Captive

My overseas friends may not know it, but there are more kangaroos (Eastern Grey, and the Red) than when white people arrived. This is due to the opening up of grazing land through clearing. It is a happier counter-trend to the daily dismal news of more lost species.

Yet Australians have an odd attitude to eating roos even though the meat is very healthy, and in some cases their numbers exceeds what the land can support. We can't eat our national symbol can we? Meanwhile sheep do vast damage to our range lands, over-grazing ecosystems.

Over the road from my house is an old fenced-in naval radio station. Within the tall wire fence the Eastern Grey population has grown unchecked. Normally they'd be naturally culled by dingos picking off the young and the weak. Or the mob would move onto some other region. Now there's enough of them to denude the grasses, and even threaten less obvious species such as rare moths and legless lizards.

For a couple of weeks protesters camped at the gate to prevent a planned cull. This made national and international news. Eventually the authorities gave up, and will attempt to sedate and relocate many of the animals. Sadly, experience has shown that about 40 percent of animals moved do not survive this procedure. And if nothing is done there will be mass starvation on top of the environmental damage.

Similar stories are being played out on other restricted populations. Even sadder is the plight of Koalas on (interesting symmetry here) Kangaroo Island. There the Koalas are not even endemic since they were introduced by man some years ago. And Koalas are a threatened species, but their unchecked numbers and feeding habits in turn are seriously damaging the local forests.

The final irony is that if our local Kangaroos were culled, regulations would not allow the meat to be sold for consumption.

Incidentally, I am vegetarian.