In the 1800s
When the English settlers came
The chicken eating Chuditch
Was wiped out on the plain
In the 1900s
The fox joined in the game
Wiping out the Chuditch
In the Darling Range
The few remaining Chuditch
Continue to be shot
As they raid the chicken coups
And we will soon have lost the lot
Everyone knows about the Tasmanian Tiger and wonders at the breathtaking ignorance that lead to its extinction. How could we have lost such an iconic treasure and what kind of monsters were these Tasmanian settlers who shot it to extinction? We are comforted in the knowledge that we are now no longer so profoundly ignorant. We appreciate our natural treasures and such crimes against nature would not be tolerated in modern Australia. If we think that we are truly deluded. We have learned nothing or at least very little. Yes there are many who care deeply about wildlife conservation and such people will also have been around when the last Tasmanian Tiger died in Hobart Zoo in 1933. But unfortunately there are many more, and likely the majority, who could not care less.
The Chuditch or Western Quoll is Western Australia’s largest marsupial carnivore and like its cousin the Tasmanian Tiger has been hunted to the edge of extinction. And while many of us are absolutely thrilled when we catch of rare glimpse of this rapidly vanishing treasure others are not so happy. There are some who will spend hours hunting them down following a raid on the chook yard. And for what? How hard is it at the end of the day to construct a secure chook pen? In my view we should lock up anyone who shoots an endangered animal and throw away the key. But these people do not see themselves as criminals, just battling farmers, and most of the community also sees it that way. That of course is the heart of the problem. How else would the Shooters and Fishers Party have secured a seat in Western Australia’s upper house in the recent election?
And as well as hunters the Chuditch has to contend with the fox and fox eradication is not a current priority. In recent years with lax baiting programmes fox numbers are on the increase across Western Australia and with them many species like Woylies, Numbats and Chuditch, that had been returned from the brink of extinction are once more in decline.
