Australian Wildlife Services | Environmental consultant

Australian Wildlife Services

Phone: +61 2 6281 2160

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25.01.2022 A National Geographic journalist from Washington, who is writing a story on kangaroos was flown by George Wilson on a trip through outback New South Wales and Queensland. They visited properties near White Cliffs, Quilpie and Coonamble and a professional kangaroo shooter. They heard of concerns of landholders who are having difficulties adjusting their total grazing pressure to deteriorating seasonal conditions and pasture shortages. Reduced demand for kangaroo products from the commercial harvesting industry is leading to alternative kangaroo control measures which have very low animal welfare attributes.

24.01.2022 Anangu in the Ecuadorian Jungle The Napo Wildlife resort in Yasuni National Park in the Amazon rainforest is owned and operated by local Anangu community. We canoed there 70 km down river from Coca with the local tribe as guides spotting 5 species of monkey, sloths, tucans and macaus. The Park is considered by many to be the world's most biologically diverse region with world record number of a variety of species. An opportunity exists for cross cultural experience with Anan...gu of central Australia. Both Anangu communities own Man and Biosphere listed properties, although Uluru National Park is about to be delisted. Nevertheless, if Anangu are supportive there is the potential for wider listing of Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara lands and IPAs in central Australia? The Ecuadorian Anangu community appears to have successfully addresed a number of employment, education and many social issues, notwithstanding that they are constrained by a third world budget. For example anyone bringing grog into the community is banned for life. The other big issue for Amazonian Anangu is land rights, and oil companies who, while they are helping pay down the Ecuadorian national debt, are threatening the rainforest with their roads and pollution. Although Yasuni may be a National Park but there are very active oil leases over it. Yasuni National Park is home to an estimated 1.7 billion barrels of crude oil - 40 percent of Ecuador's reserves - and oil production accounts for one-third of Ecuador's national budget. More widely, Amazon land clearing and forestry continues. Ecuador has a very high rate of forest destruction.

23.01.2022 New tool for looking at time series of environmental data. Great stuff. Wildlife data will be useful addition.

21.01.2022 Hundreds of red kangaroos have been found dead in far western NSW Qld and SA. Despite good feed and plenty of water around, something is killing kangaroos and making the survivors very weak. The epidemic started late in September is continuing in pockets. Biting insects have been implicated it is not clear whether its physical impact or a combination with disease. Previous epidemics have been associated with viruses that caused blindness. AWS believes it is most regrettable that a coordinated response to collect specimens from recently dead and dying animals has not been implemented. The outbreak is occurring in the national emblem yet the response has been parsimonious. Sightings should be reported to Wildlife Health Australia.

21.01.2022 Financial support for the Maranoa Kangaroo Growers and Harvesters Cooperative, one of George Wilson’s projects, has been announced by the Minister. Funding from the Farming Together program will enable regional cooperative kangaroo management to enhance the sustainability of grazing systems. It will enable employment of staff, identification of procedures for value-adding product, and verification of the contribution the project makes to biodiversity and carbon improvement. By improving the accuracy of description, quality and value of kangaroo products in central Qld, the Cooperative aims to enable the kangaroo industry to grow to be what it should be - a grass fed protein producer of low emission meat complementing the livestock industries and contributing to rural incomes.

17.01.2022 The NSW Government says it is going to protect brumbies in the Park. Their numbers are already to high. Sign the NCC urgent petition to Premier Berejiklian calling on her to protect the iconic Snowy Mountains. https://www.nature.org.au//take-/save-our-snowy-mountains/ I had the privilege of being in Ecuador recently. We visited Cotopaxi National Park. I was concerned to see large numbers of feral horses at altitude, in very poor condition and doing similar sort of damage to that from our feral horses. See picture below Our guide told us this it was difficult for the Park Service to do anything about it because the horses were seen to be part of the culture.

15.01.2022 Graziers are erecting kangaroo-proof fences around groups of properties and lowering kangaroo numbers through various means, most of which have poor animal welfare and biodiversity outcomes. The kangaroo harvesting industry is currently declining largely due to animal preservationist campaigns. In recent years less than 20% of the annual quota has been taken. Populations of most of Australia’s 40 million plus kangaroos fluctuate widely and are regarded by the landholders ...on whose properties they occur as pests that compete with livestock, rather than as assets. George Wilson argues in a paper to the 2018 Australian Veterinary Association Annual Conference in Brisbane that a stronger kangaroo industry will reverse this trend, improve sustainability and reduce wastage. The Proceedings and his presentation can be downloaded at the links. http://www.awt.com.au//kangaroo-management-in-crisis-desp/

15.01.2022 Registrations for our 2019 conference are now open! Visit the conference website to find full details. https://www.ars2019.com.au/inform/registration-information/

15.01.2022 Kangaroo welfare in free fall Claims that there is no need to worry because kangaroos self regulate their populations ignore that they suffer and die horribly in the process. A video and press release at the link have more details of what is happening. https://www.awt.com.au///kangaroo-welfare-is-in-free-fall/

