Living with Overpopulation

Crystina Bakus (ENR 2300, SU 2013)

These last couple of days in class we have been talking about reintroduction of important key stone species to unbalances ecosystems. However, what happens when there is overpopulation? People can’t seem to live peacefully with reintroduction, but what do you do when there is an overpopulation? Australia has one of the worst problems with kangaroo overpopulation. Even though it is the nations symbol, and the first thing you think of when Australia comes to mind; it’s becoming one of the biggest problems for the country. Looking back on Australia’s past, many invasive species were added to help balance native pests. Invasive species such as foxes, cane toads, and even rabbits that were introduced to Australia by man, have caused more harm than good. So what should they do about the kangaroos? I don’t think bringing in a wolf to hunt the “roos” will be helpful this time. One of the main reasons why the roo population has skyrocketed is because more people are moving inland, and by using irrigation and sewer systems, we can allow water to exist in parts of Australia where rainfall rarely happens. Thus allowing water, food and shelter for the roos, and a better chance at surviving and living longer.

The Defense Department wants to hire professional shooters to cull the kangaroos at two of its properties on the outskirts of Canberra, which counts 1,100 kangaroos per square mile — the densest population ever measured in the region. Australia's army has started shooting 6,000 kangaroos to thin their population on an army training ground near the capital. As you can imagine, outraging conservationists have protested. The killings are intended to protect endangered plants and insects that share the grassy habitat with the kangaroos. A much smaller slaughter of 400 kangaroos on another Defense Department site in Canberra last year was disrupted by protesters as well. Civilian marksmen contracted by the department began shooting the kangaroos last year at Defense's Majura Training Area, where an estimated 9,000 of the wild marsupials roam. The training ground covers more than 7,400 acres (3,000 hectares) and includes grenade and artillery firing ranges. Now is it just me, or is using kangaroos for target shooting a little, sad, scary and odd? I don’t think that shooting the animals for military practice is something to be proud of.

However, the roos are causing much damage to Australia. To Australian farmers and ranchers, they are voracious pests that break down their fences, overrun their lands and eat them out of house and home. They eat as much as a steer. They eat up to 15 hours a day. Paul Remond, whose family owns 120,000 acres in northern New South Wales, said kangaroos routinely destroy at least 10 percent, and sometimes more than half, of his 13,000-acre wheat crop, besides eating the grass that supports his sheep. In many areas, farmers, ranchers and government officials say, they are more numerous than ever and have even reached plague proportions. On the rangelands alone of four states where they are monitored, kangaroos easily outnumber Australia's national population of 17.4 million people! Faced with government regulations that set limits and procedures on "culling" or "harvesting" - in other words, killing - kangaroos, many landowners are simply ignoring the bureaucracy and shooting them without permits. They say quotas on the numbers of kangaroos that can be shot by permit-holding farmers and professional roo-shooters are too low to lessen the animals' damage, which exceeds $140 million a year.

This overpopulation is a huge concern, and a huge mess. There is really no way to prevent or thin out the population. There is no option of bringing in another predator to help keep the roos population down, and if poison traps were set that could also harm other non-target animals! Kangaroos killed by commercial shooters are used largely for pet food, although their meat increasingly is sold to restaurants in states where this is permitted. Canberra's trendy Chez Moustache, for example, offers "kangaroo in red wine sauce" on its menu. Now like the U.S and deer, I think it is a good idea to put the roos meat to use and use it in restaurants, even soup kitchens to help the poor! There has to be a humane, and economical way to reduce, and balance the roos population before they over gaze and cause too much irreversible damage to Australia’s ecosystem.

Source Link: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/282388/OVERPOPULATION-OF-KANGAROOS-MAKES-AUSSIE-FARMERS-JUMPY.html?pg=all