Authorities in Australia are searching for a driver who ran down and killed 17 kangaroos along a stretch of road where the creatures are known to feed at night.

The carcasses were found along a 330-foot stretch of road on the outskirts of Brisbane. Sixteen were dead but one was still alive and had to be killed.

“They’ve definitely been deliberately run over,” said Michael Beatty, a spokesman for the RSPCA. “You can quite clearly see the tyre tracks where they’ve gone off the road to hit them.”

The RSPCA, which has the power to investigate and to initiate prosecutions, is investigating the slaughter and is appealing for any witnesses to come forward.

The driver is believed to have had a bull bar, or front grill, and is likely to have been in a four-wheel drive. “They would have had a bull bar – otherwise they would not have any car left,” Mr Beatty told The Telegraph.

“You can clearly see the tyre marks where the person has driven from the left side of the road to the embankment on the road and killed five or six [kangaroos] and then done the same thing 30 yards later.”

    

The area is known for its large kangaroo population – estimated at about 3,000. At night, the kangaroos tend to feed on the rich grass along the sides of the road, which connects a men’s and women’s prison.

“You can get hundreds of them at night, searching for the green pick [feed] on the edge of the road,” Mr Beatty said.

The incident comes just days after two teenagers in Brisbane were charged after allegedly torturing a possum, including running it over until its entrails were hanging out and then posting footage of the incident on social media.

The offending driver could face charges of animal cruelty and unlawfully killing an animal.