Sminthopsis crassicaudata is a small dasyurid marsupial that may be exposed to 1080 poison during the baiting of dingoes with fresh meat baits. A group of Sminthopsis were conditioned to feed freely on meat in the laboratory, but when they were offered meat poisoned with 1080 their intake was significantly reduced and they vomited. Some of them refused to eat meat altogether even when a choice of poisoned and unpoisoned meat was provided. Fewer Sminthopsis died after eating poisoned meat than expected from the LD*50 estimated by a standard technique of oral dosing with 1080 in water. Loss of appetite and aversion to the taste and/or smell of meat containing 1080 are discussed as reasons for the low intake of poisoned meat. Implications of these results are considered in the light of assessing risk to other non-target species exposed to baits containing 1080.

The number of kangaroos on the plains of New South Wales (496000 km2) was estimated as 2 073 000 & 98 000 red kangaroos, Megaleia rufa, and 1 578 000 i- 84 000 grey kangaroos, Macropus giganteus and M. fuliginosus. The overall densities were 4.18 reds and 3.18 greys per square kilometre. Sheep outnumbered kangaroos by five to one. Red kangaroos were most numerous in the north-west of the state, greys in the north-central region. The legal harvest on the survey area in 1975 was 48 100 reds and 60 300 greys, representing 2.3% of the population of reds and 3.8% of the greys. Density is mapped for both red and grey kangaroos, and a design is offered for monitoring subsequent changes in density by aerial survey.

In New South Wales the red kangaroo, Megaleia rufa (Desmarest), and the two species of grey kangaroo, Macropus giganteus Shaw and M. fuliginosus (Desmarest), are harvested commercially. In 1975 the National Parks and Wildlife Service issued permits for 239,764 kangaroos to be shot, but only 48,200 red and 70,200 grey kangaroos were taken. Over western New South Wales the numbers shot represented only 2.3% of the reds and 3.8% of the greys. Most of the harvesting was in areas where kangaroos were abundant. Where densities were low few animals were shot but they accounted for a high proportion of the standing crop-in some areas over 15%. Possible reasons for this under the present management system are discussed, together with the implications for future management.

No abstract