Culled Australian Wildlife.

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PAT

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This is a list of the permits given out by the government for animals to be killed in order for their control.From Todays Herald Sun
Australian Magpie-686
Australian Raven(Does that mean crow?)-4536
Australian White Ibis-115
Black Kite-135
Black Swan-147:(
Black-faced cuckoo-shrike-55
Chestnut Teal-5
Possum-136
Wombat-4084
Pacific Black Duck-349
Perigrine Falcon-2
Rosella-1627
Eastern Brown Snake-38
Eastern Grey Kangaroo-108,442
Emu-2136
Deer-4525
Galah-3925
Great Comorant-31
Grey Butcherbird-100
Grey-headed Flying Fox-300
Kookaburra-100
Little Corella-2510
Little Wattlebird-25
Maned Wood Duck-9647
Masked Lapwing-344
Rainbow Lorikeet-1145
Red Kangaroo-120
Red-Necked Wallaby-978
Silver Gull-15,474
Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo-2423
Swamp Wallaby-3338
Tiger Snake-40
Western Grey Kangaroo-4635
Yellow-Faced Honeyeater-5
 
some of those numbers are just rediculous! what is killing 2 perigrine falcons going to achieve? and 4000 + wombats is a huge number!! do you have a link to the original report? i would love to read it
 
I read it in the newspaper and not on the web so I don't know where it is. Sorry.
 
I am a little dumb-founded or flabbergasted ... whichever you want to call it. Without any background info it just seems a bizarre that Australian authorities are targetting native fauna. The unique wombat is a case in point. Why does a country want to dish out in excess of 4000+ wombat killing permits. What is the effect on native fauna at all and does one distinguish between the endangered and non-endangered wombat taxa; the northern hairy-nosed wombat Lasiorhinus krefftii is listed as critically endangered and population downward, the southern hairy nosed L. latifrons is listed as low risk (but requires updating since 1996) and even the coarse haired wombat (the regular wombat we come to love) Vombatus ursinus is listed as low risk (needs updating since 1996). That is just sobering reading, that whilst IUCN/WWF lists all species as in some form of danger, yet authorities are still donning out permits. Can anyone explain this?

I was under the impression .. nay it has been exhaustively documented - that Australian fauna and flora had suffered greatly at the hands of the undesirable effects of introduction of non-indigenous fauna and flora (which incidentally also includes all domesticated Ovis (or sheep for the non zoological-taxonomical inclined). These non-natives - have for a good part been introduced by agricultural authorities to combat perceived pests, others have been imported when the first ship loads entered the Arnhem lands and beyond - have been most detrimental to the native fauna and flora.

I bring up the sheep bit ... as your national symbol ... the kangaroo and wallaby have in some way benefitted from man-made altered natural states and habitats. These are both loved and hated by the Aussie populace. Yet does anyone know that simply the introduction of sheep has opened up new grassland habitats to such an extent that some kangaroo and wallaby species have spiralled upwards?

I am just saying most of the high numbers seem to be perceived as undesirable by authorities, but how undesirable do these very same authorities see the far more detrimental effects non-natives introducees like rats, cats, foxes, bull frogs et all have had on native wildlife. It is quite sobering reading flipping through the official 2007 Red List (132 mammalian Antipodean species are in some respect endangered).

Can my Aussie friends-forumsters put a line on that (preferably without starting a sheep shouting war :D)?
 
I can't beleive this, I agree with Torie what is this going to acheive with the killing of some of those animals? This I find ridiculous, espicially because of the sheer number of fauna that is going to unfortunately end up dead,

With the crow- Raven thing on the other hand I do believe that we have Ravens in australia though there have been disputes over that we have crows and Ravens,
 
It says State Government but doesn't specify which state (I'm guessing Victoria.)
 
the number of animals culled would be a fraction of the total number of animals killed on the roads, but thats another story.
 
As the herald sun is a Vic paper these would be Victorian figures. Some of the animals listed seem very odd that permits would ever be given out for their destruction. The article also seems to be vague with the statement.

"More than 3057 permits for lethal and non-lethal control"

So possibly many of these animals were relocated not killed as the article does not give details.

"the kangaroo and wallaby have in some way benefited from man-made altered natural states and habitats. These are both loved and hated by the Aussie populace. Yet does anyone know that simply the introduction of sheep has opened up new grassland habitats to such an extent that some kangaroo and wallaby species have spiralled upwards?"

This is completely true as the pasture improvement, clearing and water availability have allowed kangaroos to prosper much more than previously. Victorian legislation also wasted all kangaroos killed, unlike other states, as they do not allow any part of the carcass to be utilized.

The only Wombats to occur in Victoria are the Common Wombat.
 
HI jelle, as a very proud Australian it is very embressing that these are the offical figures.

I have never heard of the Australian Raven. I would assume a crow.Birds are not my thing.

I belive that the goverment is trying to excersise a appearence of control over the killing of its native fauna.

The harsh reality these figures paticually with Wombat, Kangaroo,Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo,Wallaby,Lorikeet. These animals are constantly at "war" with the Australian farmer. Haveing spent my youth on a farm in a place called Swan Hill in Victoria.
These animals consume and destroy to much!!

They are killed without permits to protect the livelyhood of the farmer. From my own experiance l would say that these numbers are very much the tip of an iceberg.
I would consider that there are parallels between the bush meat industry and the slaughter of Australian Fauna.
I would imagine the only soloution long term. Is the development of simple oral teqnique of steralisation.As this situation has not changed in many years and as you point out some species have spiralled upwards.
 
