Yesterday I saw my first kangaroos in the wild! I was staying at Bamarang Bush Retreat working with colleagues from Wollongong University. It is a really peaceful place, surrounded by bush, especially gum trees with peeling bark or leopard-spotted trunks. As we were talking outside on the verandah, five kangaroos just hopped through right in front of us and off into the forest. One was a young one, and at the top of the hill, he couldn’t see his mother and we heard him calling for her, almost like a bleating lamb, and we heard her reply.
Then, at dusk, I slipped out on my own – kangaroo hunting! I walked down a path towards the Shoalhaven River, where there was some open grassland. And there were kangaroos everywhere! They were on the path in front of me, and right across the field – probably 20-30 of them. I was delighted!
They were all quietly feeding, but when they spotted me, two large kangaroos stood up on their hind legs and just gazed at me, motionless. Then the rest of them all started hopping across the field, away from me. But the two ‘look-outs’ stayed, stock-still, just watching me. I stood stock-still too, hardly daring to breathe! And then eventually they bounded away into the distance too.
They were Eastern Grey kangaroos, the most common ones round here, and they are marsupials, like koalas (and also only have one bottom hole!) Kangaroos live in large groups, called mobs, so the collective noun is a mob of kangaroos. They use their tails to balance so their tails are very strong and thick. Because they are quite large and very fast, they have very few predators, but in mountainous areas, wolves sometimes hunt them down by chasing them up a hill, and then chasing them down again. Kangaroos are not too good at running fast down hill because they are the wrong shape, so they often topple over, and then the wolves can catch them.
Taking photos of kangaroos at dusk, and at a distance, means it’s hard to get really clear photos – so you will need to look closely. Can you spot any kangaroos in the trees?
Nana Down Under 