Australia’s culture of killing native animals
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Australia’s culture of killing native animals
Birdlife Australia: Long distance champions flying into extinction
8 May 2015
While the world celebrates World Migratory Bird Day this weekend, BirdLife Australia’s Threatened Species Committee has released grim news confirming that seven of Australia’s migratory shorebird species are on a trajectory to extinction.
Australian’s love the battlers, and small-time heroes. These little birds seem insignificant, but they are amazing travellers, facing all the torrents of winds, seas, currents but face increasingly hostile and dwindling safe landings.
“Once common species like Eastern Curlew and Curlew Sandpiper are now Critically Endangered with Bar-tailed Godwit, Red Knot and Great Knot not far behind”, says Samantha vine, Birdlife Australia’s Head of Conservation. In 30 years these birds could be gone forever, and perhaps most alarming is the fact that the once numerous and widespread Red-necked Stint has moved onto the Near Threatened list. Modern Australia, the land of mammal extinctions, is now repeating their “success” with migratory birds!
Read also a previous article on our website: Disappearing migratory shore birds
“This miraculous bird, (Red-necked Stint) no bigger than a sparrow, is capable of flying more than 20,000 km each year. But like other migratory shorebirds, it needs Australia, China, Korea and other Asian nations to work together to protect the rich mudflats that fuel its migration,” continued Ms Vine. If they don’t have a safe stop-over point for rest and food, they die of starvation!
(image: Red-necked Stint (Calidris ruficollis), Winter Plumage, Ralph’s Bay, Tasmania, Australia)
BirdLife Australia is not going to let these birds disappear without a fight. They are calling on the Australian Government to do more to protect migratory shorebirds at home and in Asia. BirdLife has launched a petition asking Federal Environment Minister, Greg Hunt to develop:
- A strong national wetlands policy to address the cumulative impacts of multiple threats to our shorebirds (the ‘death by a thousand cuts’); and
- An ambitious strategy to engage our international partners in the protection of habitat important to the survival of our shorebirds.
Wetland habitat loss and degradation is a significant threat to migratory waterbirds, and the conservation of important sites both within Australia and along their migration routes is essential to their survival. Many pressures are contributing to this degradation, of which population growth and associated coastal development are of particular concern.
Housing has become a major industry in Australia. As a result, important habitat is being lost to port developments, housing and industry in Australia each year. But it will also put a spotlight on communities taking action to protect the wetlands and shorebirds they love.
Please sign the petition, Shorebirds in Crisis
Bleak future for Australian frogs
In recent years, scientists have become increasingly aware of a worldwide decline in the numbers of frogs. Frogs are certainly disappearing in Australia. Eight frog species have become extinct in the last 25 years, and several more are likely to become extinct in the near future.
There have been drastic declines in the populations of amphibians, particularly frogs, throughout the world. Along the east coast of Australia, nine species of frog have totally disappeared in the past two decades, and scientists are at a loss to explain why or provide solutions – except for ‘human activities’ and population growth – but some reasons are still elusive.
Victoria’s frogs are facing a conservation crisis according to biologists, who warn that some of the state’s amphibians have “passed a tipping point”, while others have become extinct.
(image: Baw Baw frog)
Nick Clemann, program leader (threatened fauna) at the Arthur Rylah Institute , said the prospects for the Baw Baw frog, Victoria’s only endemic frog species, were now considered “immediately bleak”.
The frog is now only found on the forested western slopes of the mountain. It’s tiny, it breeds underground and it can only be found in Victoria’s eastern Alpine region of Mount Baw Baw and one highly protected shipping container in inner Melbourne.
The spotted tree frog, found in rocky mountain streams in north-eastern Victoria, is also battling shrinking numbers, with more than half the known populations believed lost. Those that remain and are being monitored and are showing a gradual decline. Their survival is threatened by chytridiomycosis, the waterborne disease attacks the keratin in the skin and threatens all frog species. There is no effective infection control for the fungus in the wild.
To help combat the decline of Baw Baw frogs, Melbourne Zoo converted a shipping container that simulates alpine conditions, and has succeeded in establishing a small ‘insurance’ population base of 57 frogs.
The southern corroboree frog is one of Australia’s most endangered species. Arguably one of the most striking of Australia’s species, the southern corroboree frog is endemic to Australia, and in fact only lives in small pockets entirely within Kosciuszko National Park. ‘Corroboree’ refers to a meeting or gathering of Aboriginal Australians where participants often adorn themselves in white striped markings.
