was fatally shot with a crossbow arrow at Yanchep National Park, and the Queensland Government introduced new laws to protect dugongs off the coast of Gladstone, probably years too late. A rare Long Footed Potoroo has been discovered at Cape Conran in East Gippsland, and Kenyan Wildlife Authorities seized $1 million worth of elephant tusks hidden in coffins that were bound for illegal ivory markets in Asia. The Qld State Government announced it will undertake a dingo 'census' and erect dingo fencing with council around the main waste station on Fraser Island.

August 2009

In what is believed to be a rare occurrence, a wallaby with twin joeys has been found in southern Queensland, and in NZ the population of the world’s most endangered parrot, the kakapo (Strigops habroptila) was increased from just 50 known birds to 124 today, and in Tasmania the discovery of toxic chemicals in groundwater across Tasmania has been greeted with anger. A bald-headed songbird with a pink, nearly featherless face and distinctive calls has just been found in a rugged region of Laos, and Sixty-nine species of fish have been banned from menus at thousands of restaurants across the UK and Ireland in a move hailed by campaigners fighting to protect threatened fish stocks.

Bulldozing part of a Frankston wildlife reserve to make way for a $750 million freeway may increase the likelihood that Victoria's endangered southern brown bandicoot will become extinct, and another Fraser Island dingo was destroyed after harrasing a four-year-old boy, and a study found groundwater on world heritage-listed Fraser Island, off south-east Queensland, is being severely polluted by human waste. A 59-year-old man from the WA wheatbelt town of Morawa has been fined more than $4,500 for unlawfully possessing protected birds, and about 4,000 noxious tilapia fish were been found in dams near Bundaberg in south-east Qld. A US television business show host become an instant pin-up girl for animal liberationists after calling Prime Minister Kevin Rudd a "serial killer" for approving camel culling, and Palm Beach (Qld) residents were been rocked by a possible magpie massacre, with 25 dead birds found just as the annual swooping season starts.

Dubbo Zoo sold endangered antelope to a member of the Shooters’ Party who wants to charge hunters thousands of dollars for the right to shoot them on a private game reserve. ACT researchers say early results from a kangaroo tracking program in Canberra show the animals have a limited home range for feeding, however another scientist has labelled the Study as ridiculous, and a gross waste of taxpayers money. Police in Armidale shot an injured kangaroo in front of a group of children, who filmed the incident, and posted it on Utube. A popular Darwin lake was been closed after a monster fish attacked a woman bather, and documents obtained under Freedom of Information shows that the NSW Game Council issued 9000 hunting licences across the state between 2006 and 2007 and that 6000 feral animals were shot (0.5 pest animals per hunter per year).

A Chinese man said his family are being harassed by a vengeful weasel after he caught its mate, and authorities seized two boa constrictors from a house in Perth's northern suburbs. The Kenya Wildlife Service announced Monday that Kenya's lion population has dropped an average of 100 lions a year since 2002. The Qld State Government announced it will close 18km of beach to 4WDs on the southern end of Fraser Island to protect migratory shorebirds 18 years after it was first recommended, but doesnt know exactly when. The Federal Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, has warned that money to save endangered wildlife is limited and some species may have to be abandoned when funding decisions are made, and apparently the world's rarest tree kangaroo, Scotts Tree Kangaroo, is in the midst of a comeback in a remote part of Papua New Guinea.

It was announced that 350 new species have been found in the Eastern Himalayas, and hot on the heels of a State and Federal Police raid on the NSW Animal Liberation offices in Sydney a few weeks ago, where all their kangaroo campaign material was siezed and removed, we now have another police raid....this time in Queensland....and this time on a private home. Last week Police and QPWS staff raided the home of a woman photographer on Fraser Island...at 7 am in the morning! Her computer hard drives, her dingo paintings, dingo fridge magnets, photographs, manuscripts, even the dingo autopsy reports gathered under FOI where seized and taken. On the search warrant, they were looking for dog food.

September 2009

Magpie geese hunting in the NT started, and wildlife officials in Kenya said that hippos as well as elephants are now perishing due to the protracted drought that has parched a broad swath of East Africa. Over 150 police were on hand during the Repco car rally to ensure protestors didnt disrupt the Repco rally, which went ahead in spite of many objections by local residents. The rare Arakan forest turtle, once though to be extinct, was been rediscovered in a remote forest in Myanmar, boosting chances of saving the reptile after hunting almost destroyed its population. Taronga Western Plains Zoo was been suspended from selling animals after it misled the public about the sale of endangered antelope to a member of the Shooters' Party lobbying for the right to hunt them.

