Oh the Roomanity!
September 11, 2006 1:41 PM   Subscribe

Some form of PZP may save Australia's capital from a kangaroo invasion. The plan is not without risks, but the main alternative is culling the herd.
posted by owhydididoit (33 comments total)
 
Kangaroos can be vicious.
posted by owhydididoit at 1:42 PM on September 11, 2006


Is it the kangaroos that are invading or is it Suburbia? The third link made it sound as if the problems were arising in areas where development was butting up against areas that until recently had been wilderness, and that, as usual, the local animals were just taking advantage of the new resources.
posted by lekvar at 1:57 PM on September 11, 2006


This is insane. Why not hunt and eat them? A perfectly good natural resource going to waste. Feh.
posted by fleetmouse at 2:00 PM on September 11, 2006


I think this is only fair if we equip the roos so they can innoculate back.
posted by Mitheral at 2:04 PM on September 11, 2006


Kangaroos can range over a large enough area that a small increase in the size of Tuggers or wherever isn't going to make much difference. As the Scotsman article says, they're invading because the drought (and farming) has driven them from other places they'd rather live (and who could blame them for not wanting to live here? I don't either).

They should definitely be hunted and eaten, as they are delicious.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 2:46 PM on September 11, 2006


The 5-foot-tall (1.5-meter-tall) kangaroo grabbed the boy as he was searching bushes on a New South Wales golf course in 1996. Australia's Supreme Court eventually ordered the Grafton District Golf Club to compensate the boy not only for his injuries but also for the emotional damage he suffered when schoolmates taunted him with the nickname "Skippy" (a play on the hopping gait of kangaroos) after the incident.

The marsupial menace must be stopped!
posted by LarryC at 2:47 PM on September 11, 2006


Why not hunt and eat them? A perfectly good natural resource going to waste.

Good question. The only answer I've been able to come up with is that 'roos are not 'european' enough to be considered gourmet food. For some reason Oz has the strange idea that european==classy.

I've had cangaroo, and it's delicious.
posted by spazzm at 2:48 PM on September 11, 2006


Note to self: Use preview, spell check.
posted by spazzm at 2:49 PM on September 11, 2006


A few months ago I ate some Kangaroo and it was wonderful. If they are having an overpopulation problem it's really only because they are underutilizing a resource.

If Kangaroo was available in my (Vancouver Canada) supermarket, it would likely become a preferred replacement for beef in my meals.
posted by Kickstart70 at 3:04 PM on September 11, 2006


I'd go for a nice 'roo steak. You guys get busy and start exporting, okay? :)
posted by Malor at 3:10 PM on September 11, 2006


The rack of roo looks especially tasty.
posted by fleetmouse at 3:20 PM on September 11, 2006


Good question. The only answer I've been able to come up with is that 'roos are not 'european' enough to be considered gourmet food.

Man, kangaroo is tasty. And cheap. Great just cooked as steaks, if you're careful to cook it hot and quick, and not overcook it.

Alternatively, you can just use it in a stew or curry or whatever you like. There are some great seasoned kangaroo roast rolls available too.

However, I have to admit it hasn't caught on everywhere. I recently went through the check-out with some kangaroo, and the girl said to me:

Her: "That's not for you is it? You're not going to eat that?"

Me: "Of course I am, it's great."

Her: "I thought kangaroo was just dog food."

This is in Darwin by the way. You'd kinda think people would realize that humans eat kangaroo. Of course maybe "I thought kangaroo was just dog food" was code for "I thought kangaroo was just blackfella food".
posted by Jimbob at 3:49 PM on September 11, 2006


A really great way to eat roos is the coat of arms pizza. The Kangaroo and the Emu are the animals on Australia's coat of arms and they are on the pizza - it's like a bald eagle pizza would be in the US. They used to have this at the Centennial pub at the Rocks in Sydney. Emu and roo on a pizza are really good.

Roo meat is available in pretty much every supermarket in Australia. It is just taking a while to catch on. It's nice, but is gamey tasting so some people are not so keen.

Roos in Canberra are a menace. They are a real road hazzard. Roos are also thick. My sister had one leap through a side window in a car. Canberra is also weird in that there are long parks that cut through the entire city so that the roos tend to get more into things than in a normal city. Think something like Rock Creek Park in DC. Now imagine about a dozen or so similar sized slivers of park cutting though the city and think of the wildlife that would wander through.
posted by sien at 3:50 PM on September 11, 2006


(Caveat: Some species of wild kangaroos can't really be eaten because of high parasite loads.)
posted by Jimbob at 3:52 PM on September 11, 2006


A quick Google seems to indicate that some kangaroo meat producers have tried to come up with an alternate name to market the meat, but that nothing has really stuck. Is that about right? Also--do Australians ever roast whole kangaroos on a spit like pigs?
posted by LarryC at 4:05 PM on September 11, 2006


I don't think that "alternative name" thing will work. After all, people have to be aware that they're eating kangaroo no matter what they call it, right? Shit, I wouldn't eat some meat with a fancy name if I didn't know what animal it came from.

