Thousands of native animals get snared in fruit tree netting, fencing and fishing gear every year in Australia \u2013 events that frequently result in injury or death.<\/p>\n
Wildlife entanglements are rising, with at least 3,500 cases annually in New South Wales, and more than 2,000 last year in Victoria.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese issues are just so much greater than people realise,\u201d says Jasmine Vink, an ecologist and bat rehabilitator.<\/p>\n
Flying foxes make up two-thirds of all entanglement cases in NSW, a study in Pacific Conservation Biology<\/a> has found, especially grey-headed flying foxes, which are listed as vulnerable under national environment laws. They get badly tangled in back yard nets, Vink says, and caught on barbed wire in regional areas.<\/p>\n \u201cVery, very few of those bats are able to be treated,\u201d she says. \u201cThey die of exposure, heat, dehydration, blood loss, predation. You have raptors that come down and eat them from the fences.\u201d<\/p>\n But it\u2019s not just flying foxes \u2013 entanglements affect hundreds of different species, mostly mammals and birds, including kangaroos, platypus, raptors and gliders.<\/p>\n Lisa Palma, the chief executive of Wildlife Victoria, says these are some of the more preventable wildlife emergencies. \u201cThey are the result of everyday human activity \u2013 not deliberate harm \u2013 but they can cause devastating injuries and unnecessary suffering to wildlife,\u201d Palma says.<\/p>\n \u201cThe good news is that [through] simple actions like disposing of rubbish appropriately, using wildlife-friendly netting and fencing, we can reduce the number of native animals injured or killed by entanglement.\u201d<\/p>\n Choose wildlife-friendly fruit tree netting<\/p>\n Back yard netting is a popular way of protecting homegrown fruit and vegetables from native animals or pests, and even to prevent damage from sunburn, wind and hail.<\/p>\n But hungry animals, especially flying foxes, birds and possums, are attracted to flowers and fruits, and get easily caught in \u201clarge-aperture\u201d nets, where the mesh size is greater than 5mm.<\/p>\n If you can poke a finger through fruit tree netting, it\u2019s not safe for wildlife. Photograph: Jasmine Vink<\/p>\n \u201cThe rule of thumb is that if you can poke a finger through it, it\u2019s not safe for wildlife,\u201d Vink says.<\/p>\n Flying fox entanglements are \u201creally, really awful\u201d, she says. \u201cThe constriction is incredibly painful for them, those parts of their wings just slowly start to die.\u201d Some of the worst cases involve mums and pups, she says, where \u201cthe pup\u2019s been entangled and passed, and they\u2019re just rotting next to the mother as she\u2019s still struggling\u201d.<\/p>\n Nets should be taut, so they can\u2019t sink and fold around animals. Photograph: WIRES<\/p>\n Safer alternatives have a smaller mesh, and cross-weave design. Wildlife Victoria also encourages the use of fruit tree protection bags, which protect some branches, while leaving others free for wildlife.<\/p>\n White or light-coloured materials are also recommended by most state environment departments, as these are easier for birds and mammals to see and avoid at night. Nets should ideally be taut, so they can\u2019t sink and fold around animals, and be checked regularly.<\/p>\n Some state and territory governments and bat rescue organisations run free \u201cnet swaps\u201d, where people can bring in their lethal netting and exchange it for wildlife-friendly alternatives. One program<\/a> in Victoria last year saw more than 600 lethal nets surrendered, and 359 replacements provided free of charge.<\/p>\n In Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory, it is illegal to use or sell large-aperture fruit netting. Victoria\u2019s conservation regulator encourages community members to report illegal netting, and has investigated 37 reports in the past year.<\/p>\n Safely dispose of fishing gear \u2026 and hair ties<\/p>\n Aquatic debris makes up about 10% of entanglement cases, according to NSW wildlife rescue data.<\/p>\n For platypus, it\u2019s a serious threat, especially in urban waterways. Animals frequently get tangled in fishing gear and human rubbish, which is responsible<\/a> for 8% of platypus mortalities in Victoria.