Locals said they came across decapitated animals and pools of blood on daytime walks, and listen to gunshots ring out during the night.

Residents also said they are concerned for human safety, worried shooters are coming close to homes.

However, the environment directorate strongly contends that the images of decapitated animals taken by residents are not the result of shooting and are almost certainly the work of foxes or dogs.

The directorate also says that culled animals are removed from the area each night and efforts made to remove visual evidence of shooting such as blood.

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Hughes resident Dr Gwenda Griffiths said she had heard gunshots nearly every night for five weeks.

"It's really eerie, it's pitch dark and then you just hear a shot," she said.

"And then you'll just hear another shot. It sets the dogs off, all the dogs are barking.

"You know that that shot was either killing or wounding a kangaroo. And then it's silence again."

The directorate says silencers are used to mute the sound of gunshots.

The ACT government culling program started in May this year, with a plan to eliminate about 1650 eastern grey kangaroos.

The environment directorate said it is the first time culling has occurred in the Red Hill Nature Reserve and is due to an unsustainable number of roos.

The reserve is closed from 6pm on Sunday to Thursday until 7am the following morning.

The government estimates that keeping approximately one kangaroo per hectare in grassland is likely to maintain an environment conducive to protecting threatened species such as the Striped Legless Lizard and Grassland Earless Dragon.

They said they calculate culling targets based on kangaroo populations.

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Dr Griffiths believed most locals did not support the culling.

"We see large pools of blood, we see the skins of kangaroos, trails of blood with claw marks. I myself have found a whole kangaroo that had been shot," she said.

"I think it's really affected, very adversely, a lot of the mental health of people that live on the hill.

"You wake up in the morning, and you think, 'I wonder how many roos they've shot last night?'"

Deakin resident Brian Tunks said areas of the nature reserve had turned into "the killing fields of an evening between 6pm and 6am".

"[We] put water out for native animals during the drought [and then] they just shoot them," he said.

Mr Tunks said he was concerned about the proximity of the shootings to residential areas, suggesting that although the reserve was closed, people would still walk around at night.

"I find it distressing, the whole fact that there's potentially people up there in the evening on quad bikes with guns basically adjacent to an urban area," he said.

"I'm deeply concerned that this sort of brutal, barbaric practice is happening so close to residents in an area where I don't think it's necessary."

However, an ACT government spokesperson said "the conservation cull is only conducted at night when the reserve is formally closed to the public".

"Warning signs are placed at all entry points to the reserves, surveillance cameras are used, and reserves are patrolled by Parks and Conservation Service staff during operations to maximise safety to the public," they said.

They have also insisted that shooting the animals is best for animal welfare, preventing kangaroos from starving during drought.

An ACT government spokesperson said: "Shooting is recognised by the Commonwealth, state and territory governments and RSPCA Australia as the most humane method of culling."

"The ACT is the only jurisdiction to employ a restricted window of May to July to mitigate the impact of the cull on joeys at foot."

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Dr Griffiths said people who regularly walk through the reserve feel personally connected to different kangaroo mobs.

"On all sides of the hill people are looking for [the kangaroos] and not seeing them. They've really effectively annihilated them on the hillside," she said.

Mr Tunks said residents had not been told why culling on the reserve was necessary, and that signage was the only communication they received.

"I'm deeply concerned about the accountability of all this. They do it in the middle of winter when it's dark and uninviting. They don't want people to see," he said.

"I worry as a community that we allow this to happen without really having full knowledge of why and the justification and the safety protocols put in place."

A government spokesperson said "[the] program has undergone several external reviews and is considered to be an industry leader in its professionalism and attention to animal welfare".

They said further details on how many kangaroos had been culled this season would be available after July 31.

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