13.01.2022 What to do with rehabilitated wildlife? Waiting for burnt National Parks to recover is not enough. Private landholders can help rewild and rehabilitate damaged animals and reestablish damaged populationsbut they need to be allowed to. AWS has been arguing for some time that the private landholders can play a larger role in wildlife conservation than is currently permitted. We have been advocating trials of the concept based on international experiences. The need for private ...sector involvement is even more urgent now than it ever was. Expenditure by governments to address threatened species conservation was already falling short of achieving objectives. The $50m announcement from the Federal Government for an Emergency Wildlife and Habitat Recovery Package in response to fires. Conservation-based zoos are expected to play a major role in the recovery challenge with in-house specialist veterinary and husbandry expertise, and critical care facilities such as those at the Taronga Wildlife Hospital. In some parts of the world, price incentives, proprietorship and devolved responsibility for management, accompanied by effective regulation, have increased wildlife and protected habitats, particularly for iconic and valuable species. A key step is enabling landholders, community groups, and investors to have a form of wildlife custodianship, possibly by leasing animals on land outside protected areas. This would encourage them to get involved in rehabilitation programs, breeding animals, innovating and assisting further colonization/range expansion. The process could be applied to damaged animals so enabling them to find new homes on private lands. The role of government in this undertaking would be as the regulator rather than the (sole) owner and manager of wildlife. The area of land given over to biodiversity conservation would increase and currently under represented areas would be incorporated into conservation goals. https://www.awt.com.au/mbi-trials-in-uq-advances-in-conser/ http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/conl.12313/full

10.01.2022 Graziers are erecting kangaroo-proof fences around groups of properties and lowering kangaroo numbers through various means, most of which have poor animal welfare and biodiversity outcomes. The kangaroo harvesting industry is currently declining largely due to animal preservationist campaigns. In recent years less than 20% of the annual quota has been taken. Populations of most of Australia’s 40 million plus kangaroos fluctuate widely and are regarded by the landholders ...on whose properties they occur as pests that compete with livestock, rather than as assets. George Wilson argues in a paper to the 2018 Australian Veterinary Association Annual Conference in Brisbane that a stronger kangaroo industry will reverse this trend, improve sustainability and reduce wastage. The Proceedings and his presentation can be downloaded at the links. http://www.awt.com.au//kangaroo-management-in-crisis-desp/

09.01.2022 Kangaroo welfare in free fall Claims that there is no need to worry because kangaroos self regulate their populations ignore that they suffer and die horribly in the process. A video and press release at the link have more details of what is happening. https://www.awt.com.au///kangaroo-welfare-is-in-free-fall/

09.01.2022 On UK Channel 4 program ‘Food Unwrapped’, George Wilson presented perspectives on kangaroo meat and its attributes, plus the complexities of kangaroo management. The program featured kangaroos on the Federal Golf Course, interviews with local graziers and a scene at Bondi Beach of a barbeque featuring kangaroo meat. Channel 4 is a publicly-owned and commercially-funded UK Public Service Broadcaster, with a statutory remit to deliver high-quality, innovative, alternative content that challenges the status quo. The video is at the link. http://www.awt.com.au//food-unwrapped-uk-channel-4-kangar/

07.01.2022 The NSW Government says it is going to protect brumbies in the Park. Their numbers are already to high. Sign the NCC urgent petition to Premier Berejiklian calling on her to protect the iconic Snowy Mountains. https://www.nature.org.au//take-/save-our-snowy-mountains/ I had the privilege of being in Ecuador recently. We visited Cotopaxi National Park. I was concerned to see large numbers of feral horses at altitude, in very poor condition and doing similar sort of damage to that from our feral horses. See picture below Our guide told us this it was difficult for the Park Service to do anything about it because the horses were seen to be part of the culture.

05.01.2022 George Wilson attended the fifth Australasian Emissions Reduction Summit 2018 in Melbourne on the 1-2 May. The Summit brought together 550 delegates, MPs, corporate members and carbon project developers. While there was a particular focus on energy efficiency and alternative generation, the summit discussed carbon farming which is playing a major role in Australia’s efforts to achieve its 2030 emissions reduction target of 26-28% on 2005 levels. After the first five Emissi...ons Reduction Fund (ERF) auctions, most contracts are land sector projects delivering 153 MtCO2e or $1.8 billion worth abatement. The Summit heard that demand is expected to grow for these products and that there are many opportunities emerging for Australian land managers and project developers to supply carbon credits to the international voluntary as well as the compliance markets. See more

05.01.2022 In an article in Australasian Science, George Wilson argues that because animal rights campaigners are achieving their aim of reducing the demand for kangaroo products, there is an increase in animal suffering. Populations rise higher than the environment can support, and then crash. In recent years a lack of demand has meant that less than half the annual kangaroo quota for commercial use has been taken. Therefore, many graziers have sought other means to lower numbers of valueless kangaroos so that more income earning stock can be carried. Unregulated inhumane control mechanisms ensue.

03.01.2022 On 28 May 2017, ABC Radio National broadcast a segment by George Wilson that proposed trials in which market forces could have a role to play in vulnerable species conservation. If private landholders could take up wildlife property rights and responsibilities, would they make up for shortfalls in government funding? . http://www.abc.net.au//vulnerable-animals-and-priv/8561286

03.01.2022 Renewable energy now AWS participates in making of the sign on Tathra Beach after the Wharf to Waves Swim 2019 https://youtu.be/ospwK-sIons

03.01.2022 George Wilson provided lectures to a delegation of 18 forestry managers visiting Australia from the State Forestry Administration of PR China. Lectures covered an overview of wildlife protection legislative and operational activities, roles of Commonwealth and State law, kangaroo management including commercial use, threatened species management, Indigenous wildlife land management - needs and opportunities including carbon farming, tourism and bush tucker.

01.01.2022 Kangaroo does best of the red meats. On average, 244g of kangaroo meat is produced for every 1kg of greenhouse gas emissions, far more than the lowly 44 g of beef meat produced for every kg of pollution by cattle. The comparison comes from a RMIT dataset prepared for consumers and catering organisations to estimate the impact of their ingredients and menus. The authors have produced a list that illustrates how much or how little it takes for different foods to contribute a kilogram of greenhouse gas emissions. The paper provides 1718 global warming potential values for 168 varieties of fresh produce including vegetables, fruit, dairy products, staples, meat, chicken and fish.

01.01.2022 Kangaroo welfare article is written up in the Canberra Times https://www.canberratimes.com.au//national-disgrace-resear