A fast-talking tree frog with a habit of wrestling is among a handful of new species discovered in the Far North Queensland in the past decade, the Kuranda tree frog gets its moniker from a distinctive, excited short, fast-tapping call. FOI documents have shown the empty or near-empty bellies of 90 dead Fraser Island dingoes autopsied by authorities, is in stark contrast to claims that the dingo population is thriving. A Dingo Day at Hervey Bay on the 20th September at Apex park, Pialba. was very well attended, and Customs has cracked its third wildlife smuggling attempt in WA in the last month after a man was allegedly caught with almost 40 parrot eggs. A Save teh Koala Rally Rally was held in Brisbane Square on Sept 25th in Brisbane, and was also very well attended.

Hundreds of dead walruses have been found on Alaska's north-west coast, coinciding with reports that Arctic Sea ice has reached the third lowest level ever recorded, and a 5.9-metre giant squid was caught off the coast of Louisiana. Numerous kangaroos and donkeys were found shot dead by sporting shooters on a station near Tibooburra, and an Atherton psychologist got the fright of her life when a large kangaroo busted into her office and forced her to leap on to a desk for safety. The Australian Wildlife Hospital on the Sunshine Coast launched a national campaign to combat a koala disease epidemic that ecologists say is just as devastating as the one decimating Tasmanian devils.

October 2009

Two duststorms swept across the East Coast in Oct0ber, and Nth Queensland's cassowaries are being "researched to death", according to the Community for Coastal and Cassowary Conservation which said several plans have been drawn up but the biggest threats to the endangered birds still have not been addressed. The Queensland Government again refused to remove the shark nets, and seal meat was been put on to the menu in some of Canada's top restaurants as part of a patriotic backlash against a European Union ban.

King Penguins have re-colonised on Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean after being killed off for oil 100 years ago, and an oil spill by a Thai oil exploration company started in the Timor Sea. The Federal Government, through the EPBC Act, rejected another application by the Northern Territory Government to allow the trophy hunting of crocodiles. A motorcyclist has been killed after hitting a kangaroo on a major highway in Canberra, and Kenyan authorities seized almost 700kg of ivory worth millions of dollars in a night-time raid at the country's main airport. A tourist was attacked by a crocodile while swimming in Kakadu billabong (they never learn do they?), and a large and unpublicised cull of 140 kangaroos took place on Mount Panorama, for "road race safety reasons" and only one joey was saved. These were the last of the Bathhurst kangaroos, whom had been pushed into Mt Panorama as their habitat went under houses.

A deal between the Rees Government and the Shooters' Party to allow hunting in National Parks in NSW created much anger and controversy, and Federal Treasury secretary Ken Henry won over some new fans, with the Greens lauding his remarks against the commercial culling of kangaroos. Meanwhile Wildcare appealed an ACT tribunal decision confirming the ACT Government's refusal of a licence to export orphaned kangaroos joeys into New South Wales. New research showedmore than 80 species of birds are in decline in Victoria, and a commercial fisherman from Western Australia has been charged with killing seals while trawling off Tasmania. Another group of kangaroos was found shot dead and dumped in Belgrave South, in Victoria, and there was a report on Adelaide radio recently that the Belaire Park Country Club has hired a shooter to kill wood ducks. A more than 15-foot crocodile was captured near a popular beach in Australia's Northwest Territory, and was the area's largest catch in four years.

November 2009

The Federal Government rejected outright a proposal to build a resort city on Gt Kepppel Island, and an Australian woman says she divorced her husband after he asked her to choose between him and her pet crocodile. British Airways cancelled a flight between Edinburgh and London after a passenger said he saw a tarantula crawling between his legs, and a kayaker is lucky to be alive after being attacked by a four-metre great white shark in the ocean off Victoria’s south-west coast. In South Australia a fisheries officer in an inflatable dingy was stalked by a large shark, and in Queensland a fifteen foot shark was found almost bitten in half by a much larger shark. A zoo in Gaza has got around animal import restrictions by dyeing stripes on donkeys to make 'zebras', and flying foxes are being shot for food at Woodend in Ipswich and Hemmant in Brisbane's eastern suburbs, say bat carers.

