Preface

Endorsed in principle by Council on 30 May 1985, the Code is intended to be implemented through education and State and Territory legislation as appropriate. This Code is based on the knowledge and technology available at the time of publication and may need to be varied in the light of new knowledge.
Preface to the second edition
Since the code was originally published, there have been numerous comments on its value and suggestions on its improvement. In particular, the RSPCA and the National Advisory Committee on Kangaroos have recommended a number of changes. An ad hoc Working Group on the Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos was formed to consider these suggestions and revise the code. The revised code was endorsed by CONCOM on 20 September 1990. Further comments are welcome, and should be forwarded to the Wildlife Management Section, Environment Australia – Biodiversity Group, GPO Box 787, CANBERRA ACT 2601.
Introduction
This Code of Practice has been produced to ensure that all persons intending to shoot a free-living kangaroo are aware of the welfare aspects pertinent to that activity. In this Code the term ‘kangaroo’ means all species of the family Macropodidae within the superfamily Macropodoidea and so applies to kangaroos, wallaroos or euros, wallabies and pademelons.
All shooting of kangaroos, whether on public or private land, is subject to law. The laws may differ between localities and the Government Wildlife Authority in the state or territory in which the shooting will occur can advise on the relevant provisions. Except where specifically exempted by law, states and territories will require the shooter to have a licence or permit issued by the Government Wildlife Authority and this Authority will specify any conditions or restrictions applying to that licence or permit.

When shooting a kangaroo the primary objective must be to achieve instantaneous loss of consciousness and rapid death without regaining conciousness. For the purposes of this Code, this is regarded as a sudden and painless death. Commonsense is required to assess the prevailing conditions. Where the conditions are such as to raise doubts about achieving a sudden and painless kill, shooting must not be attempted.The Code is divided into three sections covering the method of shooting, despatch of injured kangaroos and pouch young and shooting for scientific purposes, and has three schedules specifying firearms, ammunition and points of aim. In each section an introduction provides background to the conditions which must be adhered to by all persons shooting kangaroos.
Method of Shooting

• Firearms.
• Shooting platform.
• Target animal.
• Point of aim.

The species of kangaroos which are shot differ in size and there is enormous variation in the terrain and prevailing weather conditions at the time of shooting. The combinations of firearms and ammunition are considered adequate to ensure a sudden and painless death for the target animal under most environmental conditions, provided that the shooting is done in accordance with the other conditions set out in this Code. However, it is the shooter’s responsibility to ensure a sudden and painless death for target animals, and under unusual conditions firearms and ammunition that exceed the minimum requirements may have to be used.

With a centrefire rifle a sudden and painless death is consistently achieved by the projectile striking the brain of the target animal. Thus the brain is the required point of aim for this class of weapon. Centrefire rifles are specified for all kangaroo shooting except where the smaller wallabies are to be shot in or adjacent to forest or scrub. Such shooting is often carried out in daylight; the animals are flushed at close quarters and are unlikely to be stationary. In these cases the licence or permit issued by the Government Wildlife Authority may authorise the use of shotguns. At ranges up to the maximum specified in Schedule 1 a shotgun will cause a sudden and painless death if the pattern is centred on the head, neck or chest of the target animal. The shooter must be able to place a clear shot into one of these target areas whether the animal is moving or stationary.
Firearms
Conditions

1. The minimum specifications for firearms and ammunition are set out in Schedule 1. Kangaroos shall only be shot with a combination of firearms and ammunition that complies with or exceeds those minimum specifications.
2. In the environmental conditions in which the shooter operates the combination of firearm and ammunition selected must ensure the sudden and painless death of each target animal. Evidence of compliance with the minimum specifications in Schedule 1 is no defence in administrative and/or legal proceedings concerning a breach of this Code if the combination used by the shooter has not achieved a consistently sudden and painless kill.
3. Kangaroos must be shot using a centrefile rifle unless use of a shotgun is specifically allowed by the licensing authority.
4. A rifle must be sighted in against an inanimate target before commencing each day’s shooting.

