Territory and Municipal Services are giving notice that they’re about to start culling kangaroos in the Canberra Nature Park:
The ACT Government wishes to advise that areas within the Canberra Nature Park will be closed from 6 pm Tuesday 22 May 2012 to 6 pm Tuesday 12 June 2012 to allow for the controlled culling of over-abundant Eastern Grey Kangaroos.
The sites to be closed are Callum Brae Nature Reserve, Crace Nature Reserve, Goorooyaroo Nature Reserve, Jerrabomberra West Nature Reserve, Kama Nature Reserve, Mt Painter Nature Reserve, Mulligans Flat Nature Reserve, The Pinnacle Nature Reserve and Wanniassa Hills Nature Reserve.
“The cull of up to 2015 Eastern Grey Kangaroos is needed to maintain populations at appropriate levels to protect the integrity of ecosystems, several of which contain endangered flora and fauna,” said Daniel Iglesias, Director of Parks and Conservation.
To sugar the pill they’ve also announced the results of a survey showing 79% if the population are cool with it.
And to top it off there’s an FAQ.
[Photo from the 2008 cull]
Loading ...
What’s Your opinion?
What’s that Skip? KABOOM!
devils_advocate said :
stonedwookie said :
I figure it’s a matter of trusting Government shooters not go overboard and shhot anything that moves or, in teh case of road signs, don’t move.
Growing up in the conutry where shooting was a pasttime I’m quite happy for only professional shooters to do this instead of some cowboy getting his rocks off on the vibration of a gun.
Baldy said :
Unfortunately, you’re talking through your arse. Where I live there’s a large resident roo population plus the usual itinerant groups (usually groups of males). They’re not particularly cute, the males in particular are quite assertive and even aggressive.
But even in the worst of the drought, they weren’t starving to death. Some of the larger males became slightly less-well-muscled, but that was it.
There’s been a large buy-in by Canberra people into the “need” for the cull, which is based on some pretty dodgy science, and you can only conclude that it’s out of concern for cars rather than the animals.
EvanJames said :
I’m surprised there were 6 posts before an uniformed response like this one ^^
Primal said :
I agree, what a waste of perfectly good food.
I would have less problems with these culls if we used the meat instead of just burying them. Or maybe we should have kangaroo “farming” all year round by a company or two, completely regulated, and maybe it would lessen the need for these kind of culls. I for one would happily eat Canberran kangaroos!
whens the last time you saw a kangeroo starve to death?
funny how were not allowed to hunt but when the government wants to go shoot stuff its fine
EvanJames said :
No too many Kanagroo’s means they will compete with each other. There just ins’t enough grazing land around to sustain the kangaroo population.
If you look beyond there cuddliness and actually into the way they live, you will see what the animals have to go through to get a decent feed.
Unfortunaly most people don’t see bebyond the “awww it’s a cute little animal”.
Primal said :
Slightly OT – can anyone reccomend a place that sells kangaroo sausages that have some flavour to them but AREN’T packed with massive amounts of sodium?
Kangaroo sausages are a great low-fat alternative for people keen for a snag but the usual suspects are packing them with salt.
Pointless and cruel. It’s got nothing to do with roos starving to death, and everything to do with lazy Canberrans worried that roos will crash into their precious cars. It’s a disgrace.
Baldy said :
Damn! Just given up all the meat that doesn’t swim, and yes, I’ll miss the Skippy Steaks. I don’t know if I thought this one through…..
They seem to be burying those bodies far too deeply to be of any benefit to the land.
2000 kangaroos would be almost 100 tonnes of fertiliser for the ACT’s thin topsoils. Such a shame to waste a potentially valuable resource like that.
Primal said :
Haven’t you heard? Since the Russian and Chinese stopped ordering Kangaroo meat there isn’t much of a market. Apparently Austraian’s don’t like Kangaroo meat. I don’t know why. As you said it is yummy.
What a tragic waste of deliciousness.
So are we going to have to spend months listening to brainless animal haters climbing fences hoping to get shot instead of the Knagaroos and protesting that they kangaroos should starve to death instead?
If they’d made it 2,013 kangaroos then they could have done some cross-promotion with the centenary.