The NSW State Government began issuing licences for the shooting of flying foxes this week, even though its own advisory panel warns that shooting the animals breaches animal cruelty laws. Tasmania's fishing industry is being ravaged by seals and a cull is urgently needed, industry leaders said, and there was good attendance last week at a rally organised by Greens MP Lee Rhiannon outside State Parliament protesting against the Shooters Party's Game and Feral Animal Control Amendment Bill. The massive oil leak off Australia's northwest coast poses an "immediate risk" to dozens of marine species, with untold numbers possibly dying and sinking to the Timor Sea floor, a report has said. After an almost four year campaign, the Traveston Crossing Dam is finally laid to rest, and the world's biggest web-weaving spider was discovered in South Africa. Mutton birds in the midst of their annual migration are crashing onto NSW beaches because of starvation and exhaustion, and Queensland Museum scientist Dr John Stanisic named a rare species of tree snail discovered in north Queensland in honour of wildlife advocate and conservationist Steve Irwin.

A pygmy hippopotamus, a refugee from a failed NT Zoo, was shot dead during a pig hunting expedition in the Northern Territory. Thousands of muttonbirds - upon arriving in Australia to breed - have been found dead along the Victorian and NSW coasts in the past two weeks, and another motorcyclist died following a collision with a kangaroo on NSW's South Coast. About six of the river's 25 bottlenose dolphins have died in the past five months. A Kangaroo Day onSaturday 20th October, 12 noon to 2 pm, Belmore Park Sydney, opposite Central Railway Station, was well attended. The NZ 60 minutes kangaroo story went to air on Monday 23 November, and two men were fined for illegal pig hunting in a nature reserve near Lennox Head, NSW. Concerns were raised about a dramatic decrease in endangered bird numbers in Tasmania.

Experts say drought, wildfires and the spread of urban development have contributed to the decline in numbers of the 40-spotted pardelote and the swift parrot. The Federal Government rejected outright a proposal to build a resort city on Gt Kepppel Island, and an Australian woman says she divorced her husband after he asked her to choose between him and her pet crocodile. British Airways cancelled a flight between Edinburgh and London after a passenger said he saw a tarantula crawling between his legs, and a kayaker is lucky to be alive after being attacked by a four-metre great white shark in the ocean off Victoria’s south-west coast. In South Australia a fisheries officer in an inflatable dingy was stalked by a large shark, and in Queensland a fifteen foot shark was found almost bitten in half by a much larger shark. A zoo in Gaza has got around animal import restrictions by dyeing stripes on donkeys to make 'zebras', and flying foxes are being shot for food at Woodend in Ipswich and Hemmant in Brisbane's eastern suburbs, say bat carers.

A pygmy hippopotamus, a refugee from a failed Zoo, was shot dead during a pig hunting expedition in the Northern Territory. Thousands of muttonbirds - upon arriving in Australia to breed - have been found dead along the Victorian and NSW coasts in the past two weeks, and another motorcyclist died following a collision with a kangaroo on NSW's South Coast. About six of the river's 25 bottlenose dolphins have died in the past five months. A Kangaroo Day onSaturday 20th October, 12 noon to 2 pm, Belmore Park Sydney, opposite Central Railway Station, was well attended. The NZ 60 minutes kangaroo story went to air on Monday 23 November, it can be viewed online, and two men were fined for illegal pig hunting in a nature reserve near Lennox Head, NSW. Concerns were raised about a dramatic decrease in endangered bird numbers in Tasmania. Experts say drought, wildfires and the spread of urban development have contributed to the decline in numbers of the 40-spotted pardelote and the swift parrot.

