Journal article
An assessment of animal welfare for the culling of peri-urban kangaroos
Wildlife Research, Vol.43(3), pp.261-266
2016
Abstract
Context: Shooting is used to reduce the abundance of kangaroo (Macropus sp.) populations in many peri-urban areas in Australia, but there is uncertainty surrounding the animal welfare outcomes of this practice.
Aim: We assessed the animal welfare outcomes of night shooting for peri-urban eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus). We quantified the duration of stress for: (1) shot animals; (2) euthanased pouch young; and (3) other animals in the same social group.
Methods: An independent observer collected thermal imagery data, enabling four key animal welfare parameters to be quantified: instantaneous death rate, median time to death, wounding rate and flight duration of conspecifics. The duration between pouch removal and insensibility was recorded for pouch young. Post-mortem data were recorded to confirm the location and extent of pathology from shooting.
Key results: Of the 136 kangaroos that were shot at, two were missed. The wounding rate was zero, with a 98% instantaneous death rate. The median time to death for the three animals not killed instantaneously was 12 s. For pouch young considered sentient, the median stress time was 4 s. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis revealed that the median flight duration of conspecifics was 5 s.
Conclusions: Our results indicate that night shooting produces a very short duration of stress to shot kangaroos, their pouch young and their conspecifics.
Implications: When compared to other wildlife shooting methods, night shooting is a humane method for culling peri-urban kangaroos.
Details
- Title
- An assessment of animal welfare for the culling of peri-urban kangaroos
- Authors/Creators
- J.O. Hampton (Author/Creator)D.M. Forsyth (Author/Creator)
- Publication Details
- Wildlife Research, Vol.43(3), pp.261-266
- Publisher
- CSIRO Publishing
- Identifiers
- 991005545153007891
- Copyright
- © The authors 2016
- Murdoch Affiliation
- School of Veterinary and Life Sciences
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Citation topics
- 3 Agriculture, Environment & Ecology
- 3.35 Zoology & Animal Ecology
- 3.35.274 Wildlife Ecology
- Web Of Science research areas
- Ecology
- Zoology
- ESI research areas
- Plant & Animal Science