The calculation of kangaroo industry worth does not include the value it continues to deliver to the pastoral sector in decreasing the competition for available feed between sheep and kangaroos. For example a recent project has estimated that in the mulga lands a long term harvest at maximum sustainable yield (about 10% of population) may increase wool yields per head by as much as 25% (Hacker et al 2000). Nor does it include a value for maintenance of environmental values. The kangaroo harvest is the only tool available to control the kangaroo component of Total Grazing Pressure (TGP), a critical management index in the arid rangelands. Too high a TGP can quickly lead to biodiversity loss, for example kangaroo culling programs in Hattah-Kulkyne National Park have demonstrated increased abundance of many rare and threatened plant species in areas where kangaroo numbers have been reduced from very high levels (Sluiter et al 1997).

With annual harvests exceeding 3 million animals per year the kangaroo industry is probably the largest land based consumptive wildlife industry in the world.

This is where many people start to feel uncomfortable. 3 million roos per year, is that possibly sustainable?

However if we look at the historical data we can quickly see that we have been harvesting at these levels for the last 20 years with no apparent impact on the population.

National harvest & estimated national population of kangaroos 1981 - 1997 (Pople, Grigg 1999)

The total population fluctuates between 20-35 million, this makes kangaroos amongst the most common large wild land mammals on earth. This in spite of 30 years of intensive harvest.