Almost 400 brush-tailed possums have been culled by the Royal Botanic Gardens Trust since 2002, but environmentalists are now arguing that alternatives should be sought. The Trust receives a licence from the National Parks and Wildlife Service through the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change, which allows the animals to be trapped and taken to a vet to be euthanased. Representatives of the Trust said culling was necessary to deal with overcrowding and damage caused to plants as well as injuries caused by territorial behaviour among possums. Under National Parks guidelines, it is illegal to relocate possums more than 50 metres from where they were caught, because their territorial nature makes survival rates among relocated animals very low.
Some environmentalists suggest a more humane approach to population control should be considered. One environmentalist, who did not wish to be named, said sterilisation of the animals would be a better alternative to culling. This has not been taken up by the Trust, which maintains that culling is the best option. In internal correspondence obtained by Central, a Botanic Gardens Director Mark Savio wrote: “When trapping first started in the Gardens, the possums found were in horrific condition - covered in injuries from fights with other possums and stress dermatitis from overcrowding.’’ According to Mr Savio, at the time of writing, 394 brush-tailed possums had been culled since permission was granted by National Parks in July 2002, an average of 55 a year.
Mr Savio said Botanic Garden’s staff found the overall health of the brush-tailed population improved after culling began. “Because we are managing the population at a sustainable level, such injuries and stress-related illnesses are rare in the trapped possums. Due to our trapping program, our possum population is now much healthier than it used to be,” he wrote. Animal activists have also expressed concern that there had been an increase in the culling in recent weeks. Mr Savio wrote that trapping occurred only “when horticulturalists are having problems with possums damaging plants in a particular area, but no more than once a week”. *SMH
Story by Robert Burton-Bradley
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Well, why are we not surprised about this? This is the same Botanic Gardens who want to remove the flying foxes too, by frightening them away with sirens and loud noise when they come into roost. History shows these flying fox relocation attempts are a complete failure, and cause many deaths. The Melbourne Botanic Gardens relocation attempt cost 3 million dollars, and was claimed by the State government to be success...that is, unless you were a flying fox!
ReplyDeleteClaims that the Sydney Botanic Gardens possums were in poor condition have not been backed up by any experienced possum carer. But injuries occur, that's nature, and many of the Gardens possums would range into the City in search of food and shelter anyway, and would fight and mate with City possums. Where do we stop killing our native animals, in our last remnant pieces of wildlife habitat? Kangaroos, possums, flying foxes, parrots, wallabies, lorikeets, ducks, even wombats, are all under fire, and allowed to killed by State governments who seem to lost purpose and plot! Do we stop the killing when there are no wildlife species left?
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteI'm thrilled you have used my article and brought attention to my work but would you mind putting in a credit for where you sourced the work along with my byline?
A link to our website would be great to.
On another note I have written an other story since this one about joeys being killed alongside the mothers. Outcry over baby possum destruction by Botanic Gardens: http://tiny.cc/37rrz
Regards
Robert Burton-Bradley
Using the services for possum removal sydney .
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