(image: Corroboree frog)
Threats include human impacts such as climate change, fire and habitat disturbance, as well as feral animals. But the biggest problem is the chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis), which has been decimating frog populations around the world.
Frogs, more than any other terrestrial animal, need water to survive. In inland wetlands in NSW, water can be scarce for years and then suddenly abundant, and frogs depend on the flooding of wetlands to successfully breed.
Eighteen species of wetland and river frogs – a quarter of all frogs in NSW – are listed under the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995. They include the green and golden bell frog, southern bell frog , stuttering frog, corroboree frogs, alpine tree frog, sphagnum frog and wallum froglet.
Exotic fish threats
The plague minnow (Gambusia holbrookii) is a small fish sometimes called the mosquito fish. It was originally introduced to control mosquitoes but was not successful in doing this. It is now common and widespread, and known to eat native frog eggs and tadpoles.
Other exotic fish – such as trout, carp and goldfish – also eat native frog eggs and tadpoles.
Other threats
- Loss of habitat: Humans can damage frog habitat in many ways. For example, people:clear large areas of native vegetation for housing and agriculture.
- removal of fallen timber, leaf litter and other ground cover
- drain wetlands or allow cattle to graze in them
collection of bush rock, which is used for shelter by some frogs such as the red-crowned toadlet - frequently burn patches of bush which frogs shelter in reduce the quality of wildlife corridors, which connect areas of frog habitat. This makes it difficult for frogs to move from one area to another.
In our Western, consumer-based economy, underpinned by high population growth, there’s heavy competition for development of frog habitats.
Displaced and introduced frogs pose a serious risk of spreading disease to local native species
‘Banana box‘ frogs are displaced frogs that have been inadvertently moved from their normal habitat, usually in containers of fresh produce or landscape supplies. As displaced frogs pose a serious risk of spreading disease to local native species, they must be treated as if they are carrying an infectious disease and must never be released into the wild unless special approval is given.
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/animals/ThreatsToFrogs.htm
An estimated 6000-8000 frogs are transported to Melbourne annually in produce. These tropical frogs cannot survive in Victoria’s cool climate nor can they be returned to their home state due to fears of spreading disease. These displaced frogs are cared for at the Victoria Frog Group’s and Amphibian Research Centre’s
Lost Frogs’ Home, nursed back to health in quarantine and eventually placed into a caring home as a family pet.
Cane toads
The culling of cane toads has been widely encouraged as they are displacing native Australian frogs.
Some of our native Australian frogs look a bit like cane toads. Cane Toads are large heavily-built amphibians with dry warty skin. They have a bony head and over their eyes are bony ridges that meet above the nose. They can be distinguished from some native Australian frogs because they sit upright and are active in the daytime in dense clusters.
Deadly urban sprawl
The Growling Grass Frog, for example, is endangered in Victoria. It needs habitat corridors along creeks and waterways, such as Merri Creek, to survive and flourish.
Studies by Melbourne University researcher Dr Geoff Heard show that the frog’s population has declined by 29 per cent in Melbourne’s north since 2001-02. The Growling Grass Frog conservation corridor along the Merri will be narrowed to only 50m wide and straddled by the town centre of Lockerbie, north of Craigieburn. Melbourne’s northern growth corridor will gain 11,000 new houses with the development of the former Lockerbie sheep station. Construction is due to start within months on a new community that will eventually house 30,000 people at Kalkallo, north of Craigieburn.
(image: Growling Grass Frog)
It is estimated more than $986 million will be collected over the 30 to 40 years it will take to develop the growth corridors . The money will go towards buying land for reserves and management of the sites.
The government will also release strategies to protect key species threatened by Melbourne’s growth, including the endangered growling grass frog and golden sun moth.
Somehow, planners will have the contradictory task of trying to save endangered specie, yet at the same time promote housing growth! In the land famous for extinctions, the competition between housing/economic growth, and the protection of habitats for native species, continues to untangle, but the latter are always hindsight consideration – and collateral damage!
Ecological role of amphibians
A good ecosystem is the one with many species variety whereby it has less chances of being extremely damaged by natural disasters like climate changes or even human interaction. So as to help to keep the system healthy, each and every species has a niche in its ecosystem.
