Kangaroos
Kangaroos can be found in many areas of the Moreton Bay region, including our urban environments and are highly mobile with natural migration patterns through the landscape. A mob may show fidelity to areas with low threats and high habitat connectivity. Like all native wildlife, kangaroos are protected by the State Government’s Nature Conservation Act 1992 and it is an offence to kill or harm these animals.
Within urban environments, kangaroo populations can encounter additional challenges in comparison to their outback cousins. Theses urban challenges may include:
Habitat fragmentation
Where once large areas are broken up into smaller isolated pockets, reducing habitat connectivity. This reduces the kangaroo’s ability to move through areas easily and can lead to increased human interaction.
Vehicle strikes
Kangaroos move throughout the environment, particularly between dusk and dawn. Vehicle strikes can cause serious injury or death to the kangaroos and damage to vehicles.
Domestic animal attacks
Direct bites from domestic animals and associated injuries from trying to avoid or escape from a perceived threat (dropped or injured joeys).
What is Council doing?
Council’s Green Infrastructure Network Delivery Program is proactive in the managing of road safety for motorists and wildlife by constructing and installing wildlife movement infrastructure to re-establish ecological linkages unavoidably severed by roads.
This includes:
- construction of fauna underpasses to facilitate safe movement of kangaroos and wallabies
- roadside exclusion fencing to mitigate traffic strikes
- wildlife road pavement stencils to warn drivers of areas of high wildlife crossings.
This infrastructure aims to:
- reduce the risk of wildlife entering the road corridor
- improve public safety by reducing driver distraction and collisions between wildlife and motorists
- provide safe passage for wildlife across our major roads
- deliver positive conservation outcomes.
Simultaneously strategic habitat restoration projects are being undertaken throughout the region. These projects ensure that valuable habitat is being restored and maintained to ensure fauna continues to co-exist in both urban and rural environments.
How to live with kangaroos
Perceived threats to individual kangaroos and/or their mobs may trigger defensive behaviours. To ensure your safety and the safety of your local mob, here are some tips below:
- observe kangaroos from a safe distance
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be respectful of kangaroos and please don’t approach or touch kangaroos
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slow down and take care on our roads, especially between dusk and dawn
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keep dogs restrained and on a lead when kangaroos are nearby
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please report sick or injured kangaroos to the RSPCA, on
1300 ANIMAL.
Kangaroos are wild animals and should not be fed by humans, as this may cause the kangaroos to:
- approach humans for food, potentially endangering themselves
- become dependent on humans for food
- become aggressive towards humans when they are hungry
- succumb to nutritional deficiencies when fed human food.
Help keep our wildlife wild by not feeding kangaroos. Council actively discourages the feeding of kangaroos, for the reasons listed above. If you are concerned about someone feeding kangaroos on Council land,
contact Council.
What can residents do?
Council also facilitates Voluntary conservation programs including Land for Wildlife. These programs encourage the protection of native plants and animals on private land, to restore and improve wildlife habitat, including advice and grant opportunities.
Dogs should be kept on a lead and only permitted off lead in the designated areas. For more information refer to dog parks and beaches in Moreton Bay Region.