When several US states banned the import of kangaroo products from Australia, the reasoning was as ridiculous as it was evidence free. Boiled down to it, as scientist Jared Diamond said, it was because “we find the beasts cute, and some congressman’s wife heard that they were endangered”. Cute, they might be, but so are lambs and calves. As for ‘endangered’, kangaroos thrived in even one of the worst droughts on record.
There’s precious little concern for reason and evidence, either, when activists melt into shrieking outrage over koala culls.
Australian authorities are under fire following the culling of hundreds of koalas in the state of Victoria.
Around 700 koalas have been shot by snipers from helicopters flying over Victoria’s Budj Bim National Park, in an act of euthanasia following a devastating bushfire that scorched over 2,000 hectares of habitat.
Koalas, to be sure, are endangered – in some parts of Australia. But very much not, in others.
If that sounds contradictory, there are two, very sound, explanations. Firstly, koalas, restricted by diet and habitat, cannot easily migrate between areas. Grasslands, for instance, are essentially ‘deserts’ to koalas. That’s why there’s no koalas in Tasmania: when the island was joined to the Mainland, what is now Bass Strait was a wide rift valley with savannah and desert environments. Koalas could no more cross that than they can swim Bass Strait today.
Secondly, koalas are an ‘irruptive’ species. Irruptive species endure long periods of scarcity, then their populations boom in suitable conditions. Prior to European settlement, when most of the south-east of Australia was grassland habitat with only patches of dense forest, koalas appear to have been relatively scarce. Early European journals rarely report sightings of the creatures, and they were not an important Aboriginal food source. When Aboriginal burning patterns were disrupted, eucalypt forests (another irruptive species) rapidly spread and so did the koalas.
The upshot is that, while koalas are endangered in New South Wales, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory, in Victoria and South Australia the reverse is true. Simply put, there are too many koalas, not enough trees. Heavy populations cause widespread damage and risk starvation.
When forests are temporarily denuded by bushfires, the situation for koalas is dire. There are not just hundreds of injured animals, but intense competition for food. So, it’s either leave them to starve and die slowly, or cull them.
No matter what Phoebe Hyphenated-Surname in inner-city Melbourne or Sydney says.
Lisa Palma, chief executive of Wildlife Victoria, says the organisation was “deeply saddened” by the devastating impact on the koala population due to the fires in the Budj Bim national park.
“National parks are the last bastion for our wildlife and increasing severity of bushfires and other extreme weather events puts Australia’s incredible native species like the koala at significant risk.”
“The tragic reality is that bushfires typically lead to substantive loss of life and suffering for our wildlife and the most compassionate course of action for wildlife suffering severe burns and injuries is often euthanasia.”
I occasionally volunteer as a wildlife rescuer – and one of the hardest things to confront is the frequent necessity of euthanising badly injured animals. There are quick, painless methods of doing so and they aren’t pretty, but they have to be done.
So does the culling.
The state government’s chief biodiversity officer, James Todd, says the sole objective of the aerial cull was to prevent further suffering in animals affected by the fire, and involved specialist staff working with experienced vets, wildlife carers and animal welfare experts.
“Due to direct impacts of the fire, the poor health and low likelihood of survival of many animals due to the ongoing drought conditions and lack of food post-fire, many of the animals are requiring euthanising.”
“This decision to employ this method was not taken lightly,” Todd says, noting that it was informed by an experienced veterinarian and leading wildlife welfare ethics experts.
But, wails Tarquin Greensvoter from the high perch of his electric bicycle, surely there must be other ways?
Other methods were deemed not appropriate given the “extremely rugged terrain”, the inability to safely access the area by foot, the remote location of animals high in the canopy, and safety risks from fire-affected trees, he says.
“The options were to just leave them to deteriorate or take proactive steps to reduce suffering by using aerial assessments.”
Deakin University associate prof Desley Whisson, a wildlife ecologist who specialises in koala management, thinks it was a “merciful, compassionate response” in the circumstances, and one made despite the repercussions.
As always, it’s those for whom the natural environment is just something they narrated by David Attenborough on the telly who have the most to say and the least to contribute.
