Australia is full of various animals and most important of them are a kangaroo. These creatures are not found in any other continent, that is, endemics. Scientists all the time believed that the main inhabitants of the mainland could not harm the local nature - usually accused of animals delivered from other places. But the opinions of scientists turned out to be erroneous, because during the observations they noticed that the kangaroo destroys the soil and thus harm the plants much stronger than rabbits. This is a very serious problem, especially since recently the number of kangaroo in Australia has increased greatly. As part of this article, I propose to find out than these harmless creatures can harm nature and why they suddenly became a lot. Scientists still do not even know how to solve the problem occurred. But there are already solutions.
Endemics are animals and plants that live or grow only in certain places of our planet. In Australia, endemics are considered to be a kangaroo, koala, cliffs and so on.
Nature of Australia in danger
The danger of Kangaroo was told in the scientific journal Eurekalert. For a long time, scientists were confident that in the destruction of soils and the disappearance of whole types of plants, rabbits were blamed in the XVIII century. This is the proportion of truth, because they really have greatly multiplied and amounted to serious competition to many indigenous inhabitants of Australia. It is believed that by entering the plants, they also badly affect soil fertility. Local residents tried to solve the problem in many ways. The best result was obtained during the enhancement - rabbits began to contain in strictly allocated territories.
At the moment, there are many reserves in Australia, where Kangaroo live. In the course of observations, scientists find out that these creatures eat much more vegetation than the rabbits mentioned above. That is, they are no longer harmful. And it is not only about the risk of the disappearance of certain types of plants. The fact is that Kangaroo can eat so much vegetation that others simply will not have food. This can lead to extinction of other herbivorous creatures. And the deprived of herbal cover of the soil has a property to quickly collapse. In general, Australia is not so good.
See also: Why did you destroy 350,000 rats and mice in Australia?
How many kangaroo in Australia?
The problem is exacerbated by the fact that recently there is an increase in the kangaroo population. This is due to the reduction in the number of wild Dingo dogs - their main enemies. Many wild dogs were shot because from time to time they attacked grazing sheep. The question arises: if the kangaroo also became a source of problems, why do not the hunt open on them? It is very risky, because nature can respond to this in an unexpected way. For example, with a sharp reduction in kangaroo, the number of other, more problem animals may increase. So before declaring a kangaroo shoot, scientists should take into account many factors.
Interesting fact: in Australia there are 2.5 times more kangaroo than people. If you believe the statistics, there are 57 million kangaroo. Most likely, today this number is even more.
It is worth noting that in some cases a kangaroo hunt is still underway. Locals perceive the kangaroo as something ordinary. They are something like cows and sheep for residents of Russia - nothing surprising. Kangaroo meat is used in cooking. It has dark red and strong smell. But at the same time it is very clean, because in nature animals are rarely exposed to chemicals. People who tried Kangaroo meat dishes noted that it looks like something average between pork and beef.
What were the ancestors of Kangaroo?
Kangaroo appeared in Australia from time immemorial. The ancestors of modern species were very high, and the mass of their bodies reached 200 kilograms. They had a short face, which allowed them to chew solid food. According to scientists, today there are enough panda and koalas. The ancestors of the kangaroo had to eat hard food, because other herbivorous animals quickly eaten softly. For more information about the ancient kangaroo, I have already written in this material. So what is it, maybe the descendants of these giants just starting to take revenge for the ancestors?
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If you want to know more about the history of Australia, go through this link. There I talked about the largest animals who ever inhabited Australia. You probably know about the bird of Moa, but do you know about the existence of the silence lions, giant geese and megalia? If not, I strongly recommend to get acquainted!