Rearing Young Eastern Grey Kangaroos

For more detail please refer to Section 4.4.5 in the ACT Kangaroo Management Plan

The ACT does not issue licences for the hand-rearing of young eastern grey kangaroos. Issues considered in this decision include:

• Eastern grey kangaroos are unsuitable as pets on human safety and animal welfare grounds, due to their adult size, high mobility and potential for injury to themselves or people in the suburban environment.
• Hand-rearing for release is not supported on conservation grounds, as the eastern grey kangaroo is an abundant species of which many thousands are culled and/or commercially harvested in the ACT and region annually.
• Hand-rearing of eastern grey kangaroos can lead to future management problems. Hand-reared kangaroos become overly familiar with humans and later may display aggression towards humans. This is especially true of male kangaroos. This can create problems if animals are released where they are likely to have contact with humans, especially children.
• In captivity, eastern grey kangaroos are a nervous excitable species as adults and are difficult to hand-rear.
• If released, hand-reared animals have a much higher death rate than naturally reared animals. For example, they often fall prey to predators as they have not learnt an appropriate recognition and flight response from potential predators such as dogs and foxes.
• The release of captive-reared animals may impact on existing resident populations.

Refer to the ACT Kangaroo Management Plan for more detail on the issues summarised above. The Plan contains references to hundreds of scientific publications underlying its policies and a helpful glossary of terms.