I would say that some of the more unusual species (such as the peregrine falcons) would actually be permits to relocate rather than cull. There are ravens in Victoria, distinct from crows, but I never would have thought they would be regarded as a pest. I'm aware of the damage that wombats can do to fences etc and am sympathetic to our farmers for that but I think it is time for Australians to learn to live with our native species. 4000 wombats is a lot.
 
They would not sell many newspapers with the headling "native animals relocated"
"Licences to kill Australian iconic wildlife" sells more papers, being factual is not one of the medias strong points.

Victoria as sevral species of Raven and Crow. My bird book lists the Australian Raven and the Little Raven widespread and common. The Forest Raven also occurs in the south and the Little Crow in the north.
 
Seems too brutal

Rosella-1627
Galah-3925
Little Corella-2510
Rainbow Lorikeet-1145
Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo-2423


Killing nearly 12,000 parrots and also all the other organisms mentioned barring perhaps the invasives seems very very brutal to me.
I admire Australia because it is known as the 'Terra Psittacorum'-the land of parrots. I want to come and settle there purely for this. But reading this kind of news saddens me.

I have read the damage to agriculture is largely exaggerated. Morever Ian Rowley the reknowned parrot expert feels that there is an acute shortage of mature trees and therefore hollows for cockatoos across the country.

I am afraid the cockatoo may be heading the way of the passenger pigeon if we humans adopt such callous approach. A better strategy would be to promote eco tourism to encourage wealthy tourists to come and see large flocks of cockatoos. I personally would spend countless hours watching flocks of cockatoos, which, unlike macaws-the other large charismatic parrots, are more easy to watch in the wild.

The other strategy would be to ranch them, that is selectively pull out just 1 offspring from the cockatoo nest when it is partly weaned, raise it and sell it individually, not en masse, to people leaving from Australia. If each cockatoo can sell for about 500$/1000$ - a lot of that money can go back to compensate losses for farmers.

But I am not advocating trade here. I am strongly against it. I am saying that the birds should be sold individually to interested buyers who are willing to shell out money.
 
In Australia it is that it is illegal to export Australian parrots. Captive bred parrots in Australia are relatively cheap unlike overseas. My father in law breeds Major Mitchel Parrots and has a lot of trouble selling them even at a low price.

I have no experience with damage done by parrots, but I am not an orchardist. Almond, grape and fruit growers do have large losses and I think all destruction would be done by them.

Larger species like Cockatoos, Galahs and Corellas seem to be able to find enough hollows to nest in. Some of the Black Cockatoo species are having trouble with loss of feeding areas. The smaller parrot species I believe are in more danger as they have to deal with competition from introduced species such as Starlings which use their nesting hollows.
 
This morning, l saw a blue winged kookaburra. Sitting on telephone wires overhead. The first l have ever seen in the inner suburbs of Melbourne. I live 5 minutes from the city of Melbourne CBD.
I decided to count how many parrots l saw today given this thread. I lost count! At least 50 Cokatoos and many cloured parrots l did not recognise. I am sure that due to lack of available food sources and over populations. That these birds are now moving to new areas.
My point is that it will not be very long before the city people are wanting to also kill our native fauna. To protect there gardens. I wonder how the goverment is going to deal with this.
Interesting it has come up many times regarding some parrots requiring hollow trees to nest. That with logging and land clearing many sites are removed. This does not seem to have affected the populations. I wonder if they have adapted?
 
Selective logging only takes the solid trees without hollows and I believe should be the preferred method of logging. I did a chainsaw course as part of fire brigade training in the Red Gum forests along the Murray River. NSW forests had marked which trees were available for felling and also marked all the trees with hollows with a green H to show it is a habitat tree. 95% of Australia's Red Gum forests that were present at white settlement are still uncleared. Some areas still have plenty of hollows but there are areas where there is a shortage like in over cleared farmland.

In 50 years when the old trees which were not cleared on farmland are disappearing and the younger trees are not old enough to have developed hollows we will have a problem.
 
No-I never endorsed export

Hi Monty

I am very well aware of Australia's export laws and fully in support of them. I don't buy the logic espoused by ornithologist-aviculturist- David Alderton and others that Parrot trade would solve the cockatoo problem.

What I am suggesting is that you ranch the three pest species -Galah, Sulfurs and Little Corellas - ensure that they are disease free and sell them at premium to foreigners who come as tourists/students. This is definitely better than killing them with poison or otherwise. These ranched birds can even be sold to foreign students at universities as 'temporary' pets during their study period in Australia. This way it even serves to build awareness and love for Aussie wildlife among people across the globe.

A rich tourist might be willing to spend 2000$ for a flock of 4 Galahs or Sulfur crests to keep in his aviary back home. Australians might not be wanting to spend money on them but others might. But please don't export them in the manner you export sheep or livestock without even knowing who the end buyer is.

It is a pity that smaller parrots are threatened. I know that orange bellied, golden shouldered and splendid grass parakeets are threatened. The paradise parrot is already extinct. What Aussies should be doing is culling the starlings and mynahs-not the cockatoos and rosellas.

Hmm I was born on the wrong continent.
 
Psittacologist said:
It is a pity that smaller parrots are threatened. I know that orange bellied, golden shouldered and splendid grass parakeets are threatened. The paradise parrot is already extinct. What Aussies should be doing is culling the starlings and mynahs-not the cockatoos and rosellas.
Click to expand...

Plenty of starlings and mynahs get culled too.
 
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