Oh, increasing the dingo population (by any method) would, as you say, definitely impact the roo population. No question!
But the *location* of that roo population matters and affects whether any cull makes economic sense.
I was a spotter and offsider for a few pro roo shooters over a few seasons.
Culling roos usually only makes sense when it benefits the farmer AND value can be extracted from the roos.
Most culls I’ve seen were in cattle country that was still ‘close to town’, usually within 1-2 hrs’ drive. (I’m sure that culls also occur down in sheep country, too.)
Primary producers rarely look upon dingos favourably, and there’d be little support for increasing them.
The ‘predator-prey’ ‘boom/bust’ cycles are still common, but generally where the station’s size is measured in 1000’s of sq. kms. In the ‘back of beyond’, diesel alone costs much more than can be made from any culled roos.
@spiffmeister
Oh, increasing the dingo population (by any method) would, as you say, definitely impact the roo population. No question!
But the *location* of that roo population matters and affects whether any cull makes economic sense.
I was a spotter and offsider for a few pro roo shooters over a few seasons.
Culling roos usually only makes sense when it benefits the farmer AND value can be extracted from the roos.
Most culls I’ve seen were in cattle country that was still ‘close to town’, usually within 1-2 hrs’ drive. (I’m sure that culls also occur down in sheep country, too.)
Primary producers rarely look upon dingos favourably, and there’d be little support for increasing them.
The ‘predator-prey’ ‘boom/bust’ cycles are still common, but generally where the station’s size is measured in 1000’s of sq. kms. In the ‘back of beyond’, diesel alone costs much more than can be made from any culled roos.
Edit: check out the dingo fence…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingo/_Fence