Australia's Losing Battle Against Wild Pests
Wed Nov 6, 8:03 AM ET By Michael Perry
NARRANDERA, Australia (Reuters) - The spotlight reaches into the darkness
of the paddock, searching for prey.
The kangaroo sits upright, dazzled by the light. Seconds later a crack from
a rifle breaks the silent night air. The "roo" slumps to the ground
dead, blood streaming from its head. The deadly ritual is repeated every few
minutes until 15 "roos" lay dead in the paddock near Narrandera in
Australia's drought-stricken western New South Wales state.
The corpses are slung on hooks on the hunter's truck and butchered under the
stars, with a small chainsaw, bolt-cutter and knives. The meat is destined for
pet food. The intestines, feet and head are left in the dirt for foxes and crows
to devour.
Evidence of the carnage will be gone in days, but with hundreds of "roos"
still in nearby paddocks the night-time culling will continue.
This is the life of Australia's professional kangaroo shooter, damned by environmentalists
but praised by farmers for ridding them of one of their biggest pests -- the
kangaroo.
Some 3.5 million kangaroos are culled each year, supporting a A$200 million
($112 million) industry based on the meat and skins, but numbers keep swelling.
The kangaroo may be a national emblem, standing with pride on Australia's
coat of arms. But with more than 58 million "roos" their numbers are
now in record plague proportions, damaging the environment and competing with
livestock for scarce food.
With Australia in the grip of its worst drought in 100 years it is not only
the kangaroo that is fighting for food, but also tens of millions of wild rabbits,
pigs, foxes, camels, cats, goats and horses. Australia has been invaded by at
least 80 species of animals introduced since white settlement more than 200
years ago.
More than 30 of these species are now declared pests, causing economic losses
totaling a conservative estimate of A$420 million (US$235 million), mainly in
lost agricultural production, says the government's Bureau of Rural Sciences.The
hungry introduced animals contribute to land degradation, destroy native vegetation
and cause soil erosion, reducing the number of sheep or cattle a farmer can
carry on his land.
The native kangaroos are not classed as feral pests so there have been no studies
into the economic losses they cause.But farmers say over-grazing by huge mobs
of "roos" causes millions of dollars worth of damage to drought-hit
pastures and robs starving sheep and cattle of much needed feed.
SPORT GONE WRONG
Australia's worst pest is the rabbit, introduced by a settler who released
24 into the wild for sport hunting.
In less than 100 years, the rabbits multiplied into the millions -- leaving
large areas of land looking like cratered moonscapes due to hundreds of rabbit
burrows.
"The rate of spread of the rabbit in Australia was the fastest of any
colonizing mammal anywhere in the world," says the Bureau of Rural Sciences.
The release of the rabbit virus myxomatosis in 1950 temporarily cut numbers
but it was not until 1997 and the release of another disease targeting the pests,
calicivirus, that numbers were finally brought under control.
Farm losses due to rabbits today still total a staggering A$200 million ($112
million) a year and other pests continue to run rampant.
The European red fox, also released for sport hunting, is thriving and massacring
sheep flocks, costing farmers A$40 million ($22.4 million) a year.
The state of Victoria offers a A$10 ($5.60) bounty for each fox tail and has
gathered 25,000 in the space of a few months.
A glimmer of hope has come in the return to fashion of fox fur in Europe and
China.
Last month, hunter Don McGilvray's tin shed in Narrandera was stacked to the
roof with 23,000 fox skins destined for export.
"Foxes are one of the biggest threats to wildlife in Australia. Foxes
kill thousands of lambs, birds and native wildlife," says McGilvray as
he prepared for a night's kangaroo shooting around Narrandera.
PIGS DINE ON LAMB
Pigs were introduced as a food source for Australia's settlers, but escaped
and now an estimated 22 million compete for grazing, eat animals, foul water
holes and carry diseases. The annual cost of their destruction is put at A$100
million ($66 million).
Weighing up to 200 pounds and bristling with hair and tusks, wild pigs kill
and eat up to 40 percent of lambs in some areas, says government department
Environment Australia.
The feral pig population can double each year and farmers fear that if foot
and mouth disease ever enters Australia, the pigs will spread it across the
nation.
Wiping out an outbreak of foot and mouth, a highly contagious stock disease
that would close many world markets to Australian meat, would require the hunting
down of 95 percent of wild pigs, estimates Howard Crozier from the New South
Wales Farmer's Association.
In the outback, helicopter shooters cull feral pigs which sometimes run in
packs of more than 100. In farmlands, pig hunters dressed in army fatigues and
armed with high-powered rifles and leather armor-clad "pig dogs" hunt
the wild boars.
The dogs bite a pig's ears to bring it down, and hold the thrashing animal
until the shooter arrives to finish it off.
Some farmers and wildlife rangers fear hunters deliberately stock forests with
pigs to preserve the sport. Rangers say they have found wild pigs with ears
cut off, making them harder for dogs to catch.
Despite hundreds of years of shooting and poisoning feral animals, Australia
has failed to eradicate even one species. (US$1=A$1.79)
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Stephen Vantassel is a Certified
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rights protest industry through debate, lecture and publication.
11/9/02
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