Australia’s beloved kangaroos are now controversial pests
nationalgeographic.com
nationalgeographic.com
The big problem with them is that usually there isn't a single kangaroo to try and dodge on the road, but several at once. The recommended course of action upon encountering a roo on the road is to just keep driving straight. If you try and dodge it, you're just more likely to crash your car and just as likely to hit a kangaroo. They're big enough to cause a lot of damage to a car too.
They're absolutely a pest, and there are unnaturally high numbers of them from eating crops. Culling keeps the population down to healthy numbers. I think that most opposition to culling is because they're Australia's national animal. Nobody complains about culling foxes and goats. I also don't see how culling is any less ethical than farming cows or sheep.
Also, this is an interesting quote:
> There may be no animal and nation in the world more closely identified.
I'd argue that New Zealand and Kiwis are much more closely identified, to the point that New Zealand and Kiwi are literally synonymous. If someone asks me what nationality I am, I'd say "Kiwi" before I said "New Zealander". Never heard an Aussie refer to themselves as a roo.
In my native language, Kangaroos are closely associated with Australia, but New Zealanders are never called Kiwis.
In Singapore I was asked if it’s ok to refer to me and a Kiwi because they thought it may be a racist term.
But then again, I guess it's racist to call French people frogs, so I can understand how someone would come to the conclusion that it's racist to call someone a Kiwi.
racism
1 Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against
someone of a different race based on the belief that one's
own race is superior.
However, I think it's generally the case that when people use the term "racist", they mean "derogatory based on the origin of the person", and not necessarily their race. Language is flexible and people use terms in common usage which is does not adhere to prescriptive definitions. I have to admit being quite pedantic myself, but have come to accept looser definitions of words as I get older. As long as I understand what the person is intending to say, I try not to worry about what they actually said. This has helped me communicate with people greatly. YMMV.
[1] https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/milk-white-supremacy-ra...
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/us/white-supremacists-sci...
Also, I'm pretty sure they like hanging out on the road, because the road traps heat and stays warmer at night.
The same way they got wolves, deer, oppossums, raccoons, coyotes, dogs, elk, and more to do it? They’re mainly underground tunnels or overpasses that are covered in natural materials, free of scary, fast, roaring machines, etc
You would have to put up extremely tall barriers along all the roads, which is an expense I think most people would be unwilling to fund.
Often they seem to just be standing around on the road until I light them up with my headlights and they start moving.
They're delicious.
It's incredibly lean meat, almost no fat and very red, and it has a very strong gamey flavour. People either love it or hate it. If you overcook it, it's like eating leather.
I'm now a vegetarian, but it used to be my favourite meat. I used to eat it more often than beef. It also helps that kangaroo meat is cheaper than beef in Australia.
My personal favorite is to use roo strips instead of bacon/ham on a chicken parma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_parmigiana .
Most people don't like it. It's usually used as pet food.
The best roo I've ever had was Kangaroo tail, cooked over many hours buried under the remains of a campfire. (aboriginal style)
pulled it out, cracked the fur off it (cause it melted and cooked into a hard shell) then peeled the meat off with my fingers... it was buttery soft.
This increases the food supply for livestock but of course also increases the supply for Kangaroos - and Kangaroos are much more efficient eaters than sheep or cattle.
So there are two options really:
* Maintain livestock and cull Kangaroos; or
* Reduce stocking rates, replant native vegetation on cleared land and the Kangaroo population will reduce accordingly.
He was shocked and horrified to learn Australians eat kangaroo meat, that it's easily available in any supermarket.
A bit later we asked for cuisine suggestions, and our reaction when he suggested we try horse sashimi was not much different...
That being said I've heard far too many stories of roos hopping alongside the car and inexplicably deciding to cross through you car effectively kamikazing themselves.
Unfortunately 2000km-long tall fences along major highways aren't financially viable and at the end of the day we are driving through their habitat
And now apparently we think the kangaroos are "in our way" and a "controversial pest".
We should take a good look at ourselves instead.
It's the same as with deer in Europe and America. Wolves and beers are their natural predators, but then we killed all the wolves and bears because they ate our sheep.