The ACT will reduce its controversial culling of kangaroos by using contraceptives to slow the animals' population growth.
The decision will make the ACT the first Australian jurisdiction to rely on fertility treatments to cut kangaroo numbers.
However, targeted shootings will continue across Canberra's nature parks — in fact, about 1,500 animals are expected to be killed this way this winter, the same number as last year.
The ACT government says the $300,000 a year program offers a more humane approach to managing the ecological effects of overgrazing than shooting the animals.
Kangaroo mobs in the city's suburban fringes have been culled on a regular basis for about 15 years.
While government surveys show most residents support the killings as a way to protect endangered habitats, the shootings have attracted protests from animal welfare advocates.
The ACT has trialled kangaroo contraception since 2015. It involves injecting adult female roos with the drug GonaCon, by firing loaded darts at the animals.
Environment Minister Rebecca said GonaCon was long-lasting, and the trials had seen about 80 per cent of female kangaroos remaining infertile five years after their injection.
She hoped wider use of the drug would reduce the need to kill the animals.
"In terms of kangaroo management, this is not a 'set and forget'," Ms Vassarotti said.
"As we do proactive kangaroo management, we hope to see a reduction in the need to use lethal methods of kangaroo management."
ACT now Australia's 'most humane jurisdiction'
In earlier years, the ACT government had resisted calls to use fertility treatments to cut kangaroo numbers, citing poor effectiveness and much higher costs.
However, Ms Vassarotti said Canberrans should be proud of the shift to "the most humane kangaroo management in Australia".
"We really are at the forefront and, as the first jurisdiction that's rolling this out as a standard method, I think it's something we should be really proud of as a Canberra community," she said.
The government had hoped that contraceptives could largely replace conservation culling, but it confirmed GonaCon would be used alongside traditional population-control methods such as shootings.
The ACT Conservator of Flora and Fauna, Ian Walker, said it cutting Canberra's kangaroo numbers was necessary because of their significant impact on the local environment.
"[It's] not about the kangaroos but about the grassy ecosystems and grassy woodlands," Mr Walker said.
"Those grassy ecosystems are threatened across the country, so looking after those areas is critically important as we don't want them to be overgrazed.
Animal rights activists argue interventions are unnecessary
Yet while the government labels its policy as more humane, some Canberrans say kangaroo populations should be left to manage themselves.
Animal Liberation ACT spokesperson Carolyn Drew said the animals were able to control their own birth rates through a variety of means, none of which required human intervention.
"Their physiology means that they only have young when the environment is at its best."
She said few baby kangaroos survived their infancy. They are about size of a jellybean at birth, and must crawl up their mother's body to reach the pouch.
"Many fall off because the kangaroo only has to move a little bit and the baby falls on the ground, and there's no way that the mother can rescue the baby at that point," Ms Drew said.
"The in-pouch joeys themselves have a 70 to 80 per cent mortality rate, so kangaroo numbers are not what people think."
Ms Drew said the latest decision was disappointing as she had spent significant time arguing against population management of any kind.
"We don't support it, and we will do everything in our power to bring it to an end, as well as the actual annual killing that they'll continue with regardless."
