WOMBAT RESCUE TASMANIA Wombat Rescue Tasmania Inc. ABN 96914501942 29 January 2019 Wombat Rescue Tasmania's group response to the Senate Inquiry into the Faunal Extinction Crisis On behalf of Wombat Rescue Tasmania Inc. (WRT), I wish to thank you for the opportunity to present our submission for the Senate Environment and Communications Committee Inquiry into the Faunal Extinction Crisis across Australia, and to present at the public hearing in Hobart. Our Key Concerns • Sarcoptic mange (sarcoptes scabiei) is having a widespread detrimental impact on bare­ nosed wombat populations (subspecies Vombatus Ursinus Tasmaniensis; and Vombatus ursinus ursinus on Flinders and Maria Islands) around Tasmania. • This impact is not just confined to the Naraw ntapu National Park, where there has been a documented population collapse (Martin et al.2016), or the adjacent West Tamar Region in Northern Tasmania, despite State Government claims that mange is not an issue beyond these areas. • Inadequate monitoring of wombat populations and mange preva lence, and inadequate funding towards treating mange in wild populations at the Commonwealth and State level. • Sarcoptic Mange has not been declared a notifiable disease by the Commonwealth. • Bare-nosed wombats in Tasmania may be declining rapidly before being listed as threatened or the Key Threatening Process (KTP) is enacted under the EPBC Act. • Other critical impacts are not being recognised and these may be also driving sarcoptic mange: climate change, habitat fragmentation and loss, subsequent decline in nutritional needs, overcrowding; and these are compounded by other key issues of culling and road trauma. • There is no National mange strategy. Background Our group is a grassroots, self-funded community group, based in the North and South of Tasmania, which aims to treat free-living bare-nosed wombats affected by sarcoptic mange in their natural environment throughout this state. WRT is the only group currently undertaking such a comprehensive commitment to treating mange-affected wombats in Tasmania. The burrow flap method which we use is labour intensive and does require a significant commitment by volunteers who undertake treatment of wombats that have been reported by members of the public to our Facebook page or hotline number. Our goal is to treat all identified mange cases w herever possible, to monitor for ongoing outbreaks, fund raise, create public awareness, and to encourage research into better treatments in order to Email: [email protected] prevent the continuing waves of the mange epidemic. The localised extinction that occurred at Narawntapu National Park, documented by various researchers (Martin et al. 2016; Old et al.2017)) and now in Kelso/Greens Beach in the West Tamar region highlights the urgent need for a national mange strategy. Wombat Rescue Tasmania Inc. has over 90 members, and is a Registered Environmental Organization, with charity status under the ACNC. Our group was formed as a result of local community frustration with a lack of government interest, both (State and Federal), in the mange problem. In 2016, the distressing image of wombats, blinded by crusty scabs covering their eyes, with little fur as they wandered about the streets and paddocks in the day time, became a common sight for the local people of Kelso and Greens Beach in Northern Tasmania. The wombats were literally scratching themselves to death as the hard plaques scrunched their bodies, making movement difficult, and then with painful fissures appearing, secondary infections took their toll of hundreds of wombats in the area. There was no government response to treat these wombats despite the population collapse that had just occurred in the neighbouring National Park. Sarcoptic mange (sarcoptes scabiei) is caused by a parasitic mite that burrows into the epidermal layer of a wombat’s skin, causing thick plaques or scabs to form over its flanks, legs, eyes, and ears. This parasite was introduced by the first settlers and their animals and is not, therefore, an endemic species of this land (Fraser et al. 2016). The infected wombats are intensely itchy, and are seen out grazing diurnally instead of at night. They became very thirsty and have trouble trying to eat enough to maintain a healthy body weight. Thus, wombats with mange have very poor body condition with the only fur left on their bodies usually just a thin tuft along their spine. Secondary infections that result in the shutdown of bodily organs eventually kills them. Mange is an extreme animal welfare issue that would be called animal cruelty through neglect if it were a domesticated animal. The following are the Key Terms of Reference that WRT can address: a) the ongoing decline in the population and conservation status of Australia's nearly 500 threatened fauna species; WRT asserts that as Sarcoptic Mange threatens the survival, abundance and evolutionary development of wombats, it should be declared as a KTP (EDO Tasmania Report 2018). WRT believes that mange has been