Shooting platform
Conditions

1. Kangaroos must not be shot from a moving vehicle or other moving platform.

Target animal

Conditions

1. The target kangaroo must be clearly visible.
2. When a rifle is used the target kangaroo must be stationary and within a range that permits accurate placement of the shot.
3. When a shotgun is used the target kangaroo must be within the range specified in Schedule 1 and in a position where a clear shot can be fired at the head, neck or chest.

Point of aim

Conditions

1. A shooter using a rifle must aim so as to hit the target kangaroo in the brain (see diagram in Schedule 2), except in the case of an injured or wounded animal where a brain shot may be impractical.
2. A shooter using a shotgun must aim so that, whether the target kangaroo is stationary or mobile, it will be hit in the head, neck or chest by the centre of the pattern.

Injured Kangaroos and pouch young

No matter how carefully the shooter aims, some kangaroos will not be killed outright. Wounded kangaroos must be dispatched as quickly and humanely as possible.

When killing a wounded animal a brain shot may be impractical. For example, the accurate placement of a shot in the brain may require capture and restraint of the animal; this would increase suffering and be inconsistent with the objective of sudden and painless death. In such circumstances a heart shot may be the most humane means of dispatch. In some special circumstances, where a wounded kangaroo is encountered, it may not be practicable to shoot the animal, as at a practical range the acceptable points of aim may be obscured, and at a close range the use of a high powered rifle may be unsafe. In these special circumstances a heavy blow to the skull to destroy the brain may be the most appropriate and humane means of dispatch.

Kangaroo shooters often shoot more than one kangaroo out of a group before driving to the carcases to retrieve them. This is acceptable provided that where an individual kangaroo is wounded no further kangaroos are shot until all reasonable efforts have been made to dispatch the wounded animal.

Shot females must be examined for pouch young and if one is present it must also be killed. Decapitation with a sharp instrument in very small hairless young or a properly executed heavy blow to destroy the brain in larger young are effective means of causing sudden and painless death.

Larger young can also be dispatched humanely by a shot to the brain, where this can be delivered accurately and in safety.
Conditions

1. The shooter must be certain that each animal is shot dead before another is targeted.
2. If a kangaroo is thought to be alive after being shot, every reasonable effort shall be made immediately to locate and kill it before any attempt is made to shoot another animal.
3. When located, wounded animals must be killed by a method that will achieve a rapid and humane death, where practical by a shot to the brain.
4. Under circumstances where a shot to the brain of an injured animal is impractical or unsafe, a shot to the heart is permissible (see Schedule 3).
5. In circumstances where, for dispatch of a wounded kangaroo, a shot to either the brain or heart is impractical or unsafe, a very heavy blow to the rear of the skull to destroy the brain (see Schedule 2) is permissible. To ensure a humane kill, a suitably hard and heavy blunt instrument must be used (e.g., metal pipe, billet of wood etc., carried for this purpose).
6. If a female has been killed, the pouch must be searched for young as soon as the shooter reaches the carcass.
7. The pouch young of a killed female must also be killed immediately, by decapitation or a heavy blow to the skull to destroy the brain, or shooting.

Shooting for scientific purposes

Permits to shoot kangaroos for scientific purposes are sometimes requested. Because of the circumstances and locations in which such shooting may take place, and because of specific research requirements (e.g. to obtain anatomical items such as intact skulls for diagnostic examination and museum reference collections), it may be necessary to allow exemptions from the general conditions such as point of aim and shooting platform.

Such variations must never detract from the primary responsibility of the shooter to provide a sudden and painless death for the target animals.
Conditions
The provisions of this Code shall apply to the shooting of kangaroos for scientific purposes except were express provision to the contrary is included in the permit/licence under which the animals are shot.
The licensing authority should only issue such a permit/licence if it is satisfied that:
the Animal Care and Ethics Committee (or equivalent) at the relevant institution has examined and approved the proposal; and
the method of shooting will result in sudden and painless deaths for the animals authorised to be killed.
The waiving of any requirements of this code shall not relieve the shooter of the absolute requirement to provide a sudden and painless death for the target kangaroos.