Frogs mainly feed on insects as their main sustenance and also native pests whereby with this, the insect and pests population is regulated which could have been hazardous to the rest of the environment if it was not kept down. Forest streams have leaf litter as their main source of energy where animals feed on leaves and nutrients get released as a result of tadpole activity that becomes an advantage to microorganisms, algae and other animals.
(featured image: Growling Grass frog)
Cassowary – the decline of the World’s Most Dangerous Bird
The southern cassowary is the world’s third largest bird. It is one of Australia’s largest land animals and plays a unique role in the ecology of the World Heritage listed rainforests of tropical Australia. They stand between 1.5-2 metres in height and both sexes are similar in appearance. Adults are striking with their glossy black plumage and bright blue neck with touches of red. The female is larger than the male and is also the more aggressive of the two.
If you can see them that means you are too close and should take immediate protection. If you turn your back and run the bird will take that as a sign of weakness and will come after you at 50km ph (30 mph), which is faster than any human can run. The Guinness Book Of Records lists the Cassowary as the most dangerous bird in the world.
In evolutionary terms, the flightless birds (or ratites) were some of the earliest types of birds to develop. The cassowary, emu, rhea, kiwi and ostrich are still around today, but others, like the moas of New Zealand and the elephant bird of Madagascar are now extinct.
Cassowaries are very difficult to study because they lead solitary lives and live in dense tropical rainforest and remote and rugged terrain, so there is still much we don’t know about them.
Until recently, the remaining wild population was thought to be at around 2000. However, new research by the CSIRO estimates that the cassowary population may be more than double that at around 4400.
Threats:
Roads
Queensland government data shows that this year alone at least 10 cassowaries have died because of human involvement. Six were struck by cars and four were killed by dogs.
Rainforest vegetation has been extensively cleared, particularly in lowland areas. By 1997, 81% of native vegetation had been cleared, and remaining rainforest habitat was substantially fragmented.
Roads are a major cause of direct cassowary mortality due to vehicle strikes. Roads can also fragment and degrade cassowary habitat; impose barriers on cassowary movement patterns; and hasten the spread of invasive species.
Property Developers
Land is being cleared by property developers, the precious “Daintree rainforest is for sale on the open market with the guarantee of destruction from property development with DA approval already granted and council approved house plans included with the sale,” says the group. “Rare and endangered species such as southern cassowaries have been identified here”.
Urban Sprawl
Urban sprawl and coastal development along the aptly named Cassowary Coast now threatens the Cassowaries that have survived agricultural land-clearing. There have been in excess of 60 cassowaries killed by cars over the last 20 years in the Mission Beach area alone. Five recent reported deaths in three months attest to this.
Population growth
Cairns and the Far North have been tipped to become home to more than 500,000 people by 2050 – double today’s population. The region is the most populous in Northern Australia with 278,064 people and it is expected to more than double to 550,887 by 2050.
Liz Gallie is the president of Mission Beach Cassowaries says “the cassowary is a keystone species of the rainforest,” and “the current planning scheme would allow Mission Beach’s population to reach 18,000, which is incompatible with the survival of the cassowary. Development is still seen by the local authorities and tourism organisations as the economic driver and is encouraged. It is an oxymoron”.
PETITIONS:
Save the habitat of Australia’s ancient Cassowaries
ForceChange: Save Rare and Beautiful Cassowaries from Extinction
Ecologist Hans Brunner’s response to the DEWLP Southern Brown Bandicoot Implementation Plan
To:
James Todd | Director Knowledge and Decision Systems | Biodiversity Division
Environment & Climate Change | Department of Environment, Land, Water & Planning
Level 2, 8 Nicholson St, East Melbourne, Victoria 3002
Dear James,
In spite of the massive input that has already been done for the Southern Brown Bandicoot implementation plan, I still have some serious doubt about a best possible outcome at this stage. It appears that my many evaluations of the proposed corridors presented to DELWP have been totally ignored.
It seems that the long, too narrow, costly and unproven corridors are going to remain as the core solution regardless of everything else.
My I ask then why the corridor from the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne (RBGC) to the Pines is still seriously considered while there are no plans to protect SBB’s in the Pines,( if they can actually get there), the same way as they are at the RBGC? This, and the other three corridors are all open ended and do not lead into other and well protected colonies.
As to the Population Viability Assessment (PVA), much discussion went on about it. My question is, has there been a PVA applied to the proposed corridor solution and if so, I would like to obtain a detailed copy of it. As far as I am concerned, a proper PVA would have to dismally fail the present concept.
