SA drought seeing some towns ‘invaded’ by hungry and thirsty native animals

Published: June 13, 2025

The record-low rainfall in South Australia’s south has seen some properties and towns ‘invaded’ by native animals in search of food and water.

In Whyalla, for example, there has been an influx of emus and kangaroos … and experts are warning residents not to feed, or leave water out, for them.

Whyalla Wildlife Rescue’s Cassandra Williams told the ABC it was likely the visiting emus were young and had recently struck out on their own.

“Putting food and water out definitely encourages them to stay,” she said. “Essentially, they become used to being around humans, which then puts them at risk, which then causes more complications due to traffic, destroying private properties, and can be a hindrance with other animals.”

Ms Williams also warned that tap water was not suitable for wildlife.

“Their bodies can’t deal with the chemicals that are in our tap water,” she said. “They can actually become ill.”

She told the ABC that animals that migrated towards towns were not forcibly relocated if they were healthy.

“Relocating them is not an advisable thing,” she said. “It causes a great deal of stress to the animal if we have to basically corner it to catch it and then remove it.”

Ms Williams said the animals would eventually move on if they were left alone.

Northern and Yorke Landscape Board general manager Tony Fox told the ABC that animals such as kangaroos moving onto properties had exacerbated the problems facing farmers.

“We’ve got a really compounding problem here,” Mr Fox said. “Not only are the kangaroos struggling now to find feed, but they’re actually removing ground cover in many parts of the landscape … we’re now more prone to dust, erosion and removal of topsoil.”

  • Have you ever been surprised by a native animal invading you campsite? Comment below.

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Brenton Wade
25 days ago

If the water is no good for the animals, why do we give it to our pets and drink it ourselves. Sounds like BS

Stew
25 days ago

I would always offer a drink the a thirsty animal as I do with the bird bath in the garden.

Tom Sjolund
25 days ago

The root cause is obviously Climate Change. It is weird that SA should be hit with this drought when the SA is bordering on being 100% renewable power. It just shows you that Climate Change cares little about borders, when we export our coal and gas overseas to be burnt it comes back to us as drought, wildfires and floods.
All of which Australia has experienced to the extreme in the last few decades and it’s get worse.

Alan
23 days ago
Reply to  Tom Sjolund

What a load of rubbish, you are brainwashed by the socialist media

eric
24 days ago

Oh man, I hope we don’t go to war with them again, we lost the last time, didn’t we… do you think we have learnt from our mistakes?

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