For membership and support details contact
Robyn Opie Parnell at
robyn.opie.parnell@gmail.com or 0435 339 345
This group is for South Australians who love kangaroos. Through this group, we can share ideas, information, education, advocacy, wildlife care and support. We're here to help kangaroos.
State government departments conduct aerial surveys to estimate the number of kangaroos in each commercial killing zone. The areas surveyed are tiny. For instance, only 480-550km was surveyed in the Lower South-East killing zone, which is 11,508km².
State government departments take the number of kangaroos spotted from the air and apply species-specific habitat correction factors. In other words, they take the number of kangaroos spotted from the air and use a mathematical formula to estimate the kangaroo population. The below flyer shows how 66 kangaroos can become 8,942 kangaroos with a little creative accounting.
The number of red kangaroos commercially killed in South Australia (SA) is unsustainable. In 2020, Steven McLeod and Trudy Sharp wrote a report in which they stated that when the proportion of males commercially killed is 50% of all kangaroos killed, the reduction of average population density is about 45% and if the proportion of males commercially killed is 70–75% of all kangaroos killed, the reduction of average population density is between 20–24%.
For instance, in 2018 the estimated population of red kangaroos in the Eastern Pastoral zone was 1,024,926 and in 2019 the estimated population was 516,925.
A combination of drought and commercial killing caused the population to decline by 50%. In 2019 the estimated population of red kangaroos in the Eastern Agricultural zone was 162,470 and in 2021 this red kangaroo population had declined to 51,019 - a decline of 69%. South Australia kills an unsustainable number of female red kangaroos.
