Yegor Malashichev, an evolutionary biologist at Saint Petersburg State University, studied handedness in animals for more than a decade before travelling to Australia to study kangaroos in the wild.

While previous studies have been examined on kangaroos in captivity, none has been able to produce conclusive evidence.

"The more we observed the more it became obvious that there was something really new and interesting in the wild," Dr Malashichev said.

"We observed a remarkable consistency in responses across bipedal species in that they all prefer to use the left, not the right hand."

Dr Malashichev and his team discovered kangaroos routinely used their left paws to perform particular tasks such as grooming, picking leaves, or bending branches.

His report, published in the Current Biology journal, found left-handedness was especially apparent in the larger eastern grey and red kangaroos.

"One reason true handedness wasn't expected in kangaroos or other marsupials for that matter is because unlike other mammals they lack the same neural circuit that bridges left and right hemispheres of the brain," Dr Malashichev said.

But the study found red-necked wallabies commonly found in dense vegetation on the outskirts of Canberra used different paws for different duties, unlike other larger kangaroos.

"The left forelimb is preferred by red-necked wallabies in tasks that involve fine manipulation, whereas the right forelimb is preferentially used in static tasks that require physical strength," the report said.

"The emergence of differential roles for left and right forelimbs may be associated with the need to perform distinct manual tasks during bimanual feeding."

The report comes as the ACT government carries out an annual cull of eastern grey kangaroos on eight Canberra reserves to prevent overgrazing and protect sensitive flora.

After more than a decade of escalating protests, the government is halfway through killing about 2466 kangaroos by August.

The annual cull, which was to begin in May, was delayed after animal rights activists mounted a legal challenge in the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal for the second successive year.