MANY motorists will tell you that it hitting a kangaroo is a frightening experience, but a quick glance over the repair bill can be just as shocking.Drought conditions have forced kangaroo populations to head south, resulting in a spike in the number of marsupials hit by south-west motorists over the past year.Cooper's Smash and Repair manager Scott Cooper said there were several locations across the region where kangaroo collisions had taken place."A week doesn't go by where we don't have at least one car come in that's been damaged by a kangaroo," he said."The gas plant construction around Mortlake means there's been a few that have made their way out onto the roads. But we've had cars come in that have been smashed at Tower Hill and down around Nullawarre."Bushland, farmland, even along the coast, it doesn't matter. Crashes with kangaroos can happen in most open spaces."Mr Cooper said he believed drought-affected farmland had forced kangaroos onto the region's roadsides in search of green fodder."Feed is a lot more plentiful along the roadside compared to the paddocks, so there's probably not any more kangaroos about, just the fact that they're closer to the roads," he said."Grain trucks around the Horsham area drop feed from their trailers and apparently that has attracted kangaroos to the roadsides as well."The cost of repairing vehicles damaged by kangaroos varied, but the price tag usually fell between the $2000 and $6000 mark.Department of Sustainability and Environment senior biodiversity officer Mandy Watson said drought and bushfires had displaced many kangaroos, wallabies and koalas, resulting in more wildlife in areas outside their usual habitats."An increase in kangaroo populations in the area is unlikely given the drought, but it is possible that drought has caused an increase in the movement of these animals, searching for food," she said."The DSE advises drivers to reduce dusk or night travel, or if travel at that time is unavoidable, to reduce speed."