The mission of THINKK is to foster understanding among Australians about kangaroos in a sustainable landscape, through critically reviewing the scientific evidence underpinning kangaroo management practices and exploring non-lethal management options that are consistent with ecology, animal welfare, human health and ethics
Government sanctioned cruelty
Reproductive success in eastern grey kangaroos is high with a short green grazing lawn. These are of high quality and often floristically diverse and not indicative of ‘over’ grazing.
(Image Copyright: Jan Aldenhoven)
The Code of Practice says joeys can be ripped from their slain mother’s pouch and hit on the head with a water pipe or iron bar until dead; shooters even bash joeys against their vehicle or a tree trunk.
Older, ex-pouch, but still dependent joeys, flee in terror when their mothers are killed to die from cold, starvation, predation and maternal deprivation. A million or more joeys die in this way every year.
Most shooters will not allow themselves to be filmed killing joeys.
The Code of Practice is not linked to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and is legally unenforceable.
Contrary to public perception, the RSPCA does NOT monitor or police cruelty to commercially killed kangaroos.
The nature and method of slaughter cannot be ignored, it is barbaric and inhumane. Each night thousands of animals are butchered, many are maimed, the pouch young are cruelly dispatched and the young at foot are left to fend for themselves. Any reasonable person would not wish to be a party to this slaughter by purchasing kangaroo products.
Former Senator George Georges (Queensland) heard evidence about kangaroo killing for three and a half years as Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Animal Welfare from December 9th, 1983 to June 5th, 1987. (Preface of “The Kangaroo BETRAYED!).
The cruelty and suffering that we have already seen in the native animal industries mean that this is no longer an experiment. Hundreds of thousands of kangaroos each year are not killed humanely, emu chicks in Western Australia are de-toed without anaesthesia to reduce risks to handlers, and possums in Tasmania are trapped, transported and killed over a period that now has blown out to anything up to 48 hours. The trade in wildlife is a trade based on profit, without any place for compassion. (Foreword of The Kangaroo BETRAYED! Professor Peter Singer)
Kangaroos are shot in the Australian outback by spotlighting at night. One million joeys die alone. Three aspects cause great cruelty:
Because headshots are attempted, these may not strike the brain but injure the head including the mouth. These kangaroos escape into the scrub outside the spotlight’s beam and will die over several days from their horrific injuries and starvation.
In-pouch joeys are killed by stomping on them or bashing them with a stick or against a vehicle. Several blows may be necessary.
Ex-pouch joeys are still reliant on their mother s milk for protein, warmth in the cold winter’s nights, protection from predators, and they are dependent on their mothers for support. They spend time in and out of the pouch and when their mothers are killed, they are left to fend for themselves, many starve to death.
Video evidence is available in the ABC documentary ‘Kangaroos – Faces in the Mob’ and the explicit cruelty in the International Fund for Animal Welfare film of Greg Eichner, NSW shooter – farmer. The kangaroo killing and game meat lobby can no longer conceal the extreme brutality of their trade. For years we have been calling for an end to this industry which causes the lingering death of 1,000,000 joeys. These joeys similar to the joey ‘Jaffa’ in ‘Faces in the Mob’ are orphaned when their mothers are shot in the so-called ‘harvest’. (Dr John Auty)
All decent Australians should become active in calling upon Federal and State politicians to outlaw this trade – a trade as horrible as the slow slaughter of whales and the clubbing to death of seals or any of the other terrible abuses of wildlife around the world.
Aside from the cruelty which is inherent in the commercial kangaroo killing industry, one landholder in Western NSW has described ‘pitting’ which is the digging of pits to bury kangaroos that have been killed illegally. These same landholders want to legally increase their income by skin only shooting which is crueller than the carcass trade. They can shoot the kangaroos inhumanely as long as the skin itself is not damaged for the export markets and it is not detected (impossible to police).
Skin only shooting is not only more cruel but it is also open to many illegal cases of abuse. The NSW NPWS fought a Court Case in 1996 to stop this trade and won. Now the landholders have friends in political circles who they are lobbying to reopen the skin only trade in NSW. Kangaroos are killed primarily for their leather and skins. Many millions of kangaroos are killed for the shoe leather trade to Italy and the USA.
