THE BENIGN IMAGE of Australia's national parks rangers, fostered in part by the 1960s television programme Skippy The Bush Kangaroo, has taken a severe battering.
Rangers in New South Wales have been responsible for a series of highly embarrassing bungles in recent months, from blocking the entrance to a cave occupied by bats to leaving dozens of wild horses dying after a botched cull by marksmen in helicopters.
The latest episode to damage the reputation of the state's National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) involves its policy on controlling the damage done to orchards by bats.
Thousands of grey-headed flying foxes are killed every year by shooting, netting and electrocution and their numbers are now so low that they have recently been listed as 'vulnerable' under Australian law. The NPWS has been criticised for not monitoring the number of bats killed, and for having a conflict of interest over the issue.
On the one hand, as the main wildlife conservation body, it has an obligation to protect the species; on the other, it is responsible for issuing licences to farmers allowing them to shoot the animals. Those licences are up for renewal in the next few weeks.
In response to pressure from both farmers and environmentalists, the parks service funded a recent public forum that was organised by Australia's Royal Zoological Society.
