Authorities say the local kangaroo population has grown to large and must be culled
Officials in the capital of Canberra are again calling for kangaroo culls after declaring the city is plagued by kangaroos.
The proposed cull has earned little support among the city’s residents, with 80% of those questioned in a government survey stating that the wild kangaroos should stay.
Authorities have tried vasectomies and oral contraceptives to stop the population mushrooming, but to no avail.
They reportedly said that relocation will cost too much.
Conservationists, who have been disgusted by calls to shoot the common gray kangaroos, have vowed to demonstrate should officials try to cull the mammals.
The Canberra kangaroos do cause problems in the local area. Just last week one family were woken in the night to find a panicked kangaroo jumping round the house. They are also degrading their own environment by eating the grass and shrubs, which in turn is posing a threat to rare insects and lizards.
Canberra has one of the densest populations of the eastern gray in Australia, and they can be seen regularly hopping around the city.
Jon Stanhope, the chief minister of the Australian Capital Territory where Canberra is situated, has released draft legislation which outlines plans to reduce the numbers of kangaroos by shooting them. This is not the first time such a cull has been proposed, and the method has long divided the community.
Mt Stanhope told reporters that, “There are probably more eastern gray kangaroos in Canberra now than any time in the last 100 years. I think we have perhaps tried too hard not to cull.”
Since 1998, the local government has sought ways to develop an oral contraceptive to help slow the population growth, but none has proved effective among wild kangaroo communities.
Pat O’Brien, president of the Wildlife Protection Association of Australia, warned authorities their efforts would be met by protests.
“The whole thing is a propaganda exercise to try to get public support for killing kangaroos,” said O’Brien. He also denied that kangaroo numbers were too high, saying, “there’s certainly not too many of them.”
Recent government surveys have claimed that kangaroos were a traffic hazard, and said that 17% of Canberra drivers had reported colliding with a kangaroo at sometime in the past. Nevertheless, 82% of people involved in the survey said that it was important that wild kangaroos continued to live in the city.
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