By Audrey Courty for ABC's Heywire
Andi regularly joins her father on kangaroo hunts in Narrogin, Western Australia. Photo: Supplied / ABC
Warning: This story contains images of dead and starving kangaroos.
Andi cares so much about her environment that she thinks kangaroos should be shot before they starve to death - and many ecologists agree it should be made a priority.
Just a head taller than the rifle in her hands, Andi acknowledges the legal shooting of Australia's national icon may be confronting for some.
But the 16-year-old who regularly joins her father on kangaroo hunts in Narrogin, Western Australia, is unfazed.
"We're helping the animals out, as well as providing for farmers and the environment," she said.
Andi wants to raise awareness about the importance of controlling kangaroo populations. Photo: Supplied / ABC
"Some people just don't understand the impact kangaroos are having on the country."
Since the 1990s, there's been extensive scientific research that suggests some species of kangaroos have become so plentiful they threaten the biodiversity of the land due to overgrazing.
Wildlife scientist Dr George Wilson said regular culls are necessary to protect vegetation and other native animals, as well as the animal welfare of the kangaroos themselves.
Drawing on decades of expertise in kangaroo ecology, he said some species have grown beyond the capacity of their environment to sustain them due to human-induced changes.
"For example, their numbers built up and up, and they were starting to damage the actual value of the Canberra Nature Park itself," he said.
Graeme Coulson said man-made changes to the landscape have led to unsustainable kangaroo populations. Photo: ABC News / Andrew Messenger
Then, when competition for resources increases, Wilson said their populations plummet, particularly during droughts.
That's what happened from 2017 to 2021 when about 13 million kangaroos died largely due to starvation, according to figures he collated at the Australian National University.
Wilson said it's only a matter of time before it happens again.
"The numbers [of kangaroos] are going up really rapidly at the moment, and we're headed for another big crash at the next drought."
He's among a group of ecologists from around Australia who are calling for urgent reforms to restore ecological balance before it's too late.
George Wilson said culling is necessary to protect the welfare of kangaroos. Photo: Supplied / ABC / Reece Pedler
Among them is the push to strengthen the commercial harvesting of kangaroos by treating them as a "sustainable resource" and setting clear population thresholds for different areas they roam.
While the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) recognises the need to be more proactive in managing kangaroos, some activist groups strongly condemn culling as profit-driven and "barbaric".
In a bid to raise awareness about what Andi said is a misunderstood practice, she has written a letter to Canberra politicians calling for the overpopulation of kangaroos to be addressed.
How many kangaroos are there?
These animals are notoriously difficult to count because of the vast areas they roam, but it's important to monitor their welfare and set sustainable quotas to cull them.
Every year, trained observers conduct aerial and ground surveys in the six states where commercial harvesting takes place: New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania.
According to the latest government estimates using these surveys and statistical modelling, there are currently over 32 million kangaroos in Australia.
The harvesting quota in 2023 was set at nearly 4.8m, but the actual intake was about 1.2m - that's just over 3.7 percent of the national population.
Grazing watering points are as popular for stock as they are to local kangaroo populations. Photo: Supplied / ABC / Tracey Walker
Since counting began more than 40 years ago, it's generally accepted among wildlife scientists and state governments that kangaroo populations go through "boom-and-bust" cycles.
This means when the weather is right and resources are plentiful, kangaroos breed very effectively. But when droughts hit and competition for food increases, females stop breeding and many die of starvation.
What's driving these fluctuations?
According to Associate Professor Graeme Coulson, a leading expert in kangaroo ecology, this "boom-and-bust" cycle is the outcome of man-made changes to Australia's landscape.
That's why the researcher from the University of Melbourne said "letting nature take its course" is not an option.
Government estimates suggest there are over 32 million kangaroos in Australia. Photo: ABC News / Niall Lenihan
"Taking our hands off is just abdicating responsibility because we've created this situation," he said, citing fewer dingoes and the greater availability of pasture.
"We've improved the quality of crops so they're more nutritious, and we've provided artificial watering points almost everywhere across the continent.
"So even if we brought the predators back, it may not be enough to suppress the kangaroos because they've got this ground-up benefit from what we've done to the land."
But some animal welfare groups see culling as pure slaughter and a "ludicrous" solution to conserving an animal that has evolved over 25 million years.
"'Overabundant' populations is the excuse government and industry use to justify the mass extermination of kangaroos for profit or convenience," said Alyssa Wormald.
She's the president of the Victorian Kangaroo Alliance, which emerged out of two successful campaigns to prevent the shooting of kangaroo mobs on private lands.
"We value kangaroo lives and respect their inherent right to live freely on this land which has been their home for many millions of years."
Wormald questions the notion there can be "too many" kangaroos, pointing to a NSW Parliamentary inquiry in 2021 that heard a range of views on the matter.
Ultimately, the inquiry found the NSW government's methodology "lacked transparency," but it stopped short of making an evaluative judgement on the estimates.
Instead, it recommended an independent panel of ecologists examine the survey methods and scientific evidence for assumptions used in the modelling.
