|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
- Australia's
iconic kangaroos are being decimated by hunting and drought and the
largest of the species could be extinct within 10 years, wildlife
activists warned
A recent survey by the University of New South Wales showed that kangaroos were the second most recognisable tourist icon in the world, behind the US Statue of Liberty, O'Brien said.
Kangaroo meat processors have complained the populations are already down dramatically in South Australia and New South Wales because of the combined effects of culling and drought.
Australia's Department of Environment and Heritage sets an annual commercial kangaroo cull quota which last year was put at 6.55 million animals.
In addition to the cull, kangaroo populations have been suffering the affects of a severe drought that has parched large sections of central and eastern Australia for the past two to three years.
|
"We have got figures showing they are being killed far quicker than what they can reproduce," he said.
'OBrien warned that while Red Kangaroos were the most endangered, Grey Kangaroo populations were "getting a hammering too."
"What we predict will happen is in the next 20 years or perhaps even sooner, we will find the only grey kangaroos left are those that are in small family groups -- we will just have genetically impoverished family groups."
"I think 10 years is going to see the Red Kangaroos out, unless we stop killing them right now," said association president Pat O'Brien. "There are no ifs, there are no buts -- it will happen."
|
The Wildlife Protection Association said Red Kangaroos, the world's largest living marsupials, are in greatest danger as a result of aggressive culling programs.
"The big mobs are gone forever, we will never see them again because we have managed to poison them, shoot them, destroy their habitat," he said.
Like other kangaroos the reds live in small groups of about 10 animals, known as mobs.
Red Kangaroos, also called Giant Red Kangaroos, are the largest of the species growing to about 1.6 meters (5.4 feet) and weighing up to 90 kilograms (200 pounds).
Government estimates dating to 1999 put the population of the three main groups, the red, eastern grey and western grey kangaroos, at about 30 million.
"The problem is that we are not even going to know about it until they are gone -- they live in the remote areas, they are getting smaller and smaller because the genetically strong animals are being taken out, and the gene pool will just get weaker and weaker and weaker," he said. |
|
|
||