NSW farmers have threatened to use political pressure to get what they want (that is, less kangaroos). The welfare of kangaroos is only paid lip service and is the scapegoat for falling prices and incomes. A Tibooburra, NSW farmer (1999) found over 139 kangaroos dead in his front garden from poisoning (the killing is not policed). NSW landholders want kangaroos to come under the control of the Department of Agriculture and taken away from the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and they are using their political clout to ensure kangaroo numbers are reduced to tolerable levels, which may be zero numbers of kangaroos.
GOVERNMENT ‘PRO-KANGAROO INDUSTRY SCIENTISTS’ PROMOTE THE KILLING. THEY…
Ignore the Precautionary Principle
Ignore the $6 billion nature-based tourism industry
The kangaroo killing industry supplies leather for soccer cleats, handbags and baseball mitts, which is fueling the slaughter of millions of kangaroos and their babies every year. 6.9 million kangaroos will be shot this year – it is the biggest wildlife massacre in the world and it must be stopped.
Adidas is far and away the leader in ‘premier’ soccer cleats, with 70 percent of the market worldwide by heavily marketing its highly-priced, kangaroo-skin, ‘Predator’ football boots around the world. Headline stars such as David Beckham encourage the brutality by wearing and promoting Predator boots.
It is vital to the survival of kangaroos that we stop the trade of their skins, especially for the manufacturing of soccer cleats. According to Australia’s leading tanners of kangaroo leather ‘Parker Tanning’, manufacturers prefer to use the largest skins to make athletic footwear. These skins come from the large red males who take 10 years to reach alpha status and are being continually massacred only a few survive to pass on their superior genes to the next generation. This means that smaller, weaker and younger males are left to breed with the females, producing offspring who are less likely to survive a major drought or other natural disasters. We must reverse this trend before a major disaster strikes and Australian kangaroos are wiped out! It is frightening that leather suppliers are complaining that there are few large red males left in Australia. Skins are getting smaller and smaller as they now shoot juveniles.
WILDLIFE AND ECO-TOURISM HAVE TREMENDOUS NATIONAL WEALTH AND JOBS POTENTIAL
The kangaroo is a universally loved icon yet millions, now declared a resource, are slaughtered to accommodate destructive agricultural practices.
It is time for the tourism industry to maximize on the already established international reputation of the kangaroo as a major tourist icon.
Australia’s leaders hide behind a protective wall of propaganda and irresponsible legislation, so that a few may gain from the death of a species.
Australia has one of the highest rates of extinction in the world but there appears to be no shame, only apathy about this appalling record.
The world community and the Australian people are told that kangaroos need to be killed for damage mitigation. This is a total misrepresentation of the truth, which is consistently propagandised by both Federal and State Governments. The official policy of Environment Australia is: “Australian native wildlife is a renewable resource. If managed in an ecologically sustainable manner, wildlife can provide a perpetual source of economic benefits for all Australians”.
Myth: Plagues of kangaroos? Australia overrun by kangaroos?
Fact: Kangaroos were widespread and abundant at the time of early settlement. Now they are fugitives in their own country and Skippy is relentlessly pursued.
Myth: Kangaroos degrade and destroy the environment.
Fact: The soft padded feet and long tail of the kangaroo are integral to the ecological health of the land as regenerators of native grasses. It is destructive agricultural practices on marginal land that are proving to be unsustainable.
Myth: We need to kill and eat our wildlife to save it. Wildlife must ‘pay its way’.
Fact: It is imperative that we link wildlife corridors throughout Australia to restore kangaroo and wildlife habitat. Tourists want to see tourist icon Skippy… but kangaroos are being decimated and the outback is turning to dust. The ecological and economic value of wildlife nature-based tourism is ignored.
There is a breed of scientist who supports the escalating slaughter and is giving scant attention, if any consideration to the extreme cruelty, inherent in the kangaroo killing industry, except to pay it lip service. They have commissioned the RSPCA to tell us what we already know, that this is a brutally cruel industry which is impossible to police, and leaves behind a million or more dead joeys every year.
They are incapable of addressing the fate of the ex-pouch joeys, which are still dependent upon their mothers for survival, escaping to face a lingering death, when their mothers are shot.
They dismiss the repugnance demonstrated by the international community of kangaroo killing, of stomping on joeys or bashing joeys to death.
We are witnessing a carnage of unsustainable proportions for commercial gain. Populations are being reduced to alarming levels in many regions and the species is subjected to ever-increasing kill quotas.