Aardwolves live in burrows in the earth, and come out only at night.An aardwolf in threat posture, its mane raised.An aardwolf can raise the mane of black hair on its back when frightened or angry to look much larger, and supposedly can even roar to frighten off an attacker.Eating insects has caused aardwolves to develop a social structure unique among hyenas. Their food doesn’t have to be brought down by a pack, and it cannot be shared, so aardwolves have never evolved the clan system of spotted and striped hyenas. Instead, each aardwolf wanders through its range of termite mounds at night, searching for food (it can lick up 30,000 termites in a single night).

Because of this, aardwolves are more or less monogamous, with one male and one female having a permanent relationship. The female may sneak off to mate with a more attractive male, then return to her mate. If she’s too blatant about her unfaithfulness, however, she risks the male’s abandoning her and her cubs.Aardwolves have clearly been separate from other hyenas for a very long time — their ancestors must have branched off shortly after the origin of the family, in the early Miocene.

Spotted hyenas don’t carry food to their pups in their mouths or in their stomachs like wolves do. Neither do they usually cache their meat like wolves (when they do cache it, it’s usually in water, and they frequently forget about it). Most food is eaten right at the kill site or nearby.Spotted hyenas live in clans that can number forty or more members. The whole clan does not all stay together at all times. Individuals may gather in groups to hunt or go off on their own for a time.The greeting ceremony, in which the animals sniff and lick each others’ penis or clitoris, lets clan members identify each other.Hyenas mark their territory by secretions from their anal glands. They straddle grass stems or twigs and squat down to paste the smelly substance on them. Some African tribes call this stuff “hyena butter,” but it has nothing to do with milk.

Differences between brown and spotted hyenas:
Brown hyenas are smaller than spotted hyenas, have pointed ears and very different coats and coloring.
Brown hyenas can live in much drier areas than spotted hyenas, such as Deception Valley in the Kalahari desert.
Brown hyenas mostly scavenge large animal carcasses instead of hunting, but also eat a lot of fruit, even melons.
Brown hyenas don’t hunt in groups, because they scavenge small quantities of food as they find it, rather than hunting. Occasionally several will gather at one large carcass.
Brown hyenas have two types of emissions to scent-mark with, not one. They also scent-mark much more than spotted hyenas.
They also don’t have enlarged clitoridae, and don’t sniff genitals in the greeting ceremony. Instead, they sniff heads, faces, necks, bodies, and/or anuses. The younger animal may present its anal glands to the older one, which may or may not reciprocate.
They don’t have the “whoop” call, the “giggle” or the squeal.
They lack a dominance hierarchy — all members of a clan are more or less equal.
They muzzle-wrestle in fight or play, which spotted hyenas don’t do.
They cache food, which spotted hyenas do only as a rudimentary behavior, if at all. Mothers carry food back to the dens.
Subadults may also bring food back to the den, like coyotes or wolves.
Similarities between brown and spotted hyenas:
Both utter snarls, growls, whines and yells.
Both scent-mark with anal glands.
Both live in clans which control their territory as a group.
Both are territorial, defending their clan territory against strange hyenas.
In both, some animals, mostly males, live outside clans as nomads.
In both, nomadic or immigrant males do most of the mating, not those born in the clan.
Both will scavenge dead carcasses, and can crush even large bones.
Both give birth in tunnel dens in a communal denning area.

Spotted hyenas dominate brown hyenas. If they catch a brown hyena alone, they may harass it, sometimes to the point that blood is drawn. But brown hyenas may harass a lone spotted hyena at a kill, and may be able to make it leave sooner than it intended.

Most of what brown hyenas eat is carrion, and they depend on other large carnivores that hunt for survival. But they also hunt small mammals and birds if they see opportunities. They even eat vegetables and fruits, such as the Hottentot melon.

During a study in the Kalahari desert, all the cubs were eventually moved to a communal den of tunnels dug in the sand. The adults were observed to leave the young alone for hours at a time, while the older cubs were responsible for the younger ones. All dashed into their dens at the sight of a possible danger. If a mother died, other females were seen to adopt her cubs (something spotted hyenas don’t do).

Brown hyenas are endangered, mostly because of overhunting, due to the fact that ranchers think they kill livestock. In fact, this has never been observed.

They live in arid places, such as the Kalahari desert. Their range is limited to the southern part of Africa, although fossils show they once had a wider range.

