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June 8, 2018 4:50 PM

Kangaroo: A Love-Hate Story [YouTube][Documentary][Trailer] “Are kangaroos a great icon for Australia? Or a natural resource? Or, perhaps, even a pest? A new documentary explores this complicated relationship, and exposes some shocking secrets.” [via: Geographical Magazine] [Note: NSFW scenes of animal violence, severed limbs]
posted by Fizz (18 comments total)

I forgot to note that the trailer does have some [NSFW] imagery with depictions of severed limbs/animal violence.
posted by Fizz at 4:52 PM on June 8, 2018

Paddock maggots (sheep) are the pests. Hoofed animals of all kinds are the pests. Kangaroo species have evolved over millennia to survive on this ancient, eroded, soil-depleted, drought-ridden continent; delaying fetus development if conditions aren't right, a biological function known as diapause.

Did you know that female kangaroos have three vaginas and two uteri?

As with all marsupials, the female kangaroo has three vaginas and two uteruses (uteri). The two outermost vaginas are used for sperm transportation to the two uteruses. Babies are born through the middle one. (See photo). By contrast, female placental mammals have only one uterus and one vagina.

With this unusual reproductive system a female kangaroo can be in a continuous state of pregnancy, with a fertilised egg in one uterus waiting to be released, a baby growing in the second uterus, one in her pouch and another hopping outside but coming to its mother for milk. Another unique feature of these animals is that during times of extreme drought and starvation the female kangaroo can practice birth control by putting the babies growing in her uteruses "on hold", stopping their future development until conditions improve. This is called embryonic diapause. When the mother's pouch becomes free the next baby will be born and move into the pouch and the fertilised egg "on hold" in a uterus will start developing into a new foetus. Because of this multiple-offspring strategy and other adaptabilities unique to the kangaroo, populations can increase rapidly when food is plentiful.

Kangaroos survive on native vegetation. Hoofed animals require imported grasses to be profitable. Kangaroos help manage the plains, keeping down the fuel load and providing manure for soil development. Sheep compact the soil and leave droppings that can stay solid for decades. Kangaroos have detailed courtship and mating habits. Sheep and cows just root. Some kangaroo species pair up (I've seen this with Wallaroos/Euros over a few years) others run harem herds with a big male protecting his mates and offspring from our previous top predators (thylacines, quolls and dingos).

Kangaroo meat is probably the healthiest red meat on the planet - naturally free range and organic and very lean. Collecting kangaroo meat is very problematic, as the trailer linked in the post shows.

The answer is to stop eating meat (I'm a carnivore) so that our sheep and cattle trade dies off, and so we won't have to live-export sheep to let them die in their thousands on transport ships, or be slaughtered under inhumane conditions in developing countries.

If kangaroos are a pest, then so are the white colonists/invaders of Australia.

Thanks for the post. I'm going to post the trailer on facebook and bait some rednecks, but not these rednecks.
posted by Thella at 5:30 PM on June 8, 2018 [29 favorites]

Impacts of red meat production on biodiversity in Australia: a review and comparison with alternative protein production industries

— some interesting research in a CSIRO journal related to Thella’s good points above.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:48 PM on June 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Mod note: Added note to post
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 6:16 PM on June 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

If you're going to eat meat, kangaroo can be a relatively ethical choice. Low impact on the land, not raised in captivity, and, if shooters abide by the regulations, killed relatively humanely.

Commercial shooters have to operate under the National Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos and Wallabies for Commercial Purposes, which specifies ammunition calibre, target zones, and requires that any orphaned joeys be killed. Fauna dealers are only supposed to accept head-shot roos.

However, shooting typically happens way out in the bush, inspections are lax or non-existent, and I think the enforceability of the Code is still suspect in some of the states, like WA. This paper is a bit dated, but gets into the major issues.

The Commercial Code is currently under review by AgriFutures Australia (the snooty rebranding of the Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation). The documentary in the post is clearly tendentious, but well timed to affect the review's public consultation period.
posted by zamboni at 6:33 PM on June 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

Sigh, I've tried eating more kangaroo, but it's a difficult food. It has a very strong and gamey flavour and my partner refuses to eat it.
posted by other barry at 6:48 PM on June 8, 2018

Curries and chili type dishes can be a good way to adapt to the flavour, or perhaps a kangarou bourguignon.
posted by nicolas léonard sadi carnot at 7:22 PM on June 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

Kangaroo bolognese is very good if you remember to add some additional fat.