The more kangaroos that are killed, the more profits are made and so the cry goes out to kill more and more.
Red kangaroos are a threatened species
Red kangaroos are now being killed at a rate three times higher than they are reproducing. In the 1960’s, their average age was 12; today it is 2. Their average weight was 35 kg in the 1960’s, which today is 18kg. Commercial killing has put insupportable pressure on Red kangaroos which now threatens the species.
The Australian scientific community is ignoring the most basic premise of sound objective science by turning a blind eye to the killing of the biggest and best kangaroos, designed by nature to maintain a healthy gene pool and their biological fitness.
“We need to know the effect of the slaughter of large male kangaroos on the future viability of the population, especially as the industry is now calling for the right to slaughter smaller and smaller animals all the time”
says Dr. Ian Gunn.
“People from the industry are reaping the profits without putting anything back…”
Save Our Southerns: Wombat Awareness Organisation
In South Australia, the Wombat Awareness Organisation has been fighting for the plight of the Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat. Striving to conserve this precious little Aussie, WAO presented to Parliament highlighting the mishandling of destruction permits, illegal culling and WAO’s proposed movement to change the Code of Practice for the Humane Destruction of Wombat pouch young via decapitation. Recent events of nature have justified our concerns for the longevity of the species. Battling for survival through a long and devastating drought, the debilitating disease Sarcoptic mange and the increase of culling, the wombats of South Australia have been struck by floods.
Common Wombats are a protected species in Victoria, except in the 193 Parishes where farmer can kill wombats without the need to obtain a permit. East of the Hume Highway, ( the main distribution of wombats) Common Wombats have been declared unprotected wildlife. Victorians should be ashamed of the way wombats are allowed to be treated.
The common wombat is widespread in the cooler, wetter parts of southern and eastern Australia. A stronghold is in the Wombat and Macedon Ranges forests (Western Victoria), where they are protected wildlife. However, permits can still be obtained for their control.
Permits to kill thousands of native animals, including black swans, kookaburras and more than 1500 wombats were issued by Victoria’s Department of Sustainability and the Environment last year 2011.
EPBC Act status: listed as vulnerable due to agriculture and aquaculture: Land clearing, habitat fragmentation and/or habitat degradation.
Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat (Lasiorhinus krefftii) would have to be considered to be on the brink of extinction. Threats: habitat loss and change, drought and competition with cattle, sheep and rabbits for food have contributed to the decline of the Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat.
Threats: Mange is prevalent throughout most of the Bare nosed wombat’s range, and is considered by some as the number one cause of death. Wombats are more susceptible to mange when they are under stress or undernourished.
A Southern Hairy-nosed wombat – an endangered burrowing marsupial from South and Western Australia – was been sighted for the first time in Victoria in 2010. Before this, the only known populations of Southern Hairy-nosed wombats were in South Australia and small pockets in New South Wales. Southern hairy-nosed wombats are similar in size to their bare-nosed counterparts, but have softer grey fur, longer ears and a broader nose.
Southern Hairy nose wombat
Critically endangered Northern hairy-nosed wombat which can only be found in one small area in outback Queensland.
Major threats include roadkill and injury, predator attack, habitat loss and urban development, burrow destruction and the debilitating infestation, Sarcoptic mange.
Bare-nosed wombat All Bare-nosed or Common wombats are generally considered a single species, Vombatus ursinus; however, they are sometimes classified as separate species or subspecies depending on where they live.
The Bare-nosed wombat is unprotected in Victoria. The Bare-nosed wombats on Flinders Island are classified as vulnerable.
Wombats fall prey to dingoes, foxes, Tasmanian devils (in Tasmania), dog attacks and many become road kill. Young wombats may be taken by eagles, owls and eastern quolls.
Wombat tunnels are an amazing feat of engineering and can measure anything from 2 to 20 meters in length with various connecting and sub tunnel branches. A Wombat may have a minor tunnel just for emergency escapes and also a major burrow set-up with sleeping quarters and two or three entrances. Normally only one wombat lives in a burrow for they are solitary animals and they mark their land by dropping scats so they can be seen by other Wombats.
