Has anyone seen a real Kangaroo?

I am always fascinated when I see them on TV and aren't they native to Australia or did I get that mixed up (lol).

I have never seen on up close. I have only seen them on TV and in magazines. I believe you are correct about Australia.

I have seen many up close. Although they don't just hop along down the main street of Sydney as some internalional viewers seem to beleive, hehe.. There are many varieties, we get the occasional Eastern Grey around where i live, big buggers they are. Wild ones are not what you'd call friendly, in fact they can rip you open with their back claws without breaking out a sweat if they feel threatened! Although they can be made pets of if you come across a young enough one (dead mother or whatever)They are quite opportunistic, like a lot of native animals world wide, and will happily go where there is food. Even if it means people. You can [i]kiiiind[/i] of tame older ones with food. But i wouldn't do anything to upset them, I like my gizzards on the inside We are really lucky, there is a group of Swamp Wallabys (small variety of Kanga)which comes into our bottom paddock occasionally. They've got the cutest little faces! As for them not being Native to Australia? Never heard that before?!? My whole family just went whaaaaat??? If the rusted cogs of histroy facts in my brain are moving acuratley, they evolved from some species of megaflauna that roamed round Australia about a gazillion years ago. Thats not to say you're wrong, maybe there are related species kicking about somewhere else. I might have to look into that...hmmm....

Hi bell505:

Wow, love the information and thanks so much for taking the time to respond to my post. It sounds exciting living among them

Angela

No problem I'm a hive of useless info on kangaroos, hehe :)

What a lot of non-Aussies don't realise is that Kangaroos can actually be quite dangerous and can kill a human.

Red Kangaroos are massive - they can be 6 feet tall and their claws are very long and sharp.

It's not the kangas you need to watch out for - it's those dang Drop Bears.....

Wow Megan, glad you told me this.

Angela

I was in Australia but never saw kangaroos there. I went to Australia for a star party and spent most of my time looking up. I did see a kangaroo in the Memphis Zoo in the States years ago.

Saw them when I was out there getting married and seeing the eclipse in 2002. Also had roast 'roo in pepper sauce - very tasty!!

Both Ian and Jim, hi thanks for joining in the conversation about kangaroos. I'm a little surprised you didn't see any kangaroos whilst in Australia. I imagine you were "out of the town lights" to see the star party Jim.

My husband I have just returned from a 3 week driving holiday that covered 2,000 kms. I lost count of how many roos we saw. It's quite frightening when you driving, if you see them along side the road, or feeding in the fields next to the road. They are very skittish and you never really know what they're going to do. I was once driving in a national park when a joey (baby roo) jumped out in front of the car. The most important thing (for us humans) is not to swerve, because that can be catostophic. I stayed my course and ran over the little fellow (he was about 80kg and stood about 4 foot high). Luckily he just rolled under the car and continued on his way as if nothing had happened. I needed calming down with a stiff gin and tonic! Unfortately, we did see quite a lot of roo road kill on our last trip. These big trucks just plow on through. Most truckies consider them a menace and I guess they really are.
Cheerio for now

When we were out in 2002 I saw several shops selling whistles to clip to your car mirrors to scare wildlife from the car's path. Have you tried them?

No, Ian, haven't heard of them or seen them. But we have a huge "grey nomad" generation who are out on the roads in their RV's, I bet they would use them. The other deterrant of course is the "Bull Bar" which is an effective protection of the vehicle; can't say the same for the roo.

Cheerio for now

I've visited Australia six or seven times but mainly stayed in Sydney or Manley, so didn't see any kangaroos except for in the zoo. But, this is cool, while riding horses in the outback we came across groups of wallaby grazing. They would just stop and watch us go by then go back to their own business. Another time I was in in Darwin and came across a restaurant that served kangaroo stew. My friend had it and said it was very tasty. We were told that they are able to hunt them because if not, they would over populate.

Found them!! and their US Deer equivalents