Since there is already $ 20m wasted on underpasses in the Pines , I would not like to see another $20 to 30 million wasted on these corridors while there is no money left for the proper protection of SBB;s in a number of reserves surrounded by a predator proof fence. This is my solution.
And finally, it appears to me that when environmental issues are dealt with in the same department as there is planning, there could well be a conflict of interest to occur.
I am happy to discuss my points with any one, possibly over the phone.
Yours concerned.
Hans Brunner.
We appreciate Hans Brunner’s effort (image above) to negotiate a solution to the threats to the Southern Brown Bandicoot in Victoria, Cranbourne area. Such is the political and economic power of the housing industry, habitat will be lost and the threatening process is one that can’t easily be mitigated.
The forecast human population of Cranbourne, 2016, was 297,000 and by 2041, 492,497, a whopping 68.5% increase in this period! Hardly leave much habitat for SBB! They are to be sacrificed so that property developers, and real estate investors, can continue rolling out urban sprawl – and big profits.
Kangaroos must be “culled” for urban sprawl
A wildlife “consultant” has called for a radical new plan to cull kangaroos along Melbourne’s urban fringe before there is any more housing development. What’s “radical” about this solution to wildlife? Due to lack of vision, foresight and planning, it means killing them!
This new “plan” is about caving into the whims of property developers, and the plans of our State government to blow out our urban fringe for more growth-gluttony and housing.
Thanks to Melbourne’s obesity, urban sprawl keeps stretching out north, causing problems for residents and wildlife. There are more fences, road and houses, causing chaos and causing kangaroos to become trapped in factories, rooftops and school yards. Their habitat is being impinged upon and eaten away by infrastructure and clogged up, due to human population growth.
Instead of addressing the problem, and implementing any real plans for the city, the waist-line of Melbourne keeps expanding as 100,000 new people per year keep it engorged.
Wildlife Victoria has received about 6,500 emergency calls about kangaroos this year, double the number they received three years ago.
DELWP, the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, is meant to administer the Wildlife Act, and enforce the protection of our native species, is also the State government department responsible for Planning! There are massive and blatant conflicts of interests here.
According to DELWP’s own website, they have control over our population growth! By 2051, there will be a projected 10 million people in Victoria, a “natural increase” of 1.7 million, and a whopping 2.8 million due to net migration.
Wildlife Victoria spokeswoman Amy Amato said “It’s definitely not an increase in the number of kangaroos in Melbourne….we’re just seeing the number of incidents in human conflict with kangaroos rising.” In fact, our government does not know how many kangaroos there are in Victoria.
(image: The True Cost of Sprawl)
Victoria’s Department of Environment has engaged independent wildlife management consultant Ian Temby to review the situation. His solution is to kill the kangaroos before development goes ahead, arguing kangaroos are being slowly culled by cars anyway! So, their deaths are inevitable, and shooters don’t kill will be finished off by cars. Then, the housing industry won’t be hampered by obstructed by native animals.
Author Ian Temby, in the past, recommended learning to live humanely with wildlife. Known to Wildlife Victoria members as a long time as wildlife advocate with over 30 years in the DSE.
He claimed that “action to resolve conflicts with wildlife does not have to be lethal. Exclusion, repellents, changing human practices and habitat modification are all examples of non-lethal actions”. And, “rather than killing wildlife, our real challenge is to develop and apply methods of problem resolution that are proactive, anticipating where problems may occur and taking action to prevent them from actually happening”.
Now, his solution is CULL, CULL, the easy and lazy way of removing the problem.
There are no interconnecting wildlife corridors in Victoria, so whatever “Planning” happens doesn’t include the fate of our native species.
For too long our capitalistic economy has gorged on “growth”, and worshipped the real estate industry, caving into it’s whims for resources. Already our infrastructure is choked and overloaded, and congestion is impeding productivity. We are falling into an abyss of infrastructure deficit.
What values are we promoting and what benefits are there from our city’s explosive growth- except for property developers and real estate investors?
The high immigration that was beneficial in the 1950s, and 60s is now causing our cities to be over-crowded and overpopulated. Our governments are addicted to growth, and our economy is on thin ice if it depends on rising house prices and population growth. It’s admission of being bereft of ideas, innovation, and enlightenment. It’s lazy economics, to just turn up the immigration tap to boost our economy, and expect the public to finance the retro-fitting of our city, endure a crumbling housing market, and all the deprivations of perpetual growth imposed on us!
