Kangaroos – Wildlife in my backyard
Despite what many people may think, kangaroos are not a common sight for most Australians, especially for aussies who live in city and urban areas. We are among the lucky few who get to enjoy these beautiful creatures in their natural habitat several times a week, as our backyard is part of their natural habitat! Although the native wildlife is abundant in our area, kangaroos in the backyard is not a common occurence for most people.
I took these photos of this Western Grey Kangaroo from the back steps of my house. As cute as she looks here, the ‘roos that come to visit and mow our back lawn are wild animals and the closest I can get to them is about three metres. Not that you really want to get too close to a wild kangaroo – the males can grow up to two metres from head to tail and can weigh 50 to 60 kgs (120 to 144lbs)!
Scenes like this is enough to inspire any artist!
They quite often spend the night grazing on our lawn, and occasionally we see one that spends the day dozing in the shade under a tree but usually in the wild they can be seen at dawn and dusk grazing in jarrah bushland and open paddocks.
Female kangaroos are known as does or fliers, the males are called bucks, but are also known as boomers or stinkers (they have a very strong aroma) and baby kangaroos are called joeys. The most we have had on our back lawn at one time is five which is a pretty small family group (mum and previous years joeys), normally a kangaroo mob will be larger in size.
Michelle
Tags: Art - All Subjects, artist, australian animals, kangaroo, marsupials, Photography - All, Wildlife
April 26th, 2006 at 8:10 pm
How cool is that!!! That would make wonderful art!
April 26th, 2006 at 9:01 pm
LOL – yeah it is pretty cool:) I am thinking of using the first pic as a reference for a painting at some stage, or I might combine a few different kangaroos and paint a mob scene.
Michelle
May 3rd, 2006 at 11:31 am
Michelle I have been watching your blog for some time now with great interest. I also have kangaroos visiting here at my home at times, though can’t get as close to them as you do. Keep up the good work, cheers, Susan
May 3rd, 2006 at 12:10 pm
Thank you for the lovely comments Susan! I absolutely love your Flinders Ranges paintings! I actually have another kangaroo out the back this morning, I just came inside to get my camera but got distracted and now he’s gone, so I missed the photo op.
May 5th, 2006 at 6:51 pm
Michelle,
Amazing pictures. Having a personal visit from Skippy is superb! I don’t know what it is with animals and birds, but they seem to have a great knack of knowing just when your camera has focused, then leave! You’ve done a great job getting these.
May 7th, 2006 at 4:58 pm
Thanks Steve! LOL – I’m glad to know its not just me, I take hundreds of photos of animals including my pets but very few of them turn out this well for the very reason you mentioned:)
May 20th, 2006 at 12:39 am
So beautiful…
Now that would be an exotic I would like to make remedies for!
I just blog marked you & am adding you to my links lists on my three animal remedy blog, I hope you stop in sometime.
Aidana
HORSES:
http://www.blogcharm.com/ShuvaniStablesAllNaturalHorseAndLivestockRemedyAndProductBlog/
PETS:
http://www.blogcharm.com/KenderKennelPetCare/
EXOTICS:
http://www.blogcharm.com/shuvanimals/
May 24th, 2006 at 11:08 am
Being an American… I only get to see them on tv… our local zoo doesn’t even house any roos.
Aidana
HORSES:
http://www.blogcharm.com/ShuvaniStablesAllNaturalHorseAndLivestockRemedyAndProductBlog/
PETS:
http://www.blogcharm.com/KenderKennelPetCare/
EXOTICS:
http://www.blogcharm.com/shuvanimals/
June 29th, 2006 at 11:17 pm
I can’t even imagine what that must be like! How neat to have kangaroos up close and personal. Quite good pictures too!
March 29th, 2007 at 10:48 am
I thought your photographs of the kangaroos were so special. Tell me what sort of antics do the joeys( or the adults) get up to when they play? I think that wild animals can show a real delight in living.