Drought conditions could be behind recent sightings of white kangaroos in western New South Wales and South Australia. The ABC reports that the rare ‘roos have been spotted in several areas across the states including Wanaaring, Kinchega National Park, Yunta and Mount Kaputar.
According to South Australian Department of Environment senior ecologist Rob Brandle, white kangaroos were usually a rare sight because they faced more challenges to their survival.
“Albinos often get picked off from a fairly young age by predators,” he said. “Also a lack of pigment in their eyes puts them at a big disadvantage in terms of just general survival in the wild.”
The rare condition is caused by either albinism — a genetic mutation causing total lack of pigmentation to the hair, eyes and skin — or leucism, a fault in the pigment cells that may cause white fur, but usually the skin and eyes are unaffected.
The increase in white kangaroos may also be due to an explosion in the general kangaroo population south of the dog fence. University of Adelaide marsupial ecology research fellow David Taggart said a lack of predators had seen kangaroo numbers grow exponentially south of the dog fence.
“Over a lengthy period of time we’ve pushed our top order predator here on the mainland up over the dog fence, and by doing that we’ve upset the balance a bit,” he said.
The ABC report suggests that as the drought worsens across the country, many animals are moving closer to human habitation in search of food and water.
“Being drier at the moment some of the kangaroos might be more be more inclined to come in close to settled areas and so people might be observing more (white kangaroos),” he said.
Ben Strong, from the Wanaaring store and caravan park, shared an image of a white kangaroo in his area and said he was surprised at the response from other parts of the state.
“Any time I put a post on Facebook, people say they’ve seen them in other areas and they post their pictures,” he said.
Mr Strong also said their local white roo was getting some unusual treatment at a time when kangaroos were being seen as a pest by many landholders.
“The property owner never thought she’d resort to feeding a kangaroo, but this one she thought was pretty special so she’s been giving it a bit of tucker,” he said.
