As the annual fight between the ACT government and animal rights campaigners over kangaroo culling is played out, historical data shows the local population of eastern greys has a habit of bouncing back.
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This week, the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal ordered a temporary stay to culling operations, after Animal Liberation ACT and the Victorian-based Australian Society for Kangaroos launched legal action.
The government had planned to cull nearly 1500 from seven ACT reserves this week and advised it had so far spent $7000 this financial year in the legal stoush.
According to data released to Fairfax Media by the ACT government, staff counted 180 kangaroos at the Callum Brae Nature Reserve near Narrabundah in 2008, and culled 140 of them.
But the next year, nearly 290 kangaroos were counted on the 140 hectare area and 200 shot.
By 2011, their numbers had jumped again, with 420 kangaroos at the reserve, more than half of which were killed, and last year their number had rebounded to 240.
Outside roo enclosures at Goorooyarroo Nature Reserve near Gungahlin, 800 kangaroos were shot in 2009, but their numbers in the area still increased by 800 the following year.
The ACT government said it was concerned not culling kangaroos would have a detrimental impact to endangered grassy ecosystems.
It was for that reason, not long-term forecasts of how kangaroo numbers would increase, that the culls went ahead.
But animal rights campaigners say people have come to the ACT from Victoria, far north Queensland, South Australia and NSW to help stop the killing this year.
The government announced it would reopen Callum Brae Nature Reserve, Goorooyarroo Nature Reserve, Kama Nature Reserve, Mulanggari Nature Reserve, Mt Painter Nature Reserve, Mulligans Flat Nature Reserve, The Pinnacle Nature Reserve to the public, and close them if the cull proceeded.