overlooked and neglected as a significant key threatening process that has already resulted in localised extirpations throughout Tasmania, in addition to declines noted in mainland states (National Mange Report 2018) • Researchers state that sarcoptic mange, which is highly prevalent in wombats, is the main cause of population decline (Old et al. 2017). Martin et al. (2016) argue that their research challenges the view that it is a self-limiting disease, and that it is ‘persistent and can remain as a stable chronic infectivity’ or present in a range of different ‘dynamic scenarios’. • What is the tipping point for a population collapse? Is 5 % of mange in a population too high? Researchers have noted that as mange prevalence rises, wombat abundance decreases (Martin et al. 2016, p.7), and moreover, sarcoptic mange spreads as a ‘travelling wave through a population of bare-nosed wombats’ and it is a ‘significant burden upon bare-nosed wombats (possibly also southern-hairy nosed wombats) at a national scale, which should be investigated further (Martin et al. 2016, p.6)’. 1 As we are fragmenting our wombats’ habitat ranges, it is only a matter of time for mange to completely change the viability of populations as shown by the Narawntapu /Greens Beach/Kelso experience. Often wombats are pushed into little pockets, and the ensuing overcrowding is wreaking havoc with nutritional stress and recurring mange. With the assistance of Wombat Rescue Tasmania Inc. and Wombat Warriors, Kerry Finch MLC for Rosevears presented a motion to the Legislative Council of the Tasmanian Government highlighting the seriousness of the impacts of sarcoptic mange on wombat populations. That the Legislative Council: (1) Calls upon the Government to acknowledge and recognise that: (a) sarcoptic mange is having an adverse effect on wombat populations around the State; and (b) that the disease is not just an issue confined to Narawntapu National Park and the West Tamar region; (2) Urges the Government to become more involved in the fight to save the wombat population and strongly encourages the implementation of a state wide strategy for controlling the mange epidemic through a coordinated treatment plan thus reducing reliance on the efforts of community groups; and (3) In recognition of the seriousness of species extinction in Australia calls upon the Government to give urgent consideration to the creation of a separate Wildlife Environment Department or something similar so that extinction issues are not submerged below competing interests of primary industries. The motion above was passed by the Upper House on 30 October 2018. d) the adequacy of Commonwealth environment laws, including but not limited to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, in providing sufficient protections for threatened fauna and against key threatening processes; The Tasmanian Bare-nosed wombat sub species lack any adequate protection because in the eyes of the State and commonwealth Governments, it seems that they are deemed too common. Despite the documented rapid population collapse at Narawntapu N.P, and significant decline at Greens Beach and Kelso (see farmer’s signed statement), and the evidence of the numbers of treatment kits (see document) distributed widely by Wombat Rescue Tasmania in response to the community’s sightings, mange has not been declared a notifiable disease. The State Government, which would be informing the Commonwealth, maintains the argument that wombat numbers are steady, but this is based on inadequate monitoring as outlined below (see point i ). The experience of the Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour spread should highlight the need to put processes in place for other species afflicted by disease and/or parasites before reaching critical levels of decline. Wombats may decline rapidly due to mange before being classified as vulnerable under the EPBC Act. There needs to a more timely response to enact protection. 2 • Additionally, culling and the issue of crop protection permits without adequate monitoring is another factor driving wombat numbers down. In Kelso, a land owner in recent years shot dozens and dozens of wombats even though there was no crop or livestock on the land (Police were contacted by locals after shots were heard at night and deceased wombats were seen on the property). Governments have very little control over how many wombats are actually being shot, and the conditions are too lax i.e. there are often no inspections to see if there was a legitimate need for a cull permit, and the land manager, as in the case above, was warned that authorities were on their way, so was able to hide all evidence prior to the inspection. Each permit issued seems to be open ended, with up to 50 wombats able to be culled, no time restrictions and no apparent follow up to count carcasses (this is based on anecdotal reports). Note: ‘Stop the Cull’ Change.org online petition by Wombat Warriors Tasmania presented 37, 000 signatures to State Parliament in 2017.