Shooting Wombats

The ancestor of the wombat, the diprotodon "existed from 1.6 million years ago until about 40,000 years ago". The 2.5 tonne wombat-like Diprotodon was 1.8 metres tall and 3.5 metres long. Kangaroos reached 2.5m height at that time.

The wombat today is a surviving shrunk-down version of this mega fauna. 100 % vegetarian, it eats mainly grasses and roots. Home is a burrow which they defend fiercely.

The problem today is, that they are running out of a habitat, or it is fragmented and criss-crossed by roads and dangerous vehicles. Additionally, it has to compete with all the invasive species that have been introduced to Australia.

Formally protected in its habitat, mainly 'National Parks', it seems ignorant of human real estate and wanders great distances to be a wombat. Private landholders of the South Coast and Southern Highland do not wish to share and asked to shoot the 'intruders'. 'Property damage' was a 'knock-me-dead' argument to the wombat's guardians, the National Parks and they handed out 200 licences to shoot the marsupials this year. "Most of these shooting licences are restricted to 10 or 20 animals and that can be the whole wombat population that is on a particular farm"

Soon tourists wishing to see the iconic wildlife of the area, will only be able to view the impeccable fences and pipes of private properties. An alternative would be to bestow effective protection on to the native fauna and require, vineyards and other private enterprises to install appropriate fences to signal their unwillingness to share the land with the indigenous fauna.

Update:
And the slaughter continues:
'Farmers are illegally slaughtering thousands of wombats in South Australia. Burrows of southern hairy-nosed wombats are being bulldozed or blown up on Yorke and Eyre Peninsulas and in the Murraylands. Farmers can get permits to destroy a few wombats, but that it not a licence to wipe out the entire population. Mass killings with petrol bombs or bulldozing'.. abc 011009

Update:
Ten wombats, including four feeding mothers, deliberately run over at Kangaroo Valley camping ground, NSW Police say abc, 10.09.2015

Images:
1. Wombat and Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger), lithograph, 1878, via Wikimedia Commons
2. John Gould, Vombatus ursinus,"Mammals of Australia", Vol. I Plate 55, 1863, via Wikimedia Commons

'World Animal Day' - Facing the Animal within

Is is "world animal day" today. One day to "To celebrate humankind’s relationship with the animal kingdom". The WAD is out there visualising what 'animals' means, namely dogs. In Sydney it is spelled out as: "...dogs, cats, ferrets, birds and mice" which are to be brought by pet owners to be given a blessing. Animals requiring their own habitat seem to be excluded. Only 'pets', degenerated lineages, richly bestowed with resources are to be 'blessed'.
The rest, not at our command, are pushed off the degraded planet. Mostly robbed of a habitat and resources, 'wild'-life is being made extinct by our actions on this planet.

Tolerated 'wild-life' in captivity, generating revenues, is frequently violated by young human beings. In the latest case, a seven-year-old boy illegally entered a N.T. zoo, " bludgeoned some of the animals to death with stones and hurled others over the two fences surrounding the crocodile enclosure...A turtle, four Western blue-tongued lizards, two bearded dragons, two thorny devil lizards and the zoo's 20-year-old goanna were among those killed....The fact a seven-year-old can wreak so much havoc in such a short time, it's unbelievable," said the zoo director. They are looking at suing the parents.

Going wild in the wild
Many formally protected native animals get violated in their remaining fragmented habitat. Just some of the recent hate crimes:

The Koala

• A group of young humans at a park in Kallangur:"It had a crushed skull, a punctured left eye, big trauma to the left side of its body, it had a broken right arm and when I asked the vet is this consistent with clubbing or bashing or whatever they said, yes," Brisbane, 0808
• Koala bashed to death, mutilated (leg removed), Clear Mountain property, south-east Queensland.0808
• An adult firing a slingshot at a protected Koala, Adelaide, 0908
• A 19-year-old rammed his ute into a tree at the Barmah State Park, north-east of Echuca, trying to dislodge a koala from a branch.Victoria 0908

Kangaroos

• "Five western grey kangaroos have been found shot and dumped at a rubbish tip in Adelaide's south."near a National Park, Adelaide, 1008
• A youth using a young kangaroo as a punching bag, knocking it unconscious, Western Australia, 0908

