SYDNEY, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Environmental authorities in Australia's capital are bracing for a spike in the number of road collisions involving kangaroos this year with cyclists particularly at risk, amid dry weather that is drawing the marsupials out of their bushland habitat, local media reported on Sunday.
About 2,500 kangaroo collisions are reported in an average year in Canberra, but cases have already surpassed 3,000 this year and are set toward 5,000, the ABC News channel cited parks and conservation services as projecting.
"We have trouble even protecting busy roads," park ranger Mark Sweaney was quoted as saying, adding that the kangaroo population has jumped in the past two decades.
The capital's Stromlo district alone is known to host a large kangaroo population as well as many cycling residents, with competitive cyclists training at an area surrounded by lush grazing grounds for the marsupials.
The iconic Australian animals are found in the wild throughout the country, with many venturing near urban areas and development and ending up as roadkill.
In June, a driver was seriously injured in a road accident that hurled a kangaroo into the windscreen of his vehicle near Lithgow city in New South Wales state.
