The Viggers & Hearn conundrum : a kangaroo home range study with no implications for land management

1.<br />Viggers & Hearn (2005) examined the encroachment of native herbivores on to farmland.<br />They presented kangaroo home range estimates and pasture biomass data for<br />three sites in south-eastern Australia, then made broad management recommendations<br />regarding the preservation of remnant habitat.<br />2.<br />While Viggers & Hearn identified potentially important patterns, we believe that<br />their data were neither sufficient nor appropriate to reveal the processes that underlie<br />these patterns.<br />3.<br />Specifically, their study was unreplicated at the land-use level, used inappropriate<br />density estimates for their study populations, failed to measure resources adequately,<br />used flawed methods of home range analysis, and demonstrated limited understanding<br />of key concepts and of their study species and thus could not draw valid conclusions.<br />4.<br />Synthesis and applications.<br />In view of these fundamental problems, we recommend<br />that decisions on the management of kangaroos<br />