In 2023, that panel found the NSW kangaroo management programme to be "very thorough" in its approach overall.
"[It] has employed the most up-to-date and robust methods for population abundance estimation," the report said.
Can killing kangaroos be 'humane'?
For Andi, who's practised shooting since she was six, professional culling is more "humane" than letting them suffer through prolonged starvation.
Andi has practised shooting with her dad since the age of six. Photo: Supplied
The animal charity RSPCA also describes the practice as "relatively humane, compared to other methods" when it's undertaken by a "licensed and competent shooter".
It's an ethical distinction that Andi makes as well.
"A lot of shooters aren't commercial," she said.
"They just drop-and-rot, which I do not agree with at all. It seems so unfair to me."
Andi is referring to kills that take place when kangaroos on private property or agricultural land are shot by owners and then left to rot on the ground.
"They're known for not shooting them right," she said.
"When we shoot, we make sure every roo has every opportunity to get away."
Activists say the decapitation or bludgeoning of joeys is unacceptable. Photo: Supplied / ABC / Lorinda Taylor
"That means we can't corner them or chase them. Then it has to be a headshot for the most humane kill."
Under the National Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos and Wallabies for Commercial Purposes, shooters must undergo an accuracy test to ensure the animals' "instantaneous loss of consciousness".
The test involves shooting five rounds into a 75mm circle from 100m away.
"You've got to be able to do that at night time, under a spotlight, while sitting in the stationary vehicle you're shooting from," Andi said.
She helps her dad tag every kangaroo he shoots as part of regulations to keep track of how many are killed commercially.
Andi then uses bone choppers that look like large scissors to cut off their tails and hind legs before the bodies are sent for processing at a pet food facility.
She said it's important to her that no part of the animal is wasted after it has been killed.
"We turn what's left over into mince for ourselves and use the tails for stews - which our neighbours like to steal off us."
The "high-precision shooting" and "sustainable use" of the dead kangaroos are some of the reasons why Wilson is pushing for higher commercial quotas.
He said commercialisation also motivates shooters to not kill an entire mob, leaving some kangaroos to survive so that they can continue to profit.
"The professional shooters have a vested interest in keeping females alive," he said.
"It's like graziers who harvest the males and preserve the cows because that's the next line of production for them."
But according to Mick McIntyre, who started the campaign group Kangaroos Alive to end the wildlife trade, there are frequent regulation breaches under this "barbaric" practice.
"There's no monitoring at the point of kill, so there's no way of proving the animal has died humanely," he said.
"The animal has lost its head at [the first vertebrae] before it gets to the slaughterhouse, which means inspectors can't see where the bullet hit that animal.
"If it was hit anywhere on the body, shooters just leave the body in the paddock."
The former filmmaker also considers the killing of joeys and the risk of orphaning young at-foot to be "unacceptable".
According to the National Code, unfurred pouch young must be decapitated, while partially furred and fully furred pouch young should receive a "concussive blow to the head".
The 2021 NSW Parliamentary inquiry heard it wasn't known how many died this way because the NSW government didn't collect data on the number of joeys killed as part of the commercial industry.
The inquiry ultimately found there was "a lack of monitoring and regulation at the point-of-kill," recommending the NSW government improve the rigour of its compliance processes.
With sportswear brands like Nike and Puma phasing out kangaroo leather, activists say it's time to find a better way.
"We refuse to believe that killing them en masse, particularly for profit, is the best that we can muster," Wormald said.
"When killing is no longer considered an acceptable option, we know other solutions will be found because we have the resources and ingenuity to do better."
Is there a non-lethal alternative?
Researchers have been exploring other methods of population control for years, but they say they don't work on a large scale.
For example, Coulson said the use of fertility treatments is most effective on mobs in smaller areas, like in the Australian Capital Territory.
The contraceptive drug GonaDon is injected into kangaroos via darts. Photo: ABC News / Emma Thompson
"We have to catch each female, implant her with a contraceptive, put tags in her ears so we know she's been treated, and then release her," he said.
"It's been quite successful but it's very intensive work and you simply can't scale that up."
Coulson said the territory has also been exploring injecting the fertility drug through a dart but it has only allowed for minimal scaling up.
Meanwhile, translocation experiments in both Victoria and WA resulted in high mortality rates because the kangaroos were unfamiliar with their new environment.
"It's very labour intensive, you have to catch each kangaroo," Coulson said.
"We then transported them to very nice reserves that had other kangaroos that looked really good to us.
"Half of [those in Victoria] died in the first year, and the other half moved, with some returning to where they originally came from."
According to McIntyre, the best thing humans could do is learn to co-exist with kangaroos and let them regulate themselves.
"We are not afraid of natural selection. It's been going on for millions of years," he said.
But for Andi who bears witness to man and animal colliding in rural Australia, it's not so simple.
"Limiting commercial culling will lead to overgrazing that threatens our biodiversity and farmers," she writes in her letter to Canberra politicians.
"It will also increase non-commercial culling by landholders that want to stop kangaroos from competing with livestock and destroying crops.
"Kangaroos will suffer as they will not be killed humanely."
