Kangaroo survey takes to the sky
South Australia’s southern kangaroo populations will be surveyed with a light aircraft taking to the sky for the second part of the state-wide kangaroo survey for this year.
Department for Environment and Water (DEW) staff will undertake the aerial survey beginning Monday 6 September and continue until Wednesday 8 September to estimate kangaroo populations across Kangaroo Island.
During this time, a Cessna 206 will fly east-west survey transects at a low level across parts of the State.
DEW Senior Kangaroo Ecologist, Dr Amanda McLean, said that this is the second part of the state-wide kangaroo survey for the year, with the first part focusing on the pastoral region of South Australia.
“The survey allows the Department to determine kangaroo response to the recent drought over the pastoral land as well as in the wetter agricultural areas.
“Since the expansion of the commercial kangaroo harvest area into the southern parts of the state, the survey is now split into two sections to avoid the rainy and windy conditions during June and July in the south”, Dr McLean said.
DEW supplements the aerial survey with predictive population models to determine kangaroo harvest quotas for the five harvest regions across the State.
This is the second year that the Southern Agricultural Harvest Region has been opened for commercial kangaroo harvesting with the expansion already considered a success.
More information about kangaroo management can be found at https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/topics/plants-and-animals/Abundant_species/kangaroo-conservation-and-management
