Government seeks to kill kangaroos

Australia's Defense Department said it wanted to hire professional shooters to kill more than 3,000 kangaroos on the fringes of the capital, noting that their growing population was eating through the grassy habitats of endangered species.

Animal rights activists decried the proposal.

The department said the 6,500 kangaroos at two sites outside Canberra were destroying the habitat of the grassland earless dragon, striped legless lizard and golden sun moth.