Esperance (WA) Kookaburra Sighting Raises Questions About Native Wildlife Management
Share this page THE NATION’S LARGEST bird organisation has logged its first ever record of a kookaburra in the West Australian south coast town of Esperance. But given it is the “king of the bush”, one expert has suggested a kookaburra cull could be an idea worth exploring. Sean Dooley, the national public affairs manager for BirdLife Australia, said kookaburras were introduced to WA from the east coast back in 1896 and records show they had reached Albany by the 1960s. But BirdLife had no record of a kookaburra ever being in Esperance before, until local resident Barbara Jones took a drive with her husband this week. “Out the corner of my eye I saw a bird and I thought, ‘That’s a kookaburra!’ ” she told the ABC. “[But my husband’s] comment to me was, ‘Well, in the 22 years that I’ve been here I’ve never seen a kookaburra.’ ” … CONTINUE READING By Emily Smith, ABC News