Satelite imagery has been used to convict a man who cleared seven hectares of ``vulnerable'' wildlife and vegetation from a station in the Riverland, SA. The international trade in frog legs could be spreading a deadly amphibian disease responsible for several species becoming extinct, according to a new study, and a NT politician claimed drugs are being smuggled into Aboriginal communities in Australia's far north inside dead kangaroos. DERM recently announced as part of their "management" strategy for Fraser Island, that dingoes would be discouraged (by hazing) from walking along the beach before 5pm and after 5am, in an attempt to keep them away from people, and we hope they told the dingoes. A Californian man accused of smuggling 15 Australian lizards into the US by strapping them to his chest is owner of a reptile business who has made eight trips to Australia in the past six years, and Australia's venomous redback spiders are on the march in Japan, where they are believed to have arrived years ago as stowaways on cargo ships. The Qld State Government-enforced practice of returning injured koalas to where they were found - even near busy roads - is under again fire from green groups and researchers, and Mornington Peninsula (Victoria) wildlife carers fear they will be forced to bury hundreds of dead marsupials this summer. The group described the distressing scenes of last summer's heatwave when baby and mother ringtail possums died from heat stress and dehydration.

December 2009

A leading ecologist said most of the ground animals in the Gulf of Carpentaria in the far north of Queensland have disappeared after widespread flooding in the region earlier in the year. The floods covered a huge area, making it hard for small, ground-living animals to escape, and the NZ 60 minutes documentary "Bloody Harvest" so far has had nearly 10 thousand viewings. The TV story can be found here... A kill of 3,000 feral camels began this week near the remote Northern Territory town of Docker River, and police arrested a man accused of smuggling 10 rare kangaroos by boat from a New Guinea island. The NT magpie geese shooting season opened, and worldwide tuna stocks crashed. In the US a disease was found to be killing bats, and Smiths Crisps proposed a kangaroo and emu flavour that was considered by many to be''degrading'' to native wildlife and would trivialise the plight of creatures already facing habitat destruction, natural predators, illegal hunting and disease. Another A cassowary chick has died after being hit by a car in the Daintree, and Puckapunyal Army Base started killing more kangaroos.

Wildlife groups noted that The Victorian State Government seems to be on a campaign to eradicate native wildlife, especially kangaroos, and Greenfield land north of Caloundra Road (Sunshine Coast) could be the Coast’s killing fields of the near future. More than 100 kangaroos are isolated between Caloundra Road, Corbould Way, Bellflower and Sippy Downs to the north, Kawana Way, Birtinya and Kawana to the east, and the Bruce Highway to the west. The failure of a refrigeration unit has caused a setback to the ACT's northern corroboree frog breeding program, around 700 tadpoles and 300 frogs died when the refrigeration unit in a purpose built container housing the frogs at Tidbinbilla failed. WPAA notes that Canberra always seems to fail when it comes to wildlife matters. Why didnt they have an effective backup system? An erronious reportt in the Courier Mail claimed that nearly 75 per cent of dingoes euthanised on Fraser Island had been eating human food, and more than 51,000 native birds and animals have been attacked by dogs and cats in NSW in less than a decade, according to the records of just one NSW wildlife care group. Native species need to be on death row before they receive government attention, by when it's too late, Treasury chief Ken Henry stated, and authorities closed two beach campsites on Queensland's Fraser Island because of a threat posed by two packs of aggressive dingoes.

It was announced that the die-off of bats across the US Northeastern states is now so severe that federal wildlife officials consider it "the most precipitous decline of North American wildlife caused by infectious disease in recorded history. At least three kangaroos have been shot with crossbows in Parklands, north of Mandurah during the past two weeks, and new American born NSW Premier Kristina Keneally, according to the NSW Sunday Telegraph, tucked into a kangaroo meat pie with bush tomato sauce to prove she is a fair dinkum aussie. Graziers in western Queensland say the huge numbers of kangaroos infesting their properties are costing them tens of thousands of dollars per year, and in some areas of NSW low kangaroo numbers have forced NSW authorities to stop shooters killing grey kangaroos. The Flinders Island wallaby processing plant closed, and in the US as many as 419 manatees have been found dead since January 1st, which is the highest number on record for a calendar year. Koala extinction is inevitable in some areas," according to Dr Jon Hanger, a veterinary scientist at Australia Zoo's Wildlife Hospital. "I certainly hope we don't see it across Australia. But if we don't take the decline seriously and pick up on the warning signs now it's certainly a risk."

*****************************************************************

Hopefully 2010 may be a better year for wildlife. Here's a profound comment we found on the "Bloody Harvest" documetary comment page..."What has become of Australia and the dreams we had for her?" Let's all try harder to make 2010 a better year for wildlife than 2009 was.

Click here to Jump back to our Kangaroo Index Map Page!

SBI!