The lack of innovation and diversity in our economy means that there’s an over-reliance on housing and population growth. It’s a lethal and self-destructive Ponzi scheme, and will not only have a deadly impact on our wildlife, biodiversity and environment, but eventually cause impoverishment, deprivation, eroded living standards, congestion, and spiralling costs of living for human inhabitants.
The culture or vilification of kangaroos, as “pests” and their killing has become engrained into our history as a macabre type of environmental “management”. It’s rationalized as a human responsibility to control their numbers, as we have changed the environment so much, due to infrastructure and agriculture, to such as way as to encourage their overpopulation and breeding! They thus are condemned for over-populating and causing mayhem, including environmental damage and threats to other species!
The great Canberra “cull” of kangaroos is being considered again, in our so-called “Bush Capital”. It’s an oxymoron, and it’s using kangaroos as a scapegoat for mismanagement and human-caused environmental destruction.
In July 2015 Canberra activist Chris Klootwijk, 70, was arrested for blowing a whistle during the ACT Government sanctioned kangaroo cull which hindered the annual shooting operation. Klootwijk is accused of hindering the cull workers by making loud noises, which included blowing a whistle.
It is alleged that his actions were designed to scare off kangaroos, making it difficult for them to be shot, and halted the cull for about 45 minutes.
Chris faces fines of up to $30,000 and up to two years in jail if found guilty because the ACT government is positioning the blowing of a whistle as a crime. Whistles are not weapons, like firearms!
Borobi the blue koala has been announced as the official mascot for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Koala numbers have plummeted by more than two thirds in less than 20 years in south-east Queensland.
One of Australia’s leading koala experts has labelled this week’s unveiling of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games mascot an embarrassment. The sad irony is that koala numbers have plummeted. They like the symbolism of our native animals, but not the actual animals!
Tweed Heads ecologist Steve Phillips said the use of a koala as the Gold Coast’s mascot was frustrating. “What we’ve seen is that progressive development, and the end result is that decline [of koalas] is proceeding at pace,” he said. High human population growth on the Coast has seen koala numbers plummet, due to urban sprawl. Some critics hit out at what they believed was state government hypocrisy in using a “vulnerable” species as the Games’ emblem but conservationists said it could actually work in favour of helping the threatened animals.
Federal threatened species commissioner Gregory Andrews denied the outlook for koalas was as dire as conservationists believed.
“I would disagree that the future is so bleak. The future is much rosier than it has been for a long time,” he said. Human population on the Gold Coast.
Over the past five years, the population of the Greater Port Macquarie region has been growing at an average rate of 1.62% per annum – driven largely by Australia’s massive immigration rates.
By the mid-nineteenth century as the European settlements grew significantly, a lucrative trade in Koala skins sprung up. Koala hunters shot, poisoned or snared these animals off their tree perches and bludgeoned them to death and sold their skins for export. The main export markets were the US, Canada and Europe where the Koala’s soft waterproof fur was used to make hats, gloves and fur linings for coats. (http://panique.com.au/trishansoz/animals/koala.html)
Due to huge public outcry, Koala hunting was banned throughout Australia by 1927. The importation of Koala skins into the US was also banned in 1927 by President Herbert Hoover while he was Secretary of Commerce.
Today’s threats to koalas are more pedestrian, of deliberate land clearing for urban sprawl. They are seen as an inevitable victim of our housing-based economy.
Our “environment” department in Victoria, DELWP, plans to “cull” 25,000 kangaroos on public land this year, under permits issued by the Victorian Government. They plans to kill 8560 red kangaroos and 5170 western grey kangaroos by Parks Victoria in the Murray Sunset National Park, 3000 eastern grey kangaroos by the Commonwealth Department of Defence at Puckapunyal, and 200 eastern grey kangaroos by Gippsland Water at Dustson Downs. DELWP said kangaroo populations were managed to “prevent crashing — or dying in large numbers from starvation during droughts — to prevent damage to vulnerable native vegetation and habitat from overgrazing, to allow heavily grazed areas to regenerate or to protect water catchments”. Rather than magnanimously prevent kangaroos from over-populating and “starving”, its really a thinly mask commercial kill, to keep up the supply of pet food, being trialed in Victoria! (Weekly Times, April 15th, 2016)
The Colonial culture of ignorance, human domination, land clearing, and killing is deeply embedded in Australia’s culture.