We now have a reasonably good understanding of what happened to wildlife in New South Wales and Victoria in 2025 when government behest and promoted protected Australian wildlife killing activities are considered across the various mechanisms that allow for the mass scale killing. These mechanisms are, commercial exploitation, harms mitigation (known as ATCWs in Victoria), unprotection of protected species, secretive killing regimes (Koalas in Victoria for example) and ‘recreation’.

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In 2025 the New South Wales Government targeted 3,206,342 protected Australian wildlife, with the actual kill at 1,120,204. The actual kill in 2024 was estimated to be 970,000, so an increase of the kill in 2025, when compared to 2024, of 150,204 protected Australian animals.

In 2025 the Victorian Government targeted 1,123,503 protected Australian wildlife, with the actual kill estimated to be slightly lower at 1,050,000 as we do not know the outcome of ATCW permits, the outcome from which is not recorded or tracked. The actual kill in 2024 was estimated to be 1,158,000, so a small decrease in the kill in 2025, when compared to 2024, of 108,000 protected Australian animals.

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The numbers in this analysis include an estimate for the death of joeys which are unaccounted for, particularly in the case of Macropod species. These estimates are based on the sex distribution of the kill recorded in government data.

This data does not include the animals hit by vehicles in each state, illegal killing often involving threatened or endangered species such as the Wedge-tailed Eagle, the extensive use of, including in National Parks, indiscriminate poisons, some dropped from helicopters using Kangaroo meat as the vector, the increasing use of planned burns, including the use of aerial incendiary capsules, which are a sphere-shaped vessel containing potassium permanganate, which when injected with mono-ethylene glycol undergoes an exothermic reaction resulting ignition. All this plus the extensive blocking of wildlife rescue attempts by government, particularly in Victoria, that means animals suffer and are likely to die slowly and without rescues and care. We should also remember that Australian species are highly valued around the world and threats from the illegal wildlife trade are likley to be extensive, particularly for insects reptile and bird species.

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It is likely that when all the data 2025 is finalised, a number close to 10 million protected native wildlife will have been targeted by state government behest schemes to kill protected Australian wildlife. In 2024 that number was approximately 9.1 million. A wide range of Australian species are involved in the mass killing.

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Note: One of the despicable and recent acts in Victoria was that the threatened duck species, the Hardhead, was delisted in 2024, so that it could be hunted on Victoria’s wetland systems in 2025, including Ramsar sites. The Hardhead was the only delisting in Victoria in that year, the claim being there was no evidence of decline. In 2025 around 5,000 Hardheads were shot for fun and recreation. The Hardhead was not on the recreational shooting list in South Australia and Tasmania where it remains protected and is a non-permitted species.

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