brissybee

I read an article the other day which stated some country folk want permission to shoot and cull the number of white cockatoos which are destroying their crops.

They can be pesky critters, true, but they're magnificent none the less... and it struck me some Australians seem very quick to want to "cull" some of the fauna that helps make Australia unique.

Cockatoos, flying foxes, dingoes, brumbies, kangaroos... they're all in the firing line.

Is this ok with you?

renth

I can see the logic in their arguments in that the huge populations are because of man's activities. I can't support it though because I love cockatoos, they're so cute. I could never hurt one.

There was a good article in Australian Geographic once about cockatoo culls. They had netted a flock and they were chucking them one by one into a gas chamber and one said "HELLO!" - but they chucked it in anyway. How could anyone do that?

renth

As a slight aside. I've heard that tame, talking cockies that have escaped into the wild have taught wild birds to say stuff like "Hello cockie"!

When I realised that this was possible I got the idea to get a load of cockatoo chicks and train them to say "bollocks" and release them into the wild to train the wild birds to say it too. If enough wild cockies started saying it then chicks would learn it from their parents.

Imagine that as a legacy to the planet, teaching a whole species of birds to say "bollocks".

carolinephillips

I hate cockatoos- they have destroyed my windows twice and do immense damage to the trees and anything wooden. They snap the branches off my orange tree and peck at the fruit. There are so many of them round here and when you get a gang of 80 or so the noise is deafening and the mess incredible. At the moment they are shredding the neighbours palm tree which is on my fenceline, and it is raining bits of bark, seeds/nuts and shit. I'd certainly want them culled or deterred. Just because they look "cute" is not reason for keeping them. Ditto for rabbits.

Wonder if you can eat cockatoos?

Amazulu

Yep and not an Australian only thing (even though that is what you are trying to make it). No different from culling Badgers and Foxes in the UK or Elephants in Africa.

moneypenny20

Beautiful to look at but **** me, the noise! It's like millions of Cheryl Coles. As good a reason as any to cull. I could strangle the pet one owned by the neighbours but couldn't do hundreds.

Dreamy

I think that farming folk in NSW can already shoot the noisy, shitty buggers.

(Although I quite like kicking my way through flocks of them as I venture out of the car park in our nearest town, it's like kicking through piles of leaves!)

jad n rich

At 4.30 am in summer the kookaburras screaming and the the blazing sunshine would make me cull anything or one in my path

No seriously I wouldnt kill them, not even flying foxes. The kangaroo thing always gets me, portrayed as so cute and statues of them, on coins etc yet thousands shot weekly

We get a rare black and red cockatoo on our property, I looked up a picture of them and so rare we are supposed to report a sighting, will have to get photos next time they come to destroy the tree they like

We dont even kill snakes or spiders, unless something is a death threat to us situation. That was once only.

chris955

The trouble is once farmers are involved it seems anything is fair game. I dont agree with culling any native animals and hate the 'reasons' some put forward for the mass murder. I have a good friend who goes out and quite literally shoots anything, it pretty much stretched our friendship to breaking point.

cresta57

Absolutely I'd even join in, where do I sign up?
When we built out house we sunk our entire life savings into it. Sulphur Crested Cockies destroyed it in a single weekend. 14k's worth of damage, none of it claimable on insurance. It's soul destroying to see your investment destroyed by these winged vandals. We replaced all the damaged timber only for them to have another go at it. They even tore our spa cabinet to pieces, it's unsaleable now, another 5k down the shitter due to the destructive nature of these birds. Flocks of them tear trees to shreds in a matter of hours. All good though after all they're native birds

buzz

The problem with the flying fox situation is that it isn't natural - we have changed the environment by introducing a lot of non-native fruit trees and this has allowed the bat population to increase.
I also think that we have to accept that if we want farmers to produce food for us then they have to be able to control pests. I know fruit farmers that are being driven out of business because flying foxes have become established near their orchards. They (the farmers) are having a hard enough time of it already, and the bats are just the last straw.

ProudVIC

In Melbourne, a lot of trees that are native to far eastern Victoria and the eastern coast of Australia (but not to central or western VIC) have been planted in recent decades. The flowers and fruits of these trees are part of the diet of the grey headed flying fox and the bats have basically followed these planted trees from their natural habitat further east into central Victoria.

It's exactly the same story with the Rainbow Lorikeets. They're not really supposed to be in Melbourne but because there are so many Spotted Gums, Lemon scented gums and Kanooka (water gum) trees planted as street trees they have colonised the city in great numbers in recent decades.

This still doesn't justify culling these animals though because they are still native animals that have self introduced themselves into Melbourne. To cull them would be to decrease the overall population and, in the case of the fruit bats, they are currently listed as vulnerable by the IUCN red list so by culling the Melbourne population they will become even more depleted.

Sulphur crested cockatoos and corellas on the other hand are present in great numbers and their numbers are still increasing. As iconic and well loved as they are, they are known to destroy grain crops, especially in southern NSW and northern VIC. Grain crops are of major importance to the Australian economy so controlled culling is required to help keep these grain crops as productive as possible. They are in no danger whatsoever of becoming threatened in the near future so it is a controlled situation basically.

Kangaroos cause a lot of damage where they have overpopulated in certain areas, especially human altered environments such as farmlands etc. and sometimes need to be culled to keep the population sustainable. Once again, kangaroos (especially eastern greys) are at no danger of becoming threatened and never will. They are present in huge numbers right across eastern Aus.

Alfresco

If only they looked like her, I wouldn't mind so much.

cresta57

I wonder just how prolific they [the bats] need to be to not be listed as vunerable?
Up here there are literally thousands of them. Within a 50 k radius of my house there are at least seven large colonies. At dusk the sky goes black with them, fruit orchards are ravaged unless they spend thousands on netting.

ozzieeagle

C***ing Bats....F***ing Flying F***ing Foxes... B***s((rd Bl**ding Bilbies... W**king Wombats.... Poison the F**ing lot with F***ing A**snic.