Why do kangaroo's get hunted?

Answer 1

It is illegal to hunt kangaroos without a licence, for a start. Kangaroos are ONLY legally hunted at night, and if the conditions are windy, wet or bright moonlight especially, it is difficult to get kangaroos to settle enough to make the required clean head-shot.

Kangaroos are difficult for non-indigenous Australians to hunt because they have an erratic movement. As they bound up and down, and can quickly change direction, this makes it more difficult to predict their future movements, and to aim a weapon accurately.

Answer 2

Kangaroos are dangerous because they are extremely strong and have sharp claws on their hind feet..

It is important to note that kangaroos are generally not at all dangerous. They prefer to avoid human contact. However, kangaroos are animals. Animals are largely unpredictable. Kangaroos, like all other animals, have natural means for defending themselves; for a kangaroo two of these defensive features are its large tail and oversized rear legs. Consider what an animal that can move as fast as a kangaroo could do with those legs if it should feel threatened.

There have actually been instances where kangaroos have been known to turn and attack aggressively when threatened. In 2009, an Australian farmer reported that, when his dog chased a kangaroo found drinking from his dam, the kangaroo literally grabbed the dog and held it under water, trying to drown it. The farmer himself was badly scratched when he went out to rescue his dog (the dog survived).

More recently, a 94 year old woman was hanging out washing in her backyard in the small town of Charleville, western Queensland, when a big Red bounded out of the bush and attacked her without reason, causing her to be hospitalised.

There has been just one reported case of a kangaroo killing a person, and this occurred back in 1936.

Answer 3

Although it is hard to imagine, the kangaroo became endangered when indiscriminate hunting was permitted in the early half of the twentieth century. Laws have been enforced to protect Australia's national icon so that numbers do not reach critical lows, and so that Cruelty and abuse does not happen.

A special culling licence is required to hunt kangaroos, and this is only permitted for farmers or others whose livelihood is threatened by the presence of an overpopulation of kangaroos.

Answer 4

Mainly for their skin and sometimes even for eating!