Outback Friends

In the Australian outback, a kangaroo named Joey hopped along one day, looking for something new to do. He came across an emu named Ellie who was pecking at the ground for food.

"Hello there, Ellie! Would you like to come explore with me?" Joey asked, his tail twitching with excitement.

Ellie looked up, surprised. She had never been asked to go exploring before. "Sure, Joey! That sounds like fun."

As the two new friends hopped along, they heard rustling in the bushes. Out popped a goanna named Gus.

"Hey, what are you two up to?" Gus asked curiously.

"We're going exploring," Joey replied, "Would you like to join us?"

Gus hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Sure, I'll come along."

The three unlikely friends hopped, pecked, and scurried through the bush, discovering new sights and sounds. They watched as the sun set over the horizon, and as the stars twinkled in the sky, they realized that they had found something special.

Although they were different animals, they had become friends. They had discovered that they had more in common than they thought. They all loved to explore, discover new things and have fun. They laughed, chattered, and played together until it was time to head back to their homes.

As they parted ways, Joey, Ellie, and Gus knew that they would always have each other. They had formed an unlikely friendship, but one that would last a lifetime.

Ⓒ 2023 Alan Rutherford

Australian Megafauna

The term "megafauna" is usually applied to large animals (over 100 kg). In Australia, however, megafauna were never as large as those found on other continents, and so a more lenient criterion of over 40 kg is often applied^.

Australian megafauna are a number of large animal species in Australia, often defined as species with body mass estimates of greater than 30 kilograms, or equal to or greater than 30% greater body mass than their closest living relatives. Many of these species became extinct, it is thought by many scientists, that with the arrival of humans (around 48,000-60,000 years ago), hunting and the use of fire to manage their environment may have contributed to the extinction of the megafauna. Increased aridity during peak glaciation (about 18,000 years ago) may have also contributed to the extinction of the megafauna.

Australia has a few remaining native megafauna, such as the Red Kangaroo, Emu and Estuarine Crocodile, whilst the oceans that surround our continent are home to the largest living marine megafauna, like the Blue Whale, Giant Squid, Whale Shark and Leather-back turtle. However, Australia didn’t always have so few native megafauna, instead our island continent was once home to the largest ever monotremes (egg-laying mammals), marsupials (pouched mammals), lizards and birds. Evidence of these extinct megafauna can be found across Australia as fossilised remains found in deep dark caves, eroding from river and creek banks, in ancient swampy peat bogs and dried-up salt lakes, and even eroding from old beach dunes.

Australian Lions
Thylacoleo ("pouch lion") is an extinct carnivorous marsupial that lived in Australia 2 million to 46 thousand years ago. Some of these "marsupial lions" were the largest mammalian predators in Australia of that time, with Thylacoleo carnifex approaching the weight of a small lion.

Giant kangaroos
Procoptodon (Giant Short-faced Kangaroo) was the largest kangaroo to ever live, standing 8 feet tall and possessing a truly bizarre body-shape. Unlike modern day kangaroos Procoptodon had an extremely short face, almost human-like, enormously long and strong forearms, robust and muscular legs and a short thick tail. Procoptodon was not built for excessive hopping, in fact, it would have used its long arms, strong legs and thick tail to balance itself whilst it pulled down large branches from trees, stripping them of their new leaves to feed such a bulky body. Fossils of this giant have been found in the Winton district, preserved as fragmentary teeth and a possible pelvis.

Kangaroo population stands around 45 million

Is that food in that bag?

Kangaroos are indigenous to Australia. Current populations stand around 45 million.

Kangaroos are capable of conserving enough water and selecting enough fresh vegetation to survive in an arid environment. The kangaroo’s kidneys efficiently concentrate urine, particularly during summer.

The kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of the genus Macropus: the red kangaroo, antilopine kangaroo, eastern grey kangaroo, and western grey kangaroo. 

Fights between red kangaroo males tend to involve more wrestling. Fights establish dominance relationships among males, and determine who gets access to the females.

Kangaroos are the only large animals to use hopping as a means of locomotion. The comfortable hopping speed for a red kangaroo is about 20–25 km/h (12–16 mph), but speeds of up to 70 km/h (43 mph) can be attained over short distances, while it can sustain a speed of 40 km/h (25 mph) for nearly 2 km (1.2 mi). 

The kangaroos fast and energy-efficient method of travel has evolved because of the need to regularly cover large distances in search of food and water, rather than the need to escape predators. At slow speeds, it employs pentapedal locomotion, using its tail to form a tripod with its two forelimbs while bringing its hind feet forward. Kangaroos are adept swimmer, and often flee into waterways if threatened by a predator. If pursued into the water, a kangaroo may use its fore paws to hold the predator underwater so as to drown it.

Young red necked wallaby.

Macropods are marsupials belonging to the family Macropodidae, the kangaroo family, which includes kangaroos, wallabies, tree-kangaroos, wallaroos, pademelons, quokkas, and several others. Macropods are native to the Australian continent.

Kangaroo meat is consumed in Australia and available in some Australian supermarkets. It is also exported to over 55 countries. Kangaroo leather is recognised as the strongest lightweight leather throughout the world and extensively used in first class sporting shoes and gloves.

