Managing macropods without poisoning ecosystems
Authors
Hampton, Jordan O
Pay, James M
Katzner, Todd E
Arnemo, Jon M
Pokras, Mark A
Buenz, Eric
Kanstrup, Niels
Thomas, Vernon G
Uhart, Marcela
Lambertucci, Sergio A
Krone, Oliver
Singh, Navinder J
Naidoo, Vinny
Ishizuka, Mayumi
Saito, Keisuke
Helander, Bjorn
Green, Rhys E
Publication Date
2022-06-06Journal Title
ECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT & RESTORATION
ISSN
1442-7001
Publisher
Wiley
Language
en
Type
Article
This Version
AO
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Hampton, J. O., Pay, J. M., Katzner, T. E., Arnemo, J. M., Pokras, M. A., Buenz, E., Kanstrup, N., et al. (2022). Managing macropods without poisoning ecosystems. ECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT & RESTORATION https://doi.org/10.1111/emr.12555
Abstract
Summary: A recent review of the management of hyperabundant macropods in Australia proposed that expanded professional shooting is likely to lead to better biodiversity and animal welfare outcomes. While the tenets of this general argument are sound, it overlooks one important issue for biodiversity and animal health and welfare: reliance on toxic lead‐based ammunition. Lead poisoning poses a major threat to Australia's wildlife scavengers. Current proposals to expand professional macropod shooting would see tonnes of an extremely toxic and persistent heavy metal continue to be introduced into Australian environments. This contrasts with trends in many other countries, where lead ammunition is, through legislation or voluntary programs, being phased out. Fortunately, there are alternatives to lead ammunition that could be investigated and adopted for improved macropod management. A transition to lead‐free ammunition would allow the broad environmental and animal welfare goals desired from macropod management to be pursued without secondarily and unintentionally poisoning scavengers. Through this article, we hope to increase awareness of this issue and encourage discussion of this potential change.
Keywords
Comment Piece, animal welfare, culling, harvesting, One Health, scavengers, toxicology
Identifiers
emr12555, emr-cp-2021-dec-112.r1
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/emr.12555
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/337835
Rights
Licence:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
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