<\/p>\n Litter, especially anything with a ring or a loop, is a big problem for platypus. Photograph: WIRES<\/p>\n \u201cBecause of those big webbed feet, they are very poor at getting litter off them once it gets around them,\u201d says Dr Geoff Williams at the Australian Platypus Conservancy. \u201cFishing line is probably the most difficult type of litter for platypus to cope with, and causes horrendous injuries \u2013 it basically just cuts through the skin.\u201d<\/p>\n Litter, especially anything with a ring or a loop, is a big problem. \u201cPlatypus are amazing in their ability to get their heads and shoulders through small loops.\u201d<\/p>\n Hair ties, the kind used for ponytails, are a growing concern, he says. \u201cParticularly in places where people go swimming in the summer, what happens is they shake their hair out and drop the thing in a creek and then that ends up around a platypus.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cElasticated hair ties are a really significant problem because no matter where they get dropped, they tend to get swept along in the rain, go down in the drains, [and] end up in creeks.\u201d<\/p>\n Most people are responsible, he says. But it\u2019s important to retrieve fishing line and dispose of it properly \u2013 don\u2019t just cut it and leave it in the water. For rubbish, especially anything with loops, his recommendation is to \u201csnip it and bin it\u201d.<\/p>\n Perhaps surprisingly, even flying foxes get caught in fishing line. \u201cThey skim on their bellies on the water,\u201d Vink says. \u201cThey\u2019re just flying along and they get hooked up in this fishing gear. So, you do get a lot actually going through their mouths.\u201d<\/p>\n Western Australia\u2019s Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions runs a Reel It In program that has installed 192 yellow bins at popular fishing spots for fishers to safely dispose of unwanted fishing line and tackle, and has so far collected more than 250km of line.<\/p>\n Most states, except Queensland, have now banned the sale of enclosed yabby nets, also known as opera house traps, which were particularly deadly to native wildlife including turtles, platypus and rakali (water rats).<\/p>\n Fixing fatal fences<\/p>\n Outside the cities, barbed wire poses a serious risk.<\/p>\n More than 800 kangaroos were rescued from fences by Wildlife Victoria in the past year. \u201cAs a land-based species they are often confined by fencing and need to jump over fences to navigate around and through properties. Unfortunately, if a kangaroo is startled or travelling at speed, their hind legs can clip top wires, causing their legs to become entangled,\u201d the rescue organisation says.<\/p>\n Flying foxes often can\u2019t see fences, especially in windy or foggy conditions. Photograph: Jasmine Vink<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s just so much barbed wire, just thousands and thousands of kilometres,\u201d Vink says. \u201cFor example, up here in north Queensland, we had close to 250 little red flying foxes caught in a single week, just on one property.\u201d<\/p>\n Flying foxes often can\u2019t see fences, especially in windy or foggy conditions, she says.<\/p>\n The vast majority get caught on the top strand, so most solutions involve replacing that strand with plain wire, or installing reflective or brightly coloured poly tape or reflective discs to make the fence more visible.<\/p>\n What should you do if you find trapped wildlife?<\/p>\n If you encounter trapped or entangled wildlife, avoid approaching or touching the animal as that may cause stress.<\/p>\n Contact your local wildlife rescue, or use theInternational Fund for Animal Welfare\u2019s wildlife rescue app<\/a> to find the closest licensed carer.<\/p>\n Flying foxes should only be handled by appropriately vaccinated and trained individuals, and using the proper protective equipment.<\/p>\n With the arrival of H5 bird flu in Australia<\/a>, members of the public are urged to avoid contact with any dead or sick birds or animals showing signs of the virus. Report those sightings to the emergency animal disease hotline 1800 675 888 or birdflu.gov.au<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of native animals get snared in fruit tree netting, fencing and fishing gear every year in Australia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[85,46,141,386],"class_list":["post-538035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}