AWPC believes that all common native animals deserve better treatment than they are often afforded. We recognise that wombats should have rights to protection, and that their quality of life and habitat preservation are the responsibility of all Australians and government departments. Ad hoc laws throughout Australia allow the States and Territories determine their own laws regarding wombats. Such laws are inconsistent, lack a basis of substantive scientific research and allow inhumane methods of destruction.
Mange
Mange is widespread throughout all populations of Wombats in Australia with the exception of the Northern Hairy Nose Wombat which currently remains unaffected; they have enough problems as it is.
Mange left untreated causes Wombats to die, often a long and drawn out death.
Mange in Wombats is caused by the sarcoptes scabiei mite, the same species of mite that causes scabies in humans and mange in dogs and a variety of other animals.. Two varieties of the mite are known, one a canine and the other primate subspecies. While var.wombatis is often used to describe mites found on Wombats, these mites have not been identified as a separate subspecies.
It is possible from anecdotal evidence that wombats are affected by both sub species. The female mite buries into the skin and deposits eggs in tunnels under the skin. Males and nymphal stages remain on the outside of the animal or person. The female mite is reported to live a maximum period of five weeks within the skin then she dies.
Wombats may be seen out in the daytime or behaving oddly going near dogs or domestic stock or are found in sheds and under houses. The Wombat seen this way is often covered in thick scabs caused by the female mite burrowing into the skin. The scabby plaques that form often crack causing deep chasms in the skin which bleed and become flyblown particularly in summer. The Wombat can be so severely affected by resulting infections that it smells and its movements are accompanied by swarms of flies in summer.
Mites burying in near the conjunctiva of the eye and the soft tissues of the nose and ears render the wombat fairly unresponsive to most things. Wombats are often considered blind (because they are out in the daytime) but unless the eye has been permanently damaged it is the scab encrusting the eye that causes blindness. This has been reported to reverse when the infestation resolves.
Management techniques to reduce the impact of wombats may include:
Electric fencing: Two electric wires placed at 15cm and 30cm above the ground approximately 30cm outside of an existing fence can prevent access by wombats.
Fence alterations: In cropping areas, where containing stock is not an issue, remove the bottom fencing wire (the wire that is 15cm above the ground) to allow free movement of wombats and to prevent them from digging under the fence.
Wombat gates: Damage to fencing may occur when wombats move between warren and foraging sites. ‘Wombat gates’ can be installed to allow the animals to move freely through a fence without damaging it.
Remove access to harbour sites: Some wombats may utilise spaces underneath houses or other farm buildings. Access to these areas can be prevented through the installation of heavy gauge mesh or a buried wire apron.
More information:
The Tasmanian devil is the largest of the marsupials that eat meat. They were once found all over Australia, but are now found only in Tasmania. They were probably driven south by the dingo when it came to Australia, at a time when Tasmania was joined to the Australian mainland.
The Tasmanian devil is the world’s largest surviving marsupial carnivore and is only found in the wild in Australia’s island State of Tasmania.
The devil has a thick-set, squat build, with a relatively large, broad head and short, thick tail. The fur is mostly or wholly black, but white markings often occur on the rump and chest.
The Tasmanian devil cannot be mistaken for any other marsupial. Its spine-chilling screeches, black colour, and reputed bad-temper, led the early European settlers to call it The Devil.
The survival of Tasmanian Devils is threatened by Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD), and the species is now listed as Endangered. DFTD causes tumours around the mouth, face and neck of Devils. The disease develops rapidly and is fatal: affected animals die within six months of the lesions first appearing. Only the north-west remains undiseased. There are indications that the devil populations in the north-west have slightly different genetic composition from those in the remainder of Tasmania and may perhaps harbour some individuals with genotypes resistant to this lethal disease.
Tasmanian devils play an important role within the Tasmanian landscape and specifically, its ecosystem. As such, one of the challenges for the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program is the management of the ecological impacts of a reduced devil population and the minimising of adverse repercussions. Tasmanian devils decrease blow fly numbers by cleaning up carrion and dead animals from the landscape.
Mines proposed in north-west Tasmania could devastate populations of undiseased devils, says Hamish McCallum, head of the Griffith School of Environment at Griffith University, Queensland. Both Environment Minister Tony Burke’s press release and his approval of 18 December 2013 explicitly recognise the threat that this mine will pose to Tasmanian devils: the developers are required to donate $350,000 to the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program Appeal to compensate for the mine’s “unavoidable” impact.
