Kangaroo cull numbers shoot up to preserve ACT grassland

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The number of kangaroos culled in the ACT has jumped to 2978 this year compared with 1232 in the 2024 culling season and 1041 the year before.

Of those killed this year, 1194 were "pouch young", also known as joeys.

The ACT's 16 nature reserves were closed from June 10 until Thursday for the cull, and the final count of animals killed showed the dramatic increase.

The weather was responsible for the more than doubling of the number shot.

Previous years were rainy so vegetation was abundant but experts calculated that recent months had been drier, and so with less vegetation. Less vegetation meant an increase in the target number to achieve a sustainable kangaroo population that wouldn't over-graze the land.

"The ACT is home to some of the best quality natural temperate grassland in Australia, and we need to make sure it is appropriately protected and managed so it can continue providing optimum habitat conditions," ACT conservator of flora and fauna Bren Burkevics said at the start of the cull.

Killing kangaroos even to protect an ecosystem has been controversial.

Animal Liberation ACT condemned the cull. "This is state-sanctioned violence of the rights of sentient, native animals," activist Carolyn Drew said.

"Kangaroos are intelligent, social beings with strong family bonds and the capacity to suffer. Yet each year, the government treats them as pests to be eradicated-reducing their lives to numbers on a spreadsheet."

But the ACT government believed culling was necessary in the wider interests of the environment. It believed it was done as humanely as possible.

"Conservation culls are conducted to reduce kangaroo populations to sustainable levels. This involves humane best-practice shooting programs. Shooting is recognised by the Commonwealth, state and territory governments and RSPCA Australia as the most humane method of culling," it said.

Scientists had predicted that the wet spell leading to a dry spell would spell danger for more kangaroos this culling season.

"There is always a large overshoot after a wet spell then coming into a drought, with numbers [of kangaroos] ecologically inflated anyway because of lots of grass and artificial water points and no predators - other than cats," David Lindenmayer of the ANU said.

One of the consequences of the rise in the number of kangaroos was that they started to appear more on Canberra's roads and urban areas.

The ACT government's Mr Burkevics said there had been a near doubling in calls to his department about kangaroos or wallabies.

"That's a big increase, but what it's showing us kangaroos are on the move. They may be grazing by roadsides. They may be getting into new areas, going to suburban areas. And I can certainly see a major uptick in collisions - 621 in the month of June."

The ACT government also tries to make female kangaroos infertile by shooting darts of a contraceptive chemical into them.

This year 18 doses of the vaccines were administered (though without the full figures yet being available). In 2024, it was 74.