Options and rationale for regional property‐based kangaroo production

Abstract

SummaryThe larger kangaroos (Macropus giganteus, M. fuliginosus and Osphranter rufus) are widely distributed and have a national population which fluctuates in response to changes in grass growth and trends to 40 million. Most are outside parks and reserves and, on pastoral properties, particularly on the rangelands of southern Australia. High numbers compromise regenerative agriculture, pasture conservation, revegetation and stewardship programmes, and can have significant financial impacts on landholders by lowering livestock production and damaging sustainability. Some smaller macropods, wallabies and pademelons, also have a similar effect, especially in Tasmania and on other smaller Australian Islands where foxes are absent. Paradoxically, kangaroos have a wide range of potentially valuable production attributes and are unique, which should be a global comparative advantage. The kangaroo industry is established with a small domestic and international market, although demand has been falling in recent years. Non‐commercial culling is rising, which results in millions of carcasses being wasted and left to decompose in the field. Indigenous communities abhor such waste and its cultural implications. A stronger kangaroo industry would be a better solution to managing overabundant kangaroos than pest culling and exclusion fences. Because kangaroos move from property to property, populations need to be managed on a regional basis through ‘regional property‐based kangaroo production’. A form of proprietorship over this mobile resource would encourage landholders to play a role in creating greater demand for kangaroo products. They would have an incentive to raise the value of kangaroos. Through innovative harvesting, they could deliver high‐quality, environmentally branded, accurately described, gourmet, differentiated products integrated with other livestock industries. They could establish cooperatives and embark on promoting regional kangaroo products. Policy improvements are needed to achieve these production systems. Doing so would diversify their enterprises, convert a liability already on their properties into an asset, create employment, enhance rural economic resilience, and improve animal welfare and conservation outcomes while earning them carbon credits. These opportunities become even more profound as climate change progresses.

Fear of the human ‘super predator’ in native marsupials and introduced deer in Australia

“…lions, bears, wolves and leopards [12,16,17,19,21]), the native marsupials in our experiment were 3.1 times more likely to flee from humans than Tasmanian devils (figure 1a). While the larger, recently (<90 years) extinct Thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) may arguably have been more effective at hunting these prey species than the Tasmanian devil [59], the low estimated number of Thylacines (pre-colonial population size of ca <4000 [60]) and archaeological and present evidence [33][34][35][36][37][38][39] suggest that humans have been and certainly now are far more lethal.…”

“…At present, eastern grey kangaroos are 'protected' in Tasmania, having been hunted to near extinction by the 1950s for human consumption and dog meat, although thousands are still shot annually for crop protection [35,36]. Commercial and sport hunting of the other marsupials is permitted, along with shooting for crop protection, and at least 1 million are killed each year [37][38][39]. Over one-third of the fallow deer population is killed by hunters in some years [25].…”