by Rod_outbak » 01 Sep 2018, 3:43 pm
Firstly, you can thank the greens and tree-huggers for the failure to take advantage of macropods. The roo-harvesting quotas are set, based upon the roo count taken annually. The fact that the quotas are so low in comparison to the actual roo populations, seems to fall on deaf ears.
Secondly, the decision some years back to prevent harvesting of does, has resulted in a larger proportion of breeding females, which has again allowed roo populations to skyrocket quickly. You only need one buck to keep a few dozen does preggers...
HOWEVER, the issue at present ISNT the roo quota, as there are very few years in the past 5, where roo-shooters have been actually able to harvest sufficient numbers of above-weight bucks to meet the anual quotas anyway. We have kangaroos breeding like crazy, when most other forms of wildlife arent breeding; keeping in tune with the drought conditions that we have been facing for nearly 7 years now.
We have a theory that the 3 larger species of macropods have evolved to assume that water availability means there will be grass to eat.
So they keep breeding.
This would make sense in the drier parts of this country, as they used to chase the storms to survive.
When this country was settled, it was dry 90% of the year.
NOW, we have a water trough available in every paddock; 365 days.
I spent most of my life; under the impression that the kangaroo was a 'smart-breeder', and very much in tune with the environment. I even recall people from universities in the 1980's, suggesting that roos could suspend a pregnancy, and re-start it when needed.
Yeaaaahhhhh....That would be a load of horse-poop.
As far as we can see, the does are simply pregnant all the time. If you look at how small a joey is when born, the fetus would struggle to be 0.1% of the body mass of the mother. Compare that to a human baby, which is a MUCH higher investment in the mothers resources.
SOP for a doe is to dump the joey, when things get tough.
As far as being in tune with the environment, we have plenty of signs that show this to be another fallacy.
Not sure how you think they are 'thriving'. The vast majority of them are half-starved, but they dont seem to be able to stop breeding.
And finally; I was talking about grasshoppers. Not sure why we started talking about kangaroos. COMPLETELY different..............
---------------------
Sharing the extreme love with cats in Outback QLD