Kangaroo conundrum: When to cull for conservation?

By Peter Hannam
Updated January 25 2018 - 2:33am, first published 2:29am
THE BIG PICTURE
The comparative stability of the Australian environment ended suddenly with the onset of European settlement. Set free in a new land, many plants and animals ran riot, producing plagues of biblical proportions. Plague locusts and kangaroos are both indigenous creatures, although their numbers and distribution have been dramatically affected by the spread of farming and the increased availability of feed and water. Numbers of kangaroos have been estimated as high as 60 million but several years of drought in the early years of the new millennium is thought to have had a severe impact. At first it produced huge concentrations of kangaroos around remaining food and water, such as shown above on Oxley Station near Macquarie Marshes in 2002. When rains still did not come, starvation was the end of many. (Photo: Dallas Kilponen)

DIGICAM 00000 SMH, NEWS, KANGAROOS. Pic shows a mob of grey kangaroos on the run through Oxley Station in Macquarie Marshes in the Western Plains of New South Wales.  Station Manager Phil Woodhill, estimates up to 20 000 kangaroos occupy the 35 000 hectare property and are competing for the remaining feed and water during drought conditions for the 3000 head of cattle on Oxley Station.Picture taken on the 13th August 2002. Picture by Dallas Kilponen/dak.  Story by James Woodford
kangaroo, mob, hopping, bounding, generic, iconic,
THE BIG PICTURE The comparative stability of the Australian environment ended suddenly with the onset of European settlement. Set free in a new land, many plants and animals ran riot, producing plagues of biblical proportions. Plague locusts and kangaroos are both indigenous creatures, although their numbers and distribution have been dramatically affected by the spread of farming and the increased availability of feed and water. Numbers of kangaroos have been estimated as high as 60 million but several years of drought in the early years of the new millennium is thought to have had a severe impact. At first it produced huge concentrations of kangaroos around remaining food and water, such as shown above on Oxley Station near Macquarie Marshes in 2002. When rains still did not come, starvation was the end of many. (Photo: Dallas Kilponen) DIGICAM 00000 SMH, NEWS, KANGAROOS. Pic shows a mob of grey kangaroos on the run through Oxley Station in Macquarie Marshes in the Western Plains of New South Wales. Station Manager Phil Woodhill, estimates up to 20 000 kangaroos occupy the 35 000 hectare property and are competing for the remaining feed and water during drought conditions for the 3000 head of cattle on Oxley Station.Picture taken on the 13th August 2002. Picture by Dallas Kilponen/dak. Story by James Woodford kangaroo, mob, hopping, bounding, generic, iconic,

It's not quite the case of Santa calling for the cull of excessive reindeer but when a well-known conservation group seeks permission to shoot kangaroos, eyebrows are bound to be raised.

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