animals Review The Perils of Being Populous: Control and Conservation of Abundant Kangaroo Species David Benjamin Croft 1,* and Ingrid Witte 2 1 School of Biological Earth & Environmental Sciences, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia 2 Rooseach@RootourismTM, Adelaide River, NT 0846, Australia;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected] Simple Summary: Kangaroos likely prospered for most of the last 65,000 years under the landscape management of Australia’s first people. From the arrival of British colonists in 1788, European agricultural practices, crops and livestock transformed the landscape to one less favourable to indigenous flora and fauna. However, the six species of large kangaroos persisted and came into conflict with cropping and pastoral enterprises, leading to controls on their abundance. After mass killing for bounties, a commercial industry emerged in the 1970s to sell meat and hides into domestic and international markets. The further intention was to constrain kangaroo abundance while sustaining kangaroos in the landscape. Human–human conflict has emerged about the necessity and means of this lethal control. Further control of the abundance of four of the six species is promoted. Their abundance is considered by some as a threat to biodiversity in conservation reserves, removing these as a haven. We therefore propose returning the kangaroos’ stewardship to the current and future generations of Aboriginal Australians. We envisage that a marriage of localised consumptive (bush tucker) and non-consumptive (wildlife tourism) uses in the indigenous-protected-area estate can better sustain abundant kangaroo populations into the future. Citation: Croft, D.B.; Witte, I. The Abstract: Australia’s first people managed landscapes for kangaroo species as important elements Perils of Being Populous: Control and of their diet, accoutrements and ceremony.