SHOOTING kangaroos on the Joondalup Resort golf course was the last option, according to course superintendent Ashley Watson.
As reported in last week’s Times, Department of Environment and Conservation officials were called in earlier this year to cull kangaroos that were damaging the course.
Mr Watson said kangaroos had caused few problems until late last year.
“They started homing in on the greens, I don’t know why, but they started digging holes in the greens,” he said.
Mr Watson said several alternatives were tried, such as putting different fertilisers and other materials on the greens to deter the animals, but nothing worked.
“One or two holes are not too bad but they were leaving 60 or 70 holes per night, we tried a few different products but nothing worked and the greens were becoming unplayable,” he said.
Originally, kangaroos were not suspected and it was only after course staff stayed overnight to monitor the greens that the cause of the damage was discovered.
Licensed DEC officers shot 13 kangaroos that were seen damaging the course in August and September, and Mr Watson said there had been almost no damage since then.
Wildlife activist Kim Walpole, who rehabilitates orphaned and injured kangaroos, was angered when she learned of the cull and said there were non-lethal methods available that were not considered by the DEC.
Ms Walpole called for a better kangaroo management policy, such as that in place for Victoria’s Anglesea region where kangaroos co-existed with the community.
She also called for the introduction of non-lethal methods of dealing with adult and baby kangaroos after learning that one female with furless pouched young were killed in the cull.
DEC officers must euthanase pouched young if the mother is shot and the prescribed method is “a single forceful blow to the base of the skull.”
A cull was last carried out at Joondalup Resort in 2007 but Mr Watson said local dogs were now more a threat to the animals than over-population.