Wildlife Pics

[zedjack33]

Nearly EL C, they look similar, Roos are usually bigger and live in more open country and travel over a much larger range.
I've shot both and they pretty well die the same way. #

BTW here is a picture of a hole for you.

[smiley=laugh.gif] [smiley=laugh.gif] [smiley=laugh.gif]

[el_carpo]

Thanks Seahunt for the information about the wallabys and roos. Also for the pic. Very neat to see. I bet there is one heck of a big underground river down there. Anyone ever fish it? A new "spot X" for some daring fishing spelunker?

I was wondering about the kangaroo hunting. Are they mainly hunted for food or is it done as population/pest control? I am guessing that they would taste like venison (deer meat). Do they taste good? Is it a common food source in the Australian diet or is it more in the category of a specialty meat, eaten mostly by hunters and those who go to butchers shops who specialize in rare or exotic meats? In other words, would kangaroo meat be available at nearly every grocery store's meats department or do you have to really go looking for it if you wanted to try some?

Sorry for the 10,000 questions, by the way.

Thanks!

E.C.

[SeaHunt]

Hi E C , They are hunted by professional hunters for leather and dog food mostly.
Most farmers consider them a pest and shoot them and leave them where they fall, especially in cattle and sheep country. They might keep a few for meat for their dogs. Only a few Aussie touristy type restaurants have roo meat on the menu. Usually only available at speciality butchers. I have eaten it in a restuarant , but most Aussies would not have tasted it. Our diets are probably not too different from you guys in the US., Chicken , beef , pork , lamb and fish would cover 99% of the meats we eat.
For Kangaroos the commercial kill quota varies from year to year but is up to about 6 million a year. Farmers would probably kill that many again and once you get more than 100 miles inland from where I live in Brisbane it is dangerous to travel at night, because they hop onto the roads in front of you, (no fun having a 200 pound roo coming through your windscreen at 60 miles an hour) there are dead ones all along the roadsides of most of our inland highways.
They estimate there is about 60 million of them now , compared to about 23 million people. Even with the harvesting there are probably more now than there ever were before us whiteys showed up, because farmers built dams and bore drains to water their sheep and cattle which also allowed kangaroos to spread much further from their old traditional watering holes. In good conditions (rain, more grass) they can breed like flys.

[Derek Bullock]

Most coles stores around Brisbane have it in the meat department. You dont need speciality butchers here. Practically fat free meat and you can buy the steaks either marinated or as they are.

Might look at a camp oven recipe for it although the best way really is to just sear it on a hotplate and eat it rare.

Although you cant buy it around here, kangaroo tail would have to be one of the greatest meats for a slow cooked stew in a camp oven. Beats ox tail by a mile.


Derek

[el_carpo]

Thanks guys. It sounds a lot like the white-tail deer situation in the local forest preserves here. There is no hunting allowed in them and the deer herds are exploding. There aren't any predators to keep their numbers in check (although there are a few coyotes coming back but not enough to really make a dent). This results in lack of food, destruction of forest (they eat everything available), increased soil erosion, and worst of all is the threat of a disease wiping them out. It would spread like wildfire due to the close contact with other deer that they have. Also, there is the threat to cars that you mentioned. We had a couple of close calls there. They just leap out trying to cross the road without checking to see if it is safe. Very scarey!

I have seen a travel show showcasing the Australian outback where a guide cooked a kangaroo tail right on the fire. He just chucked it into a little wood fire he started and cooked it. When it was cooked, they took a knife and scraped off the crisped skin and burnt off fur and ate it just like that. The host of the show said that it was good. Then again, if I were hundreds of miles out in the middle of dangerous wilderness territory depending on a guide and more importantly his truck and supplies to get me back to saftey, I don't think I'd mock his cooking and or culinary tastes either. That's a loooooong walk from coast to coast!

Rule one - never get the guide angry.
Rule two - never forget rule one.

Thanks again for the information guys.

E.C.

[Dug]

Australia

[Dug]

100% Australia

[Dug]

Rainforrest Flutterby

[Dug]

Green tree frog

[Scott15]

awsoem photos.

Scott

[Dug]

Outback desert sand.

This is "The Bush" Australians talk about note there is no "Bush"

[Dug]

Termite mound

[Dug]

Get me a bowl of Crocodile soup and make it snappy

[Dug]

The Reef.

Thanks Scott, it's what I do for a living when I relax I take photos. My holidays are photo trips and when I go fishing I always have a camera

[Zeeke]

yes.. always with the camera for young Dougy, even when he was a wee lad he had the girls following him everywhere asking him to take there photos knowing one day, he'd be rich and famous, fishing with legends like myself... catching stinkin bloody mack tuna

Tim
p.s. Doug is a photo legend... he has an awesome camera.. i need to buy myself a camera like his... Check the forsale section.. cheap fishing gear..