That’s a very sad end for the man who hand-reared this kangaroo from a baby - and rare for an attack to be fatal, according to the article.
How sad that such a fate should befall the man who had saved the kangaroo’s life by caring for it when it was an injured young joey.
I can understand folk wanting to help a kangaroo that is too young to survive on its own and I suppose sometimes the animal may become too dependent on humans to survive in the wild - but keeping a wild animal as a pet is not an ideal outcome.
Is it possible to hand-rear an orphan joey in a way they can survive if released into the wild when they reach teenage/adulthood?
Would you be allowed to release a kangaroo into the wild?
I am not sure what the Legislation is in Australia about managing kangaroo populations.
Do they have legislation about culling / controlling populations of some species of kangaroos?
I think we are getting too soft, animals are good for eating, not treating as part of the family. Bears. lions, crocodiles etc would eat you without a second thought.
All native animals are protected however if the population in a particular area get too large then a cull is organised. There are licenced shooters who carry out culls.
I think there are over 500million kangaroo and I vaguely remember reading that something like 100 million were culled over the last 25 years.
Kangaroo meat is always available in the supermarket, I like it very much.
As far as I know rescued animals are released into the wild if that is possible
I think it depends on the animal & maybe what it learned in its early weeks. All animals were wild once, even dogs and cats but, if you show an animal kindness, they usually become dependent on the person that feeds them. Some of the young animals, that people help and care for, were rightly taught by their parents to be afraid of humans so attack, which means that there is always a risk in looking after animals that are able to harm you.
Thanks for the info.
Reading that, it sounds like the best thing for folk to do if they come across an orphan joey is to seek advice from one of the wildlife rescue groups to make sure that the animal isn’t hand-reared in ways which reduce the likelihood of returning the animal to the wild when it is recovered in health or is mature enough to survive alone.
The downside of untrained folk adopting young wild animals to hand-rear is that they often don’t realise the importance of “animal imprinting” during an orphan’s development, so the animal is raised in a way which makes them dependant on humans and unfit to be released into the wild.
I read somewhere that Australia is the only country that eats its coat of arms. I have certainly eaten kangaroo and emu - as well as crocodile, camel and buffalo, I tried fox once but Oscar Wilde was right about that, absolutely inedible.
Anyway OGF how many lions and unicorns have you tucked into?
I’ve not been very adventurous with my diet up to now Bruce…Just the usual…
Pigs, cows, chickens, rabbit (yum yum) turkey, lamb, and I had buffalo once…very tasty…
I have tried kangaroo and emu they were just about edible but very strong and gamy
Crocodile was disgusting.
Haveing said that they were all dried meat maybe they are better cooked fresh .
I:would never trust any animal, not even my domesticated Jack, especially around others!
No matter how well loved and cared for they have been brought up,respect any animal!..they can’t talk and tell you if you’re upsetting them, they also have teeth/ power, etc,etc,
never smile at a crocodile, no ya can’t get friendly with a crocodile, if you see him grin, do’t you welcome him, he’s imagining how well you’d fit beneath his skin !
I would like to see the documentary that clip was taken from.
I found a newspaper article about this guy, who rescues lots of baby orphan kangaroos.
It also gives an explanation of why Roger the Kangaroo has to be kept in captivity.
“ Mr Barns warned not to get too attached, or ‘you’ll end up with a Roger,’ a large 89 kg red Kangaroo that stands two metres tall.
Mr Barns emphasised not to keep the Kangaroo as pets once they’ve reached an independent age telling people they should be let loose.
Roger was unable to be released on time, because of an accident that wounded him making it hard for him to be let out into the wild.
Because of his delayed release, the large red kangaroo with huge biceps has been kept in captivity so he doesn’t attack someone when out in the wild.
‘It’s happened many times in zoos and wildlife parks, that any time a hand raised animal that is not domestic has a wild nature. Kangaroos are kick boxers they want to fight if they’ve grown up around people they’ll want to fight people,’ said Mr Barns.
‘He sees me as a rival, he sees me as someone that’ll knock him off his throne. Anyone tall he’ll take on he sees them as a potential threat to his harem,’ he continued.”
You’d know from beef jerky that dried food is nothing like the fresh.
Kangaroo meat is fat free so needs lightly cooking, rare or medium rare otherwise it is a bit tough. Emu is pretty bland, like the old cliche tastes like chicken but like the dark meat in my opinion. Croc was pretty unimpressive, in fact I can’t remember what it tasted like.