Main Page | The Brown Hyena | Brown Hyenas: Some F

Recently, that number has stabilized, due in large part to the 1990 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) ban on international ivory sales.But in June, 1997, CITES voted partially to lift trade sanctions and to allow Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia to sell stockpiled ivory to Japan, where there is a major ivory market. Many conservation groups fear that this slight loosening of the ivory ban will rekindle poaching throughout the elephants’ range.Even though it is illegal to kill an elephant in Africa, people continue to slaughter the mammoth beasts — if not for ivory, then for revenge. Whether forest or savannah dwellers, roaming elephant herds have begun butting up against sprawling human populations in most regions. While Masai herdsmen coexist with elephants by leaving their livestock unfenced and letting the animals walk through their land, farmers who try to barricade their crops from migrating wildlife create trouble for themselves. To a farmer, an elephant can be an irritating five-ton garden pest — or an active danger to his life. If a hungry beast destroys the season’s crop, the culprit (or sometimes just the nearest elephant, guilty or not) may be hunted down and forced to pay the price of the damage with its life.
Scientists are working on remedies to suit both parties. One has developed a pepper-spray bomb that wards off elephants by attacking their sensitive eyes with airborne pepper molecules. The elephant recovers soon after, having learned to stay clear of the fields.
Still, elephant poaching remains a problem in some parts of Africa. In September, 1996, Michael Fay, an elephant researcher with the Wildlife Conservation Society, was flying his small airplane over a remote forest clearing just outside the Nouabale-Ndoki National Park in northern Congo when he spotted a cluster of elephant carcasses. Deciding to investigate further, Fay returned the next day by helicopter, accompanied by a television camera crew.
Fay, who had worked with Cynthia Moss and the African Wildlife Foundation to help establish the park in 1993, found a scene of slaughter: there lay more than 300 elephant bodies, all with their tusks hacked off. Cows, calves, and juveniles had been indiscriminately left to die by poachers supplying the illegal ivory trade. Two months later, Fay found the remains of 1,000 more dead elephants nearby.

Poachers killed whole families.
Taking action into his own hands, Fay chased poachers out of the forest by destroying their camps. He also met with the local village leaders to solicit their help in ending the killings. By the spring of 1997, Fay and his colleagues had stopped illegal hunting of elephants in the Nouabale-Ndoki region. He and Andrea Turkalo, another researcher for the Wildlife Conservation Society, continue to monitor and protect elephants in the Congo basin.
As urban sprawl continues to block migration routes in and out of these protected areas, elephants rely on the open corridors provided by traditional Masai land use. Dr. David Western, director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, believes the best way to alleviate human-wildlife conflicts is to give people a reason to keep the local wildlife alive and healthy. For instance, eco-tourism in Amboseli National Park and its neighbor Nairobi National Park puts money directly back into the local Masai communities. Rather than a burden, the elephants become an important part of the local economy.

During the dry season, when water is low, an elephant will dig holes to find underground springs, drawing as much as two gallons at a time with its trunk. The water holes also give elephants access to important mineral sources buried deep below the surface.

While these open wells provide a water source for thirsty elephants, other wildlife also depend on them for survival. After elephants leave an area, smaller creatures rush to the watering holes dug by the elephants. Throughout their daily lives, elephants are the landscape architects essential for creating worn paths through the thick forests, excavating trees in the open savannahs, and unearthing water wherever it is needed.

Plucking fruit from trees with their flexible trunks, elephants feed themselves — and help forests regenerate. After having walked many miles, the elephants excrete the seeds of the fruit, which sprout in fertile dung piles and create new trees in other parts of the forest. Recent studies have shown that 90 different tree species depend on hungry elephants in order to prosper. Without elephants, Africa would look vastly different.

THE ELEPHANTS OF AFRICA reveals some lesser-known, yet equally important populations that inhabit diverse environments of the continent, from the thick rain forests of the Congo Basin to the parched deserts of Namibia. Researchers have determined that the smaller forest elephants, Loxodonta africana cyclotis, are a distinct subspecies from their savannah cousins of East Africa, Loxodonta africana africana. However, the data suggest that desert elephants are actually savannah elephants who have adapted to the rugged lifestyle of the barren desert.

