A Central Victorian wildlife group is worried kangaroo collisions are at record levels and is urging stronger wildlife planning in new housing developments.<\/p>\n
According to the latest RACV data, insurance claims relating to kangaroo hits are rising, with 2025 expected to reach record levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n
East Trentham wildlife shelter operator Manfred Zabinskas said he had seen an increase in collisions across central Victoria.<\/p>\n
“I would say that [it is] possibly twice as bad as we would normally see in my immediate area, where we have quite a few kangaroos living,” Mr Zabinskas said.<\/p>\n
He attributed the increase in collisions to drought across much of Victoria.<\/p>\n
“Kangaroo numbers haven’t particularly increased, but they’ve been driven to the roadsides in search of food,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately motorists haven’t changed their driving behaviour and the combination [is] very bad.”<\/p>\n
Hits keep getting bigger<\/p>\n
The latest figures from the RACV reveal kangaroo collision numbers have continued to rise.<\/p>\n
Between 2021 and June this year, RACV Insurance received more than 23,000 claims for kangaroo-related collisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last year, RACV recorded the highest number of claims with about 6,000.<\/p>\n
Another 3,600 claims had been lodged up to June this year, with another record year predicted by the organisation.<\/p>\n
Top 10 Victorian locations for kangaroo-related collisions<\/p>\n
Sunbury (234 claims)Heathcote (195)Wallan (192)Benalla (182)Bacchus Marsh (179)Bendigo (170)Ballarat (169)Gisborne (164)Woodend (160)Kyneton (156)<\/p>\n
Source: RACV<\/p>\n
RACV infrastructure and roadside general manager Bill Bloodworth said many of the claims had been made in Melbourne’s outer suburbs and peri-urban areas.<\/p>\n
“The Victorian government has done a survey on the kangaroo numbers and what they’ve seen is that the eastern grey kangaroo population has increased by roughly 18 per cent over the last couple of years, with 2.3 million kangaroos out there,” Mr Bloodworth said.<\/p>\n
The data was also skewed towards the outer-northern and western areas of Melbourne.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bill Bloodworth says kangaroo collision claims have risen.\u00a0 (Supplied: RACV)<\/p>\n
Mr Zabinskas said it was “no surprise” that the likes of Sunbury and Heathcote led the way, given the residential development in those areas.<\/p>\n
“Development is absolutely tragic for kangaroos,” Mr Zabinskas said.<\/p>\n
“We continue to have massive development projects where we’re getting new housing areas in industrial areas, moving remnants of land that kangaroos live in.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
RACV data shows kangaroo-related collisions are highest in the outer-north areas of Melbourne. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
Grass is greener<\/p>\n
Wildlife Victoria chief executive Lisa Palma said there was a direct correlation between urban development and the level of wildlife road trauma.<\/p>\n
“The northern fringe of Melbourne is particularly bad where we have a lot of housing estates getting built into habitat that kangaroos have lived in for many, many years,” she said.<\/p>\n
Ms Palma blamed the lack of wildlife planning that went into urban planning.<\/p>\n
“Developments are going up in areas that are known to be habitats for wildlife,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We should be ensuring that those developments in their planning incorporate considerations for the wildlife.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lisa Palma says wildlife road strikes have increased by 288 per cent in Victoria in the past decade (Supplied)<\/p>\n
The state government has been contacted for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wildlife collisions as a whole on the rise<\/p>\n
Wildlife Victoria said it had experienced its worst year on record for animal collisions.<\/p>\n
Ms Palma said more than 17,000 animals were hit by vehicles last year, and 14,000 animals had already been hit by vehicles this year to date.<\/p>\n
“We’ve seen wildlife road strikes increase by 288 per cent in the last decade,” Ms Palma said.<\/p>\n
“It is a very, very serious welfare issue for wildlife.”<\/p>\n
Mr Zabinskas said wildlife rescuers and carers were “absolutely overloaded” and “desperate for solutions” and help.<\/p>\n
A parliamentary inquiry into wildlife road-strike in Victoria is ongoing, with a final report to be presented by the end of November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Central Victorian wildlife group is worried kangaroo collisions are at record levels and is urging stronger wildlife…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,1154,53168,5701,74020,74021,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-102082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-crash","11":"tag-deaths","12":"tag-kangaroo","13":"tag-kangaroo-crash","14":"tag-record-highs","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}