Kangaroo is the preferred meat in this house, generally for environmental reasons. Their slaughtering can be problematic, but I'm pretty sure that the answer to that is not more beef. They are going to be culled whether we eat them or not, white agricultural practices suit them perhaps too well.
posted by deadwax at 7:57 PM on June 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

As a transplant to Australia, I still get a child-like thrill from spotting kangaroos grazing at dusk, even after a decade here. I think of them as the 'deer' of Australia. Strange-looking creatures, though—part-deer, part rat, part rabbit, with tiny, useless hands and adorable Eyeore eyes.

I've found that kangaroo steak works well for ropa vieja, especially since skirt or flank steak is not always easily sourced in Australian supermarkets.
posted by amusebuche at 8:27 PM on June 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

Eaten my share of roo, including freshly shot animals, gutted, and thrown straight on the fire.

Being wild harvested meat it is quite variable in taste. Ranges from very gamey to relatively mild. The difficulty in getting the taste consistent is the main marketing issue with it.

Very healthy meat though.

Best suited to stews, curries, etc. But can make a decent steak too. Fire roasted roo tail is a popular dish among the indigenous.
posted by Pouteria at 8:27 PM on June 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

As a transplant to Australia, I still get a child-like thrill from spotting kangaroos grazing at dusk, even after a decade here. I think of them as the 'deer' of Australia. Strange-looking creatures, though—part-deer, part rat, part rabbit, with tiny, useless hands and adorable Eyeore eyes.

Early mornings at my place, just metres from my bedroom window, I used to get wallabies eating the dew-covered grass (with my permission!). Would wake up and watch them for a few minutes most mornings. Occasionally got lucky when quietly sitting on verandah reading and they would come up almost as close, and the joeys would be allowed out of the pouches to play, right in front of me. That went on for about 15 years. :)

Also used to have bandicoots hopping around, who are endearing little critters.

Used to. Once I was on the edge of civilisation, literally the last house before undisturbed natural bushland as far as the eye could see. Still on the same property but now it is effectively a suburb, with dogs and cane toads and weeds and fucking quad bikes,.... I haven't seen a wallaby or bandicoot here for years, apart from roadkill. :(
posted by Pouteria at 8:56 PM on June 8, 2018 [9 favorites]

Kangaroo film is shocking and gruesome – but is the analysis sound?

posted by retrograde at 10:46 PM on June 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

I question that culling is any sort of secret. The ABC runs articles, other orgs run articles, an awful lot of people have rels who are involved. When I lived out Bathurst way as a teenager, my classmates were shooting Kangaroos after school. I don't know that it's a secret from anyone but the most shut-in city folk.
posted by AnhydrousLove at 11:14 PM on June 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

I used to live on the outskirts of my town, surrounded by trees with wallabies and the occasional kangaroo and koala making an appearance. I never got jaded about them. My father had a coin purse made from the scrotum of a kangaroo which fascinated and revolted me in equal measure. I agree with Thella, they're not the pests, we are.
posted by h00py at 1:37 AM on June 9, 2018 [6 favorites]

Objecting to 'gamey' meats has always seemed akin to eating only mozzarella cheese because other cheeses just taste too darn cheesy.
posted by showbiz_liz at 7:26 AM on June 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

I was an offsider to a 'roo shooter in WA for a short time in early 2004. It was bloody and disgusting but that guy was a crack shot and took great pains to follow every rule - headshots only, used tags, etc. A number of them had some sort of wasting disease that I was told comes from overpopulation.

I felt like if I was going to eat meat - which I do - I needed to take part in the full cycle at some point.

One experience 14 years ago doesn't make me an expert. But the experience changed me in a number of ways, all of them for the better. I saw a side of the Outback that most Australians never see, and I'm immensely grateful for it, even the bloodiest and most demeaning parts.

If anyone's inclined, I told a story about it here: https://open.spotify.com/track/7CcEpDRshpCx2AqJ8VRugD?si=aApc67TgRUWbIZw7Joplag
posted by chinese_fashion at 10:37 AM on June 9, 2018 [4 favorites]

By contrast, female placental mammals have only one uterus and one vagina.

Well, thank goodness.
posted by glasseyes at 3:18 PM on June 9, 2018

IF a wild animal population exceeds their food supply, there are 2 sad solutions - starvation or culling.
posted by Homer42 at 8:44 PM on June 9, 2018