11/10/2024
Alice Springs trip highlight:
The Red Kangaroo (Osphranter rufus).
One of the most aesthetically beautiful kangaroo species in my eyes, though I didn't always fully appreciate them.
As is human nature, we tend to adopt the majority viewpoint when we lack our own experiences to draw upon. Perspective shapes us, as it shaped me. Ultimately, kangaroos became the catalyst for pursuit of a scientific education, my life changed.
In my veterinary nursing days, I was taught that kangaroo meat was an ideal pet food. I fed it to my cats, unaware of the cruelty and lack of unbiased research surrounding the kangaroo meat industry. Farmers complained about "plague proportions". People blamed kangaroos for the damage to their vehicles at dusk and dawn. Trophy skins hung casually from walls in bars, while ball-sack keychains and paw back-scratchers in tourist shops were treated as humorous novelties of a supposedly "common" animal.
My perspective was blown apart after volunteering at a local macropod rehabilitation center (Wandandian, NSW), where I learned the full extent of both the suffering and the beauty surrounding these incredible native animals. The accumulation of good people that stand to protect them also became some of the best people to enter my life yet.
As a maternal mammal, I am unapologetically biased, I relate to the maternal nature of kangaroos- the sense of family, belonging, and affection is innate. Yet theirs is a bond that feels more prehistoric and honest than our own. I’ve raised many orphaned domestic species from egg or womb, none have humbled me more than the kangaroo.
Like so many carers around the country, including Chris "The Brolga" from The Kangaroo Sanctuary (where this photo was taken), I’ve experienced the carers bond between joey and mother, I’ve experienced the utter devastation of losing those I cared for. I’ve attended rescues where the once-perfect wild soul now lies, palpably scared, alert, and terribly broken, softly clucking at my approach, communicating while I prepare my captive bolt gun to take their life, knowing it’s the only mercy left to avoid an horrific existence. It is always unfair and each ending collectively weighs on us. It's the price of standing for something more important than our own comfort.
Kangaroos are not the only species suffering at the hands of anthropogenic assault. They’re not the most vulnerable, nor the most hated. But, they are exploited and targeted for profit- sometimes, ironically, in the name of conservation.
They do not deserve the image portrayed by the media and those who profit from their destruction. They deserve respect, not exploitation, a chance to exist as they have for millennia, beyond the shadow of profit and misconception.
The Australian icon to the rest of the world is a marvel, they are to me also.
