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Managing Eastern Grey Kangaroos Macropus giganteus in the Australian Capital Territory: reducing the overabundance - of opinion
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Published:2007
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Don Fletcher, 2007. "Managing Eastern Grey Kangaroos Macropus giganteus in the Australian Capital Territory: reducing the overabundance - of opinion", Pest or Guest: The Zoology of Overabundance, Daniel Lunney, Peggy Eby, Pat Hutchings, Shelley Burgin
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Five claims about Eastern Grey Kangaroos Macropus giganteus, or their management, are tested with evidence. Most of the evidence is drawn from three populations of M. giganteus located on reserved land in or near the ACT, which have the highest measured densities of any kangaroo populations. Additional evidence is drawn from four ACT grazing properties where kangaroo populations are suppressed by shooting. Conclusions reached in relation to the five claims are: (1) M. giganteus does not give birth continuously all year; (2) kangaroo shooting in south eastern Australia can be timed to minimise the number of young that are orphaned at a vulnerable age; (3) winter starvation of sub-adults is common, it is an important demographic process, and in some places it provides a rare opportunity for public education; (4) in this temperate environment, M. giganteus continues to produce young-at-foot in drought years in spite of food shortage or high density. In testing the claims against the evidence, age-specific fecundity, demographic sensitivity, and age structure of M. giganteus populations are quantified. The hypothesis of Arnold et al. (1991) and Dawson (1995), that mortality of sub-adults is the population-limiting demographic rate, is supported by relating the observed stage-specific mortality to the result of a demographic sensitivity analysis.
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