An adult male savannah elephant — the largest land mammal in the world — weighs about 12,000 pounds and stands roughly 10 feet tall at the shoulder. The smaller forest elephant weighs 10,000 pounds at most. And unlike savannah elephants’ curved tusks, forest dwellers’ are small and straight, designed for negotiating routes through dense foliage. Both elephants do possess the same tough hide (the Latin name for elephant is “pachyderm,” or “thick-skinned”). But while their skin may be durable, elephants still need protection from insects and the hot African sun. Wallowing in a mud bath cools down an elephant as well as provides an extra layer of cover.

Regardless of where elephants live, their social behaviors and social structures remain largely the same. Cynthia Moss has dedicated her life to understanding the biology, ecology, and society of the herds that roam the savannahs of Amboseli National Park in Kenya. Here, in the open landscape, biologists can spot a group miles away and approach by car to observe. From their vehicles, Moss and her colleagues in East Africa have unlocked the mysteries of how these enormous animals learn as youngsters, raise their young, survive as adults, and communicate with family members.

Elephant and young

Elephant females guard the young.An elephant calf is usually born into an extended family, headed by an older female elephant who serves as matriarch. Families are cohesive groups of females and their young. Adult males leave the herd at 14 years of age, and either range alone or join other bull elephants in “bachelor herds,” rjoeining females only at breeding times. The mother is responsible for providing the 250-pound newborn with milk. But when it comes to caretaking and protecting babies from predators, the whole herd pitches in.

The mother receives help from aunts, sisters, and cousins who serve as nannies. Known as “allomothers,” these baby-sitters are young female elephants learning how to care for babies. Teaching a potential mother how to rear her child is an important task, since the calves’ survival depends on it. And since elephants bear young only once every few years, each baby is essential to the herd’s ultimate survival.

After five years of rearing this young elephant, the mother gives birth to a new infant, weaning the now adolescent calf at the same time. By then, the young elephant weighs nearly a ton and has learned how to forage on available vegetation. Males tend to leave their mothers earlier than females, with young bulls beginning to wander beyond the protective family circle at the early age of six.

Thus my vision of an organization dedicated to promoting harmonious relationships between elephants and people gradually came to fruition. It is with great joy that we at Living With Elephants share this dream with you in the pages that follow.

Sincerely Yours,

MISSION STATEMENT

LIVING WITH ELEPHANTS is dedicated to relieving conflict and competition between the African Elephant and human populations in Botswana. We do this by identifying sources of conflict, developing strategies for resolution and offering educational programs which encourage a harmonious relationship between elephants and people. We believe that extensive participation and commitment by the communities is a requirement for success.

One time he used his fluke to hit the water very hard. Maybe he is chasing the fish this way. I don’t think it was a reaction to our presence because he did it when we had stopped a few minutes before, were far away and not following him. It’s very interesting to see him catching fish. He always chased them into the rocks where they can’t escape. Later we decided to call him Rocky because of that. We still don’t know if it’s a male, but in case of a female we can still change it to Roxane…

Once as we followed Rocky he seemed to be interested in the boat and took a closer look. I tried to take some photos by holding my small camera into the water when he was close and pressed the button. Unfortuately the photos didn’t turn out good at all. After some time it started raining but we decided to stay with our dolphin. We knew we would get wet even if we would drive home. One more time he hit the water with his fluke just next to the boat then he went for a long dive and we lost him. Maybe he had enough of us or that was his way to say good bye.

Back on the island Ken drove to Marsh Harbour to do some shopping (we were out of some basic food). On his way he found some dolphins and called us on the radio. Even though it’s quite a long way I decided to go there with the canoe. The way seemed to be never ending. I was rowing as fast as I could. I really didn’t want to get there when the dolphins were already gone, but I arrived in time. This time we saw five dolphins. One was a baby that always stayed close to it’s mother. They always surface at the same time to breath. Since the five didn’t always stay together I sometimes didn’t know where to go, but again I got very close to them. I really recommend anyone who has the choice between a moter boat and a canoe to use the hand powered version when following dolphins. It’s just not the same on a big boat. It’s almost like being part of the water. On a motor boat I always feel a little like an alien, an intruder in the sea. Rowing back to the island was hard, but nothing can be really hard after those moments.