Kangaroos

[Twister]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcn_yUw0WIw&feature=relmfu

I found this while watching a few videos from Mike Swick's channel. I never knew kangaroos would have claws -- especially claws of that size. :eek

I love like how the kangaroo just looks around at the men at 45 seconds in to the video. :lol

Has any one here ever been up close to a kangaroo?

[hutch--]

I remember a nature reserve down the south coast from Sydney called "Green Patch" where kangaroos from young ones to fully grown ones hop around scavenging for food. They are reasonably agreeable as long as you don't try and harm one of them and are generally safe to be near. The claws on their back feet are very large and if one is scared or angry they will use them for defense. They have been known to pick up things with their front paws and rip at them with a back paw.

Normally if they feel under threat they just leave and they are very fast over difficult torrain so not much can catch them.

[Twister]

They have been known to pick up things with their front paws and rip at them with a back paw.

Do they ever tell any one that when they decide to go inside the nature reserve? :P

The kangaroo's legs are gigantic! It's also interesting how they are shaped like that. You know, hutch, Australia has some interesting animals. Take this Kiwi for example.

[hutch--]

Close but not Australia, the Kiwi are found in New Zealand. Although the timing is vast, life forms in Australia have more in common with South America as they both split off Gondwanaland which was about where Antarctica is now. New Zealand is 2 islands on the eastern edge of the Australia plate that developed differently. It has many unique birds and diverse aquatic life but very few large land animals.

Australia still has some larger land animals but the very large ones are extinct. On the bright side we have some very friendly crocodiles who will eat anyone without prejudice.

[baltoro]

I was reading up on Gondwana,...seeing, as how I plan to vacation there when I can get my Time Travell machine working,...
Australia has been isolated from other continents for about 40 to 45 million years.
Living marsupials exist in Australia and South America and fossils have been found in Antarctica.
About 20,000 years ago,...giant wombats and giant kangaroos existed. The wombats were the size of a cow.

This is a present day,...mini-wombat,...cute, aren't they ???

[daydreamer]

Hutch, isnt Wallabies some kinda rugbyplaying kangaroo?:)

[dedndave]

 :lol

i think it's a rugby team   :bg

and a miniature kangaroo, too


wallabies. shown here in their native habitat...

[hutch--]

Magnus,

No wallabies are a bunch of private school fairies cuddling up on the football field, real men[tm] play rugby league, not union.

baltoro,

Wombats are an Australian Male sex symbol so I am biased but don't hit one with a car at night, its like hitting a tree stump in the dark. ALA Gondwanaland, I have a piece of it as a doorstep in my house, its an ancient sea shore from about 200 million years ago complete with embedded vegetable matter. It shows as small black spots of coal in the sandstone. With a litte imagination you could have a dinosaur having breakfast by the beach leaving the scraps on the sand.

[daydreamer]

:lol

i think it's a rugby team   :bg

and a miniature kangaroo, too


wallabies. shown here in their native habitat...

yes I saw them played an even exiting match against the springbooks, when I had holiday in South Africa, drank redwine and ate dried meat while watching it in my friends dads African farm

[vanjast]

I saw a film doccy on the Roo and the one section showed it hopping across the desert (a helicopter following it) - It was a bloody fast thing, and it's hopping seemed so effortless - a really gracefull animal at full speed

[dedndave]

all that hopping doesn't seem like it'd be very efficient, either
but they haul asss !!!

[hutch--]

Dave,

If you see the torrain they can hop through that a horse or similar could not negotiate you would get the picture.

[dedndave]

i have seen them on nature shows and such, is all
or - maybe in a zoo - not much hopping going on, there

but when i see them on a national geographic special or something, they always amaze me - lol
what really amazes me is how many "strange" animal species there are in that part of the world   :P

[hutch--]

Its through torrian like scrub (small trees and similar spiky growth), small gullies, rocky torrain and similar stuff that would break a horses legs that a roo really kick arse. Most of the footage you see is for the big reds in the desert but there are many species that live in woodlands that you can forget trying to catch, they can just leave you behind unless you are in a helicopter.

I have seen coastal species rip through an area that you need a machette to get through yourself.

[dedndave]

looks like a lot of fun   :P