Farming kangaroos instead of sheep and cattle could cut Australia's annual
greenhouse gas emissions by almost 3 percent, a recent study finds.

(ASIA) CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA (RECENT) REUTERS -

Australia's coat of arms, a shield depicting the badges of six
states supported by the emu and the kangaroo, crowns the national parliament
in Canberra.
Neither the kangaroo nor the emu can move backwards easily so they were
chosen to symbolise a nation moving forward. As a national icon, the kangaroo
is globally recognised as the symbol of Australia.
Tourists and many city-bound Australians regard the kangaroo, or
"roo" as they call it, cute and cuddly, but Australia's farmers
regard the country's 34 million kangaroos as pests that compete for grazing
pastures with sheep and cattle.
Kangaroo meat has long been a traditional food for Australia's
indigenous Aboriginal people and in recent years a hundred-million dollar
kangaroo meat industry has grown, with kangaroo now served in some of Sydney's
top restaurants. But not all Australians favour the idea of eating a national
icon.
Late at night along a rocky Australian outback track, kangaroo shooters
search the bushland with car spotlights, illuminating the sparse undergrowth
for the animals.
"We are just out down the paddock in western Queensland, looking
for some harvestable kangaroos, it's been a few showers about tonight, I don't
know how it will go," said shooter Brad Cooper.
He cocks his 6 millimetre calibre British Rifle, 100 metres from a
sitting kangaroo, and in one quick shot travelling 3400 feet per second, the
kangaroo is dead, killed by a shot straight to the head.
Cooper goes shooting in the bush six nights a week near the remote town
of Mitchell, 400 kilometres west of Brisbane. Many kangaroo shooters kill
kangaroos to simply help farmers cull their numbers, but others like Cooper
shoot them for pet and human consumption.
Kangaroos are plentiful in the area, with up to 400 per square
kilometre, one of the most densely populated kangaroo regions in Australia.
With such high numbers many argue kangaroos should be utilised more in farming
practise for human consumption, a proposal which could also hold environmental
benefits.
A recent report by the Australian Wildlife Services found harvesting
kangaroos instead of sheep and cattle in Australia could dramatically cut
greenhouse gases produced by grazing livestock.
"If you increase the current kangaroo population from 30 million
up to about 175 million you could produce the same amount of meat as the seven
million cattle that are out there now and the 30 million sheep," said the
report's author George Wilson. "And to make this sort of changeover would
take about 12 to 15 years, and that's what we've modelled in this proposal and
the outcome would be a significant saving, 3 percent of all of Australia's
greenhouse gas liabilities," Wilson added.
Methane from the foregut of cattle and sheep constitutes 11 percent of
Australia's total greenhouse emissions, but kangaroos produce negligible
amounts of methane because they are non-ruminant, said the study. The study
focused only on one area of Australia, its western plains where kangaroo
harvesting is common and home to one third of all Australian livestock.
Australia's greenhouse emissions total 576 million tonnes of carbon
dioxide, or about 1.5 percent of world emissions. But Australia emits 28.1
tonnes of carbon per person, the highest per capita in the developed world and
five times more per person than China, due to use of coal for electricity.
Transport and energy accounts for the largest amount of emissions, at
69.6 percent, with agriculture creating 15.6 percent.
However farming kangaroos is not easy. The animals wander freely in the
wild from property to property, so it requires cooperation between land
owners.
In Amby, Queensland, a group of cattle properties are participating in
a pilot project which aims to find better ways to manage native species like
kangaroo to provide sustainable and profitable income. To harvest kangaroos,
farmers must monitor their seasonal movements and behaviour to analyse the
roaming patterns of kangaroos.
"What we're hoping to do is look at management of kangaroos not
only from the perspective of the landholder, but the kangaroo harvester, who
supplies the commercial product to the industry and then up to the processor
and see what are the processor's needs and help everyone in that value chain
or supply chain better understand everyone's needs and actually try to get a
better return for everyone," said Project Officer of the Queensland
Macropod and Wild Game Harvester's Association Tom Garrett, who is working on
the project.
Kangaroo farming is an idea likened to the growth of wildlife
industries such as springbok farming in South Africa, red deer in Britain and
bison in the United States.
Researchers believe the Australian government's planned emissions
trading scheme, which will require livestock owners to buy carbon permits,
could form a strong incentive for them to move from cattle and sheep to
kangaroos.
There is also the market aspect. Although kangaroo is part of
Australia's indigenous people's diet, kangaroo meat is not popular amongst the
other Australians. A recent report investigating Australians' public views of
kangaroo consumption found 15 percent of people eat kangaroo meat regularly
and more that 50 percent of people have tried it or are open to trying it.
But kangaroo meat is popular at prestigious Australian restaurants
where it is valued for its rarity and taste, likened to venison. Sydney chef
Kevin Connors cooks regularly with kangaroo meat, and says it has health
benefits too.
"It's a heart smart food in the sense that it has no real fat to
the actual meat itself it's very very healthy for you," Connors said.
Australia's $230 million kangaroo industry already exports kangaroo
meat as pet food to 60 countries, and employs 4,000 people. New markets can
be created, especially in Asia, says Doctor Wilson.