Threats to Survival

European settlement of Australia has worked against the survival of many native animals, including some species of kangaroo, in four main ways: fire patterns have changed, domestic stock have grazed large areas of native habitat, new predators have been introduced, and land has been cleared. Each of these factors has had a major, though different, effect on the habitat of our native species.For example, the various hare-wallabies have:
lost much of their food and shelter because burning patterns have changed, with grasslands being transformed into grazing lands for sheep or cattle, or turned into farmland;
had to compete more and more with introduced species, such as sheep, cattle and rabbits, for the remaining food;
had to deal with massive wildfires, fuelled by a build up of forest debris, and with introduced predators, such as the fox and the cat. Read the rest of this entry »