Sniping koalas from helicopters: here’s what’s wrong with Victoria’s unprecedented cull

According to this, snipers in helicopters have shot more than seven hundren koalas in the Budj Bim National Park in western Victoria in recent weeks. It’s believed to be the first time my brethren have been culled in this way, which had become public on Good Friday after local wildlife carers were reportedly tipped off. A fire burned about twenty percent of the park in mid-March.

The government said the cull was urgent because koalas had been left starving or burned. But wildlife groups have expressed serious concern about how individual koalas had been chosen for culling, because the koalas are assessed from a distance. And it’s not clear how shooting from a helicopter complies with the state government’s own animal welfare and response plans for wildlife in disasters.

The Victorian government must explain why it is undertaking aerial culling, and why it did so without announcing it publicly. The incident points to ongoing failures in managing these iconic gentle brethren of mine, which are already threatened in other states.