Here is an extract from an email sent to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Clare Scriven, following a series of actions to ensure and enable Kangaroo killing while the South Australian Government’s own inquiry into Kangaroo and Wallaby populations in South Australia was being held and to which we all made submissions, not knowing what underhand behaviours would occur:

“As a basic principle you should note that that the claimed population increases in 2023-24 are biologically impossible (fivefold) and that all governments around the world have a duty of care to protect and conserve endemic species, South Australia is a very long way from that. Perhaps, ask yourself why the actual take against commercial quota in South Australia in 2024 was just 17 per cent (the lowest of all Australian states) and our forecasts show that in 2025 it will be just 12 per cent – it will be extremely interesting to see what difference your bounty will make”.

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South Australia: Reported actual take in 2024

In South Australia in 2024 a total of 105,845 Kangaroos were shot for commercial gain (excluding joeys) in South Australia. That was just 17 per cent of quota which was set at 635,400. The quota, a number which included the five species of Macropod currently killed for commercial gain in the state.

• The Red Kangaroo suffered the most of the five species commercially exploited in the state and 63,664 Red Kangaroos were killed in 2024.
• The South Australian Government data shows that the number of Red Kangaroos killed for commercial gain was largest in the eastern pastoral shooting zone, where 29,194 Red Kangaroos were killed.
• Western Grey Kangaroos came second on this disgraceful league table at 29,518 animals kill for commercial gain.
• The highest number of Western Grey Kangaroos killed were in the eastern agricultural shooting zone, where 10,069 Western Grey Kangaroos were killed.
• For the Euro, the highest take was 2,529 in the eastern agricultural shooting zone.
• Eastern grey Kangaroos were killed in the lower south east sub region within the southern agricultural shooting zone and 7,516 Eastern Grey Kangaroos were killed in that zone.
• No Tammar Wallabies were killed for commercial gain in 2024. The 2024 quota was 19,200.

The share of females killed for commercial gain was as follows:

• Red Kangaroo – 21 per cent female;
• Western Grey Kangaroo – 32 per cent female;
• Euro – 2 per cent female;
• Eastern Grey Kangaroo – 40 per cent female; and
• Number of joeys killed by decapitation or beating to death (estimate) – 25,950 (additional to government published data).

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History of actual take against quota for South Australia from 1975 by species and population estimates since 1978

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Non-commercial ‘destruction permits’ to kill Kangaroos in South Australia in 2024

1,584 permits were issued to kill 109,497 Kangaroos in South Australia in 2024, the outcome of which is unknown.

Comprised:

• Red Kangaroo – 15,102;
• Western Grey Kangaroo – 73,910;
• Euro – 6,676;
• Eastern Grey Kangaroo – 1,989; and
• Tammar Wallaby –11,820.

As a reference point as to trends, in 2022, 1,123 permits were issued to kill Kangaroos for purposes other than exploitation. The total number of Kangaroos on these permits was 61,489. This consisted of 5,862 Red Kangaroos; 46,161 Western Grey Kangaroos; 2,766 Euros; 1,030 Eastern Grey Kangaroos and 5,670 Tammar Wallabies.

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Killing Kangaroos on public land in South Australia in 2024, National Parks and Wildlife Reserves

This activity is particularly shameful and means there are no safe places for Kangaroos or Wallabies in South Australia.

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Non-commercial killing was undertaken in 9 parks where the following were killed:

• Red Kangaroo – 49;
• Western Grey Kangaroo – 1,685 (this includes the Sooty Kangaroo, the Western Grey from Kangaroo Island); and
• Euro – 406.

A total of 2,140 Kangaroos were killed using destruction permits, of this number 50 per cent or 1,077 Kangaroos were killed in the Gawler Ranges National Park.

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Killing for commercial gain was undertaken in 5 parks where the following were killed:

• Red Kangaroo – 1,240;
• Western Grey Kangaroo– 729; and
• Euro – 20

In 2024, a total of 1,989 Kangaroos were killed for commercial gain in nature parks, that is 889 more than in the previous year.

We assume joeys are additional and not accounted for?

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Double bunga bounty

Given the vast scale algal bloom impacting South Australia’ s coastline, and doing so for months, it is beyond comprehension that South Australian Government public servants are tied up in a complex and pointless Kangaroo bounty scheme to kill the remaining a and rapidly declining populations. Here we answer two questions.

Will the financial incentives be paid for young Kangaroos?

Financial incentives will be paid for Kangaroos that are fully furred and destroyed under a permit to destroy wildlife. The notification adds - Every Kangaroo needs to be humanely shot in line with existing standards. The problem is that existing standards are a very long way from being humane.

So what are they going after? – Which species of Kangaroos can be shot under a Permit to Destroy Wildlife? Permits will be issued for the following species:

• Western Grey Kangaroos
• Red Kangaroos
• Eastern Grey Kangaroos
• Euros
• Tamar Wallabies (Kangaroo Island)

And all this during a period when the South Australian Government’s own Inquiry into Kangaroo and Wallaby populations in the state drags on without conclusion.

Disgraceful.

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The impact of the Kangaroo bounty

A letter to Peter Hylands from South Australia’s Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development / Minister for Forest Industries, the Hon Claire Scriven MLC contains the following paragraphs.

“The program aims to reduce the impact of Kangaroos on farmers’ pastures and crops, as well as mitigating the poor animal welfare outcomes due to lack of food and water available for Kangaroos. Consecutive good seasons has meant Kangaroo numbers have boomed, and the current drought has left them with little to eat.

Kangaroo populations are surveyed each year, and the science to estimate kangaroo population numbers has been extensively peer-reviewed. Currently, it is estimated there are 5 million to 6 million Kangaroos in South Australia, with only approximately 100,000 harvested per year. The additional measures are estimated to remove between 50,000 to 100,000 additional Kangaroos”. Hon Claire Scriven MLC

Prior to the bounty being announced the Nature Knowledge Channel’s forecast for actual take against quota in 2025 is just 11.7 per cent. The bounty might increase this given high levels of access to pretty well everywhere Kangaroos exist, and it will be interesting to see what actually happens.

This begs the question, are joeys now to be counted as part of the commercial kill as this has never occurred before as they are considered not to be viable for processing?

We should remember this. In South Australia there is no achievable ceiling to the killing because populations are overstated and as a result, quotas are so high, and this results in the lowest actual take against quota in percentage terms in Australia at just 17 per cent in both 2023 and 2024. In addition to this Kangaroos can now be killed in almost every place in South Australia where they exist. So there are no achievable and regulated upper limits to the killing to deter shooters or farmers from obliterating Kangaroo populations. They are already killing everything they want to kill. We should also note that year on year the claims of a booming population increase, populations increasing from 3,912,711 in 2023/4 to 4,922,375 in 2024/5, were biologically impossible. That means IMPOSSIBLE.

This in turn means that the bounty will act as a proxy subsidy to enable an unsustainable industry, based on dubious claims and an even more dubious ‘science’, to continue until there are very few, if any, Kangaroos in South Australia. Just look at the state’s track record when it comes to wiping out native species.