Adieu...
Large Kangaroo |
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You'll see him on our coat of arms.ÊHe's at world class sporting events. He's there almost any place we want to express our national pride as Australians.Ê He's Big Red Ð the largest, the fastest and the strongest of our kangaroos.
And he may be on the way out.
The escalating shooting of Australia's symbol for his skin and his flesh may meanÊthe only Big Red we'll be seeing soon will be on the tail of a Qantas jet.
An exaggeration? Sadly, no. Tonight, and every night of the year, four-wheel drives will crisscross the fragile soil of rangelands seeking the kill. Tonight and every night, thousands of kangaroos will be shot. Many will die slowly over hours, days or weeks. Joeys, torn from the pouch of dead mothers will be clubbed to death. The young joeys at foot will flee from the blinding lights, the bullets and killing to die slowly of starvation, predation or exposure.
The young of no other creature are treated with such cruelty with the endorsement of government.
Killed to supply the world with soccer boots
If the killing of kangaroos continues unabated, inevitably the day will come when the last Big Red, pinioned by a spotlight in the night, joins in death the millions of his fellows who have been killed to supply the world with soccer boots or the thrill of eating the flesh of a wild and unique animal.
When this happens, an animal perfectly attuned to the Australian environment through thousands of generations of evolution will be lost to us forever. A source of joy and wonder to the rest of the world, he is betrayed in his own land.
THE MYTHS
There are many myths about the kangaroo - the ancient myths of the aboriginal people linking them to their land. And more recent myths with a different purpose - myths designed to hide the facts and obscure the truth.Ê For example:
Myth 1: There are more kangaroos today than there were before Captain Cook. The reports of early explorers as far back as Cook himself show that this claim is false. "The Kanguru are in the greatest number," Cook writes in his journal onÊ4th August 1770, "for we seldom went into the country without seeing some."
Myth 2: The kangaroo killing is monitored to ensure there is no cruelty. Monitoring does not occur in the remote areas where the killing takes place at night. What occurs on these killing fields is not seen by outsiders, or inspectors.
Myth 3: Kangaroos are in plague proportions. Once plentiful over most of this continent, kangaroos have been pushed into harsher and drier areas. Populations plummet in times of drought. While numbers can build up in some areas, research would indicate that overall, kangaroos do not impact on farming. But with the guns directed at the largest and strongest, there must be concern about the impact on the gene pool. One kangaroo shooter is reported as stating at an industry meeting that good sized kangaroos are almost impossible to find nowadays - "There's just this garbage stuff."
Big Reds can live up to 30 years. In the 1960s their average age was 12. Today, it's down to 2. They can weigh up to 80 kilograms. In the sixties their average weight was 35 kilograms. Today, it's down to 18. There can be little doubt that successive generations of escalating killing for the skin and meat trade are having their inevitable effect.
The kangaroo is part of the Australian landscape. In its droppings it carries the seeds of native grasses with which it replenishes the land. It is an enduring symbol of us, as a nation. It is up to us, today's generation, to determine whether it will continue to be so. The choice is ours.
