Roo 'resource' no longer pest
From the September 2008 edition of Agriculture Today.
Questions answered
The NSW Department of Environment has a web page to answer frequently asked questions about commercial kangaroo harvesting in South East NSW.The site defines commercial harvesting and how it is regulated, how the quota is allocated, which species can be taken commercially and who can shoot them.
It also outlines where kangaroos can be shot (i.e. locations), the role of the landholder, what to do if you want to shoot kangaroos commercially on your own property, and how to become a professional trapper.
It is time to recognise kangaroos both as a renewable resource and as part of the total grazing pressure, and to manage them according to the needs of the land, say NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) experts.
"Whilst it has been demonstrated that kangaroos can be sustainably harvested, it is also time to recognise the inability of the commercial industry to reduce populations to low levels, to satisfy farmers who have seen them more as pest animals," DPI’s pastures and rangelands research leader, Dr Ron Hacker, said.
Dr Hacker and his NSW DPI kangaroo specialist colleague, livestock research officer, Dr Steve McLeod, produced a report for the Murray-Darling Basin Commission in 2004 that quantified the impact of sex selective harvesting on kangaroo populations.
This report, Evaluating Alternative Management Strategies for Kangaroos in the Murray-Darling Basin, proposed that the best compromise between the interests of pastoralists, kangaroo harvesters, conservationists and wildlife managers would occur with an annual harvest rate of 20 per cent of which 70pc must be males.
Current quotas range from 15pc to 17pc, depending on the species.
Estimates by Macro Meats, a major supplier of kangaroo meat to 3000 Australian supermarkets, put the current male cull at 60 per cent of the legislated quotas, from any of the five species now licensed for culling in NSW, out of a total 48 species.
"So the current commercial industry is not that far from the preferred sex ratio," Dr Hacker said.
Explaining their results further, Dr McLeod said "all harvesting reduces population size, but increasing the proportion of males in the harvest has a smaller long-term effect on kangaroo populations than increasing the proportion of females harvested".
"This is because most males are not involved in mating and only a few dominant males do most of it.
"All else being equal, a male biased harvest will result in a population with a higher average density than a female-biased harvest."
The Hacker-McLeod report for the former NSW Agriculture (now NSW DPI), in conjunction with the Murray Darling Basin Commission, became the basis for the Kangaroo Management Options Report and for their book Living with Kangaroos.
The report was commissioned to look at the effect of harvesting on the biology of kangaroo populations, the response of the resources they consume, and the potential effect that alternative harvesting strategies may have on the commercial industry.
The study called for an "adaptive management procedure" that allowed variation of quotas and the sex ratio of the harvest according to the requirement of any particular geographic area.
The book Living with Kangaroos by Ron Hacker and Steve McLeod is available from the NSW DPI bookshop, 1800 028 374.
Contact Dr Ron Hacker (02) 6880 8002, ron.hacker@dpi.nsw.gov.au or Dr Steve McLeod, (02) 6391 3810, steven.mcleod@dpi.nsw.gov.au
