What images come to mind when you think of kangaroos? Giant marsupials with teeny babies in hidden pouches happily hopping around Australia? Maybe you picture their massive thigh muscles that propel them into the air? Well, those visuals aren’t wrong, but they also aren’t the whole story. Kangaroos are considered pests in Australia. They are […]
Tag: culling
Wild beaver numbers surge to 1,000 across Scotland’s southern Highlands
Wild beavers have colonised lochs and rivers across the southern Highlands of Scotland after a sharp surge in their numbers. A survey by NatureScot, the government conservation agency, estimates 1,000 beavers now live in the wild, reaching rivers north of Dundee in the east, westwards to Crianlarich, north of Loch Lomond, and south to Stirling […]
POLL: Should deer’s impact on crops, woodlands, and marshes be reduced by culling?
In 2021, the deer population in the United Kingdom has exploded. With the pandemic, deer hunting decreased and the market for venison reduced thanks to pandemic-induced restaurant closures. Now experts are debating a cull of the deer, the New York Times reported. Scientists note that deer are decimating plant life that other species eat. “Heavy browsing […]
POLL: Badgers are on the verge of local extinction. Should the culling of badgers be permanently banned?
Trials are underway of a skin test and cattle vaccine which could finally end the controversial badger cull, Britain’s top vets announced today. A pilot has begun on a farm in Hertfordshire which wildlife campaigners hope will save tens of thousands of badgers every year. In a world first, field trials for a cattle jab […]
Tasmania’s Greens Beach Golf Club gets approval to shoot wallabies amid ‘destruction’ of course greens
A Tasmanian golf club is set to begin culling wallabies and rabbits due to “excessive droppings” and “destruction” of the course’s greens, a move that has angered animal welfare advocates. The Greens Beach Golf Club in the state’s north has been granted a “crop protection permit” from the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and […]
Scottish legal battle begins over licences to shoot beavers
Wildlife campaigners are suing Scotland’s nature conservation agency for allowing farmers to kill wild beavers, arguing that it is in breach of its duties to protect vulnerable species. Trees for Life, a charity that campaigns for rewilding, has accused NatureScot of failing to protect beavers and insists the animals should be humanely trapped and relocated […]
Lessons learned from Covid-19 must spell the end of the badger cull
The badger cull policy has cost the lives of more than 140,000 badgers since 2013, in the largest destruction of a protected species in living memory. Badgers have been shot across a geographical area stretching from Cornwall to Cumbria at an estimated public cost of over £70m, when the costs of policing, training, monitoring, equipment, […]
POLL: Zimbabwe Considers Mass Elephant Killing, First Time Since 1988
Zimbabwe is considering the mass killing of elephants, known as culling, for the first time since 1988 to reduce the 100,000 strong population of the animals. The government of Zimbabwe, which has the world’s second-largest population of elephants after neighboring Botswana, maintains that the large number of the animals is leading to destruction of habitat […]