Tarkine mines the last straw for Tasmanian Devils:Australian Geographic
Survival of the Tasmanian devil now rests on the success of the captive breeding program. The Tasmanian devil, the world’s largest remaining marsupial carnivore, faces extinction in the wild. A group of genetically different animals, once hoped to be resistant, are succumbing to the disease, and hope of naturally resistant animals in the wild is fading (although a tiny glimmer of hope remains with five animals who are still seemingly healthy after tumour regression).
Like for all of our native animals, extinction is an incremental process, and competition with developments and diseases are taking their toll. Australia’s mammal extinction rate continues at world-record standards, but not something we can be proud of.
Dr David Obendorf, Wildlife Veterinary Pathologist, contributes the spate of Tasmania’s wildlife diseases to human abuse of the environment – pesticide and herbicide spraying, biocide contamination of streams, the continuation of habitat fragmentation and habitat destruction, allowing these diseases to be transmitted more easily and compounding pathogen stresses on wildlife.
If you are interested in making a donation to Save the Tasmanian Devil, please contact Jackie Dalton on 9351 8024 or download the Fundraising Flyer and Donation Form (pdf)
To learn more about the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program or to donate visit: www.tassiedevil.com.au
Chemical pollution may be factor in deadly disease ravaging Tasmanian devils, says? European Journal of Oncology. Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD), has resulted in species being listed as endangered.
(image: Loggerhead sea turtle)
Sea turtles live in the warmer oceans of the world. They have been in the oceans for about 230 million years – since before the dinosaurs. These ancient sea creatures are among the most endangered animals on the planet. Sea turtles feed on jellyfish, seaweed, shrimp, crabs, algae and small molluscs.
Six of the world’s seven species of marine turtle occur in Australian waters, including the:
• flatback turtle (Natator depressus)
• green turtle (Chelonia mydas)
• hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata)
• leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea)
• loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta)
• olive ridley turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea)
Australia has some of the largest marine turtle nesting areas in the Indo-Pacific region and has the only nesting populations of the flatback turtle
The green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas); is a large salt water turtle with a wide distribution throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Adult green turtles are unique among sea turtles in that they are herbivorous, feeding primarily on seagrasses and algae. This diet is thought to give them greenish colored fat, from which they take their name.
The green sea turtle is an endangered species. Their populations have drastically declined in the last 50 years. Their meat and eggs are highly prized and eaten in some countries; they can drown when caught in fishing nets or die after eating trash such as plastic bags that they see as jellyfish.
Green sea turtles are distributed throughout the Pacific from Alaska to Chile in the eastern Pacific, and from Russia to the northern coast of New Zealand in the western Pacific. Major Pacific populations are on the northern coast of Australia, Southeast Asia, Hawaii, and Mexico.
“Traditional’ hunts were not only exempt from laws to protect endangered species, but in Queensland are also exempt from laws protecting animals from cruelty — allowing turtles to be carved up whilst still conscious and dugongs to be dragged for many minutes by boat, with their head under water, until they drown.
Thanks to the efforts of Animals Australia and other wildlife supporters the Queensland government has removed animal cruelty exemptions for ‘traditional’ hunting of turtles and dugongs. This is a huge win for turtles and dugongs in Far North Queensland, who will now be fully protected under the Animal Care and Protection Act and spared the suffering caused by cruel ‘traditional’ hunting methods.
As well as threats from disease, entanglement, illegal fishing and by-catch, the marine turtles’ nesting beaches in northern Australia need urgent protection from predators and marine debris.
Sir Paul McCartney has lent his support to WSPA’s Stop Sea Turtle Farming campaign.
The campaign launched on Monday 15 October and aims to save sea turtles from being cruelly farmed for food in the world’s last commercial farm. Some 7,000 endangered sea turtles – accurately portrayed in Finding Nemo as peaceful animals that travel thousands of miles across oceans – have been effectively immobilised and stockpiled in filthy, tiny tanks for so long that they have begun to cannibalise each other.
WSPA:Sir Paul McCartney lens support to save turtles
Australia’s world leadership in marine conservation was rightly recognised in 1975 and 2004 with the establishment and extensive rezoning, respectively, of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The 2007 and now the 2012 Commonwealth marine protected areas are a big step backward from the 2004 milestone. In the Coral Sea Marine Reserve, for example, there is only a marginal reduction in pelagic longline fishing, which impacts protected shortfin mako sharks and turtles as well as the overfished big eye tuna.
