Wildlife advocates are calling for the commercial culling of kangaroos in Victoria’s Grampians region to cease, after recent bushfires. Wildlife Victoria has warned there could be long-term impacts on kangaroo populations given their habitat has been so impacted by the fires.
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00:00So, what we're very concerned about, Lorna, is both the immediate and long-term impacts
00:07on our kangaroo populations as a result of the Grampians fires. We do typically see,
00:14with fires of this size and scale, substantive impacts to wildlife and, you know, most very
00:22sadly will lose their lives, they will lose habitat and those few survivors often present
00:30with very serious burns and other injuries. So, at an absolute minimum, we must be doing
00:36our absolute best to protect our very unique flora and fauna here in Australia and immediately
00:44stop any commercial killing of our wildlife right now.
00:49I mean, isn't the problem, the reason they're cold, is because there are too many?
00:55Look, I think that it's very important for people to understand kangaroos and their role
01:02in our ecosystem. They are very important to the propagation of native grasses and soil
01:10health and, you know, they only produce one young a year. So, contrary to popular opinion,
01:18our kangaroos only typically have one young each year and the survival rate of those joeys
01:25in the wild is, you know, less than 70%. So, it's probably time we start busting a few
01:32myths about our kangaroos and treat them with the unique respect they deserve.
01:39There is one argument, Lisa, as I'm sure you'll know, that culling them may actually help
01:44aid the recovery of plants and smaller animals because kangaroos can have such an impact,
01:50particularly on an area that is trying to recover from a wildfire.
01:54Well, I think it's a bit early to say, Lorna, at the moment. It'll be very important for
02:01independent ecological analysis to be undertaken after these fires when we have an opportunity
02:11as a community and a society to see exactly what's happened.
02:16So, it's called the Kangaroo Harvesting Program. What is it exactly?
02:22The Kangaroo Harvesting Program was introduced by the Victorian state government in 2019 and
02:30what it does is it sets annual quotas for the commercial killing of kangaroos and those kangaroos
02:38are killed predominantly for their skins, for meat and largely for pet food. So, the quota
02:49that's been set for the Grampians region for this year is, from memory, just over 22,000.
02:56Given there are likely to be thousands of kangaroos impacted as a result of these fires,
03:02the loss of life could actually be quite substantive in comparison to that annual quota.
03:08If the culls are stopped, I mean, there's been a backlash from international partners refusing to,
03:16you know, I'm thinking in the United States, not buying products that have kangaroo in them
03:20and that sort of stuff. What do you think the environmental impact would be
03:25if the culling program was abandoned?
03:29I think we all need to learn to live in harmony with our kangaroos and certainly a lot of people
03:35that are living on the land deeply appreciate the importance of a healthy ecosystem.
03:41So, what we should be trying to do instead of killing our native species and putting the
03:46ecosystem out of balance is ensuring that we are planting native trees, we are supporting and
03:54propagating, you know, flora and fauna because we are increasingly seeing substantive climate
04:04change impacts as a result of not doing that. And the other thing that also needs to be taken
04:10into account here in Australia, it's estimated that over 10 million animals, wildlife,
04:17lose their lives due to road trauma. And certainly last year at Wildlife Victoria,
04:22we saw a nearly 30% actually increase in kangaroos that we responded to. So,
04:29we're not just killing them for commercial reasons, but there's a lot of human impacts
04:35on the species as well. Road trauma is a big one.
04:39So, Lisa, you've made these calls to the Victorian authorities to halt the culling this year. Have
04:45you received any response to them? Because as far as I'm aware, the program is still ongoing.
04:51No, we haven't received any response, Lorna, and certainly Wildlife Victoria does engage
04:57with government a lot, as you can appreciate, given the public service we provide. We are a charity,
05:04but nevertheless have really good insight and data and statistics about what's happening to
05:10our wildlife out there. So, very much welcome conversation with government on the issue and
05:15provision of any data that we can provide to assist in the decision-making.