Birds

• Cruelty against seabirds, pelicans are being deliberately snared with nylon fishing line and hooks.: "Local children who have been throwing rocks and trying to actually catch the pelicans with hooks."These birds have a lot of hooks in them, but one of the things that have really stuck out are the number of injuries to their pouch and head from ... local children we understand, from people around the area" Eurobodalla, 0808 It is not just an unintentional 'accident' of 'recreational' fishing.
• "We've had a number of bird poisonings and possum poisonings and that horrific case where a crow had its wing sawn off at the shoulder and was left to hop around a shopping centre in Sinnamon Park - I mean you just have to wonder what's going through the minds of these people" SE Queensland 08

These are just a few examples of hate crimes committed by individuals/ groups against iconic and 'protected' creatures of Australia. There is also the systemic culling, shooting, sterilising, poisoning (baiting) etc of wild-life as a form of 'management'. It is a mystery why Australians seem to have so much hate for their iconic native animals and pamper foreign animals. But often, they too get sadistically abused, dogs get burnt, horses raced to death.
Cruelty against pets is also right up. "Animal cruelty by children is correlated with exposure to domestic violence". Working on the mental health of young human beings prevents not only cruelty against pets and Australian animals, but also is a good strategy to prevent violence between human beings.

Still, the ever expanding sprawl of industrialised human society is pushing the animal kingdom off the planet. Animals that are commercialisable or are obedient to our whimsical wills may stay for a while longer. The next round is for humankind’s relationship with the animal within themselves and others.

Images:
1. Bruegel d. Ä., Jan: Paradise 1620, via Zeno
2. Haeckel, Ernst: Plate 79: Lacertilia. Lizards via Zeno
3. Blake, William,1819, Tate Gallery,via Zeno

Links:
World Conservation Union
The Encyclopedia of Life
The Writings of St. Francis of Assisi

Updates:
- Almost one in four mammals are at risk of disappearing forever, according to the latest comprehensive assessment. IUCN 061008
- "Australia a key culprit. One in five Australian mammal species is in danger of dying out, the highest proportion of any developed country, the global survey of more than 44,000 animal and plant species found." SMH 061008

- "We've seen over 30 extinctions in Queensland since records were kept, we've got 151 endangered plants, 51 endangered animals, we've got 220 endangered regional ecosystems, so Queensland has really got to get going to stop a tidal wave of extinctions.They'll go extinct on massive scales, many times above the natural level of extinction...The current rates of extinction that are caused by people are 20 or more times the natural rate of extinction." abc 071008
- Dolphins are being lured with fish, then attacked by local youths in Whyalla in South Australia. The dolphins were tame because of human feeding. Youths dropped rocks on the marine mammals. abc 151008
- A killed platypus, an endangered lungfish and other fish were found dead in an illegal net...along Obi Obi Creek near Kenilworth. Maroochidore.The EPA is calling on the public for help. abc 171008

- "Sickening" attacks on endangered birds on South Australia's west coast:
"Two white-bellied sea eagles and a juvenile coastal raptor have been found with bullet wounds near Searcy Bay, Ceduna and Port Fowler in the past three weeks. In the case of the white-bellied sea eagle, we know that there are only about 50 breeding pairs left in South Australia so they're a very endangered species " abc 171008
- An 80 years old, blind flamingo in a zoo has been bashed by a 17 yo ,18 yo and 19 yo persons in the middle of the day. The animal is in a critical condition. Adelaide. Do we need to cage animals to protect them from human beings ? abc 301008 >The flamingo has survived, but is so traumatised that all food is refused. The Adelaide Zoo is considering higher fences to protect the animals from violent human beings. abc 021108

Australian birds killed by lead

Thousands of native Australian birds died from ”lead levels up to 10 times higher than a fatal dose.” The toxin lead is cumulative and leads to severe seizures. The human manufactured catastophic event took place in Esperanca, W.A. The area planned “...to ship around 84,000 tons of lead in concentrate from the port to its Chinese customers this year....Lead exports from the port were suspended March 12 after testing of dead birds in the region found a number died of lead poisoning.“
The concerned residents now have their water checked. But as usual "no evidence" can be found...and there is an eerie bird-less silence.
The Canary in the mine...
Lead fact sheet, gov.au
Birds Australia
update:The birds started dying three months ago, ABC
update: 22.3. An expert found that the lead carbonate 'poses a hightened risk to human health'.