Kangaroo Shooting a shooters story

Warning this story contains graphic images that may offend people

Clubbed to death, stamped on or left to die from starvation

That is how Australia deals with 1.3 million joeys every year after their mothers are shot for their meat or skin. They are the by-products of the greatest massacre of wild animals in the world.
 
Excerpt from New York Journalist Jeff Simmermons blog  Iam not Lying
 
Female kangaroos, pose their own problems. Although easier to lift than male ‘roos or “boomers,” the does are often pregnant. And in those cases, the only humane thing to do for the joeys that can’t survive outside the pouch is to kill them on the spot, quickly and decisively. It can be an emotional challenge. Even for Craig, who accepted this part of the job decades ago.
 
 

The best methods for dispatching joeys include beheading them or stomping them beneath your boot. The bigger ones you grab by the back legs and smash against a nearby rock or even the truck’s tire. After we killed five or six ‘roos, Craig would stop to gut them, pulling the babies out to dispatch them en masse. After one such performance Craig peered at me through the swirling dust and sighed.“Mate, I’ve been doin’ this for fifty years, and this part always makes me feel like such a c**t.”

A Shooters Story

I was a professional kangaroo shooter 38 years ago. Now I spend an inordinate amount of time in the defence of animals that are doing poorly at the hands of humans.

You may ask as to what has led me to do a complete turnabout in my thinking, and expect some profound answer explaining that at such and such a moment in time the sky opened up and all of a sudden I saw the light. Sorry to disappoint, but it did not happen this way.

If there is any profundity in my "conversion", it is that I have come to the realization that we are all led down differing paths in life by our genetic make-up and the circumstance that we find ourselves in.

In my case, 38 years ago, the whole social, political and animal concern scene was vastly different to today's. There was a predominate attitude of human matters being at the fore of thought and a mish-mash of ideas when dealing with the other animals on the planet. On the one hand, personal pets were gaining in the welfare stakes, as were wild creatures that had "fluffy" appeal. On the other, domestic stock conditions were degrading rapidly into the factory farm situation that is still rampant to now.

This some decades of time saw European cities and other population centres around the Western World explode into greater awareness of the suffering of our "food". Unfortunately, socio/economic pressures, had rural climes, to a large extent, excluded from this expansion of a new way in thinking about the rest of nature.

In this distant past, the kangaroo was erroneously thought of as a pest that was diminishing the financial returns of those who depended on their income in outback areas.

This excuse was reasoning enough for kangaroos to be killed without compassion, for they were the enemy. Even so, I, and I would suggest, many other kangaroo shooters, were and are, very uneasy with the practice of having to kill Joey's on a never ending basis. It was not understood then, that the Joey-at-foot would also die in a state of terror by psychological deprivation, predation or starvation. Many kangaroo shooters now convince themselves that this joey escapes and lives happily ever after. Delusions of this sort are not uncommon in the industry and in governments and their acting agents.

Self-delusion played a big part in my experience as a kangaroo shooter but let me state here in the most unequivocal manner that is possible, to be able to self deceive is part and parcel of being human. There will be those that read this in a most judgmental way, comforting themselves with the thought that they could never had done such a thing as kangaroo shooting. Be very careful of that kind of thinking because it does not accord with the facts about the capacity of humanity to be inhumane to people and animals, given the right set of circumstance.

 Be very careful that you are not self-deluding yourself on this point, for if you are, you are just the person who could be a kangaroo shooter if the situation dictated it so.

I do come across this kind of condemnation but it so insignificant when compared to the mental anguish I put myself through on a daily basis as to be non-existent. This will be carried till the day I die.

Thoughts of the terrible wounding and as stated, the slaughter of the innocents and now with greater knowledge, thoughts of the at-foot-Joey's left to fend for themselves in their thousands. Thoughts of taking the lives of countless numbers of kangaroos for convenient reasons. Thoughts of being a part of the juggernaut that was and is altering the genetic make up of a marvellous animal. Thoughts of my part in vilifying the kangaroo with the end result of it not having the awed respect, as it should, of the Australian people. Every time there is a wanton act of cruelty to kangaroos, I must bear some of the blame.

I stopped being a kangaroo shooter for many reason, with the cruelty only one of the many.
The kangaroo is not a pest and it is only the greedy and the foolhardy who believe it is a resource to be used at whim.

Australia must re-define its stubbornly inadequate definition of what is compassion and in doing so reap the rewards of not only doing the right thing, but the very tangible benefits of the eco-tourist dollar.

No doubt, other kangaroo shooters will read this, so it seems appropriate to leave a message for them.

If you can see past the self-delusion of what you are doing to other sentient and suffering capable creatures, for the sake of your future mind, do not wait for kangaroo shooting to be discarded as a remnant of our brutish past, as it will, but choose to get out now. The rest of your life will thank you for this very wise action.

This I guarantee.




David Nicholls

Write to David Nicholls with your support at the email address below.


ExKangarooShooter@hotmail.com

Australia's leaders hide behind a protective wall of propaganda and irresponsible legislation, so that a few may gain from the death of a species.


Australia has the highest rate of extinctions in the world but there appears to be no shame, only apathy about this appalling record.