Aussie researcher captures kangaroo "farts" all in the name of climate change

An Australian scientist has conducted some stinky research to help inform efforts in the fight against global climate change.

University of Wollongong researcher Adam Munn has been collecting kangaroo farts, or a emissions of wind from the anus' of kangaroos, in an effort to breed less windy flocks and herds of sheep and cattle, which has serious consequences for the global climate.

Agriculture contributes over 20 percent of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates, which has serious consequences in the fight for environmental sustainability.

Munn estimates in the year to March 2015, Australia's agriculture sector, the dominant source of the potent methane greenhouse gas, contributed 15 percent of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions.

The joint research from Munn and colleagues at the University of Zurich, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology on Thursday, however have dashed hopes transplanting these micro-organisms into sheep and cattle might produce less methane.

"We think that it's more about how food moves through the gut, and that's affecting the methane output," Munn told Xinhua on Thursday.

"So, there's been this idea that kangaroos have this mysteriously low methane emitting microbes in their cut, and we're not 100 percent sure that's the case because they do produce methane."

A change of thinking and further research is in order for the fight against climate change, with focus now turning to the comparison between the ruminants and other wildlife that aren't intensively domesticated for agricultural production in the hopes of providing valuable information to farmers under any future carbon credit or pricing system.

If there are benefits to having other species grazing on agricultural properties such as kangaroos or feral goats, Munn said the mixed species may improve overall biodiversity which increases productivity, economic and environmental sustainability in the long term.

The trick however is convincing Australian farmers of the benefits of having kangaroos on their property, commonly referred to as a native pest, which is generally accepted to contribute up to 70 percent as much grazing pressure as a sheep.

Munn refutes this claim however as his previous research shows the pressure is likely around 30 percent of a sheep, allowing more kangaroos on the property than previously thought, only competing with domestic stock when numbers are high and pasture levels low in instances of drought.

"But in other conditions, if you can keep a lower density of all the herbivores but a mixed species, we think that is the best way to go forward for Australia's range land, particularly with the unpredictability of climate change and intensity of droughts," Munn said. Endit