The Great Barrier Reef is in crisis and without decisive action by the Federal government and Queensland State government Australia could be placed on UNESCO’s ‘list of shame’ for not meeting its World Heritage obligations. Gladstone fishermen confirm the problems continue. Fishermen report that there have been intervals between fish kills, but turtle deaths are still occurring most weeks.
Last September, La-T-Four, a young green turtle, was found washed up and in agony on a lonely stretch of beach near Bowen, on the Great Barrier Reef. Too weak to swim or feed, La-T-Four was not far from death. She was just one of an estimated 1,800 turtles that have suffered the same fate in the past year.
For vulnerable and endangered sea turtles in Australia, vessel strike is recognised as an important threat but its severity relative to other threats remains speculative. Documented evidence for this problem is available only in stranding records collected by the Queensland Environment Protection Authority. With the authority’s support we assessed the scope and quality of the data and analysed vessel-related records. They found adequate evidence that during the period 1999–2002 at least 65 turtles were killed annually as a result of collisions with vessels on the Queensland east coast. It’s easy to imagine that many more were injured and left to suffer.
Something is wrong on the Reef and turtles are paying the price. Turtle hospitals along the Queensland coast don’t have enough emergency tanks. Too many turtles are suffering. WWF need your help to provide up to 20 new emergency tanks for a number of Queensland’s turtle hospitals and rehab centres.
WWF appeal: support sea turtles
Some oil exploration and drilling already occurs nearby to Western Australia’s Ningaloo Reef and is increasingly encroaching on the area. The reef is now surrounded by oil and gas exploration leases but most are yet to get approvals to undertake exploration or production. Western Australia’s peak environment and sustainability group the Conservation Council of WA welcomed a decision by the Federal Government to reject Apache Energy’s application to undertake seismic exploration within the Ningaloo World Heritage area. The timing of the proposal also coincides with the breeding season for endangered loggerhead turtles.
Economic growth and exploration of natural resources continues to intensify with human population growth and depletions of energy. It means more ocean traffic, pollution, intense fishing, collisions and clashes with human demands.
Those who condemn native urban possums as ?destructive, costly, dirty pests?’ should know that they have lived in harmony with their environment, for over 20 million years and are integral to it.
Possums – Myths and Facts
Brushtail Possums have one young a year; Ringtail Possums can have up to three. However, the majority of newborns do not survive their first year outside their mothers? protective pouches:
About 50 per cent of young female possums and 85 per cent of males die in their first year. The high mortality rate is because of a lack of territory – if they can’t find an unoccupied patch they often die of stress.
Loss of habitat and our urban lifestyle choices contribute to the diminishing survival chances of possums.Evidence supports the view that by the time your children have children there may not be any of these animals left.
The South Australian Government has made it illegal for householders to kill a possum. It hopes this will halt their decline but it warns only a community effort will save the Brushtail Possum.
New research by Jutta Eymann at Macquarie University’s department of biological sciences indicates that there’s a very high turnover of animals and the majority being found are four years old or less.
Possums are native animals protected by wildlife legislation with specific dietary needs. If we have possums in the suburbs we ought to cherish them and, if one does get into your roof and carries on as if he’s walking around with hobnailed boots all over your roof, you may not have a possum problem, as people describe it, you may have a maintenance problem
Possums are nocturnal, thus householders can take practical measures such as netting vegetable gardens overnight, fruit tree collaring, fixing roof holes after providing nest boxes on site for evicted possums-that will enhance the experience of living with possums while protecting garden produce from browsing.
Possum presence in our parks and gardens is enriching, especially for families with young children, offering a unique encounter with wild animals that have adapted to a changing environment, an experience neither provided by captive wild animals in zoos nor domesticated companion animals.
Green space is also wildlife habitat; uncurbed development has significantly impacted wildlife populations and welfare. Brushtail Possums are made especially vulnerable by the removal of mature trees that provide habitat hollows and the lack of native fodder trees that provide a balanced, sustainable diet; Ringtail Possums on the other hand need interconnecting canopy to move along and thick foliage for nest building. Ultimately looking after possums entails looking after trees and managing open space as habitat, to the benefit of all users.