I think, as people get more experimental, they'll learn to like it. People who won't eat kangaroo are probably the same people who won't eat rabbit, or goat, or even duck. Stuck in the chicken-pork-beef-lamb loop, regarding anything outside as somehow strange and foreign.
posted by Jimbob at 4:27 PM on September 11, 2006


I don't think that "alternative name" thing will work.

Why not? It worked for the Chilean Sea Bass.
posted by MikeKD at 4:34 PM on September 11, 2006


Okay, okay, I admit we do it with flake and that seems to work quite well.
posted by Jimbob at 4:50 PM on September 11, 2006


I’d fuck a kangaroo.
...oh, EAT...yeah. Sorry. That too.

Buddy of mine was from Australia and had a family farm there. Wow, did he hate the kangaroos. I mean hated them. And rabbits. I kept saying “but they’re cuddly” and he wanted to roast them all with a flamethrower. Really got some good insight into how Aussies weren’t all Paul Hogan or Yahoo Serious back when I was a kid.
posted by Smedleyman at 5:01 PM on September 11, 2006


Previous post (of mine) about a 'roo renaming competition, specifically for consumption purposes. (Just checked their site; results have not been posted.)

And a question for our Aussie contingent: is joey to 'roo as lamb is to mutton?
posted by rob511 at 5:02 PM on September 11, 2006


Yes it is...except we eat 'roos, but try to avoid mutton where possible.
posted by Jimbob at 5:08 PM on September 11, 2006


I make a great roo roast - quickly seal it on all sides, then 20 - 30 minutes at a high temperature. Very nice.


The additional expense of sterilising all of those roos instead of shooting and eating them is jsut a waste of money..
posted by wilful at 6:09 PM on September 11, 2006


I meant in terms of flavourfulness and texture.
posted by rob511 at 6:09 PM on September 11, 2006


Well, I've never had joey...
posted by Jimbob at 6:13 PM on September 11, 2006


So....does anyone know where I can get kangaroo in Vancouver?

Also...is there any kangaroo breeding in North America (other than in zoos, I mean for food)?

As well, don't forget the other Kangaroo export.
posted by Kickstart70 at 7:20 PM on September 11, 2006 [1 favorite]


Why not hunt and eat them?

Personally I'm not a huge fan of roo. It's too lean for me. It seems to work as cat food though.

Having said that, I believe the reason is that you have to be a pretty good shot to harvest roos. I am told that once they get stressed the meat tastes bad, so you have to take them out with one shot from a distance.. which may not be practical if they're encroaching on the suburbs.

...and having said that... bugger Canberra. It might be a little more interesting with mobs of roos roaming around. There's quite a nice lawn on top of Parliament.
posted by pompomtom at 8:46 PM on September 11, 2006


Australus
Didn't they rename veal in NZ and see an increase in consumption?
posted by asok at 8:41 AM on September 12, 2006


Jimbob writes "You'd kinda think people would realize that humans eat kangaroo. Of course maybe 'I thought kangaroo was just dog food' "

They think the same way about horse meat and milk here and to a lesser extent rabbit.

MikeKD writes "Why not? It worked for the Chilean Sea Bass."

And rape oil.
posted by Mitheral at 10:28 AM on September 12, 2006


lekvar: Is it the kangaroos that are invading or is it Suburbia?

Not really in Canberra. As sien notes, there are large tracts of bushland between the suburbs, so you get kangaroos even in the inner, well-established areas. I loved it as a kid - I had a couple of 'pet' wild roos, yet lived a five minute bike ride from the CBD. It may be a boring place for an adult, but having so much bush in which to run amok was great fun as a kid (and the public schools were excellent).

If the roos are becoming a menace, something needs to be done about them.
posted by goo at 11:28 AM on September 12, 2006


As I understand it, hunting wild roo for human consumption can't be done economically. There are a lot of health regulations regarding food handling in Australia (considerably moreso than in the USA or Europe) which make farmed roo meat the only practical way to get it for eating.
It is yum, and features often on restaurant menus, is available in every supermarket in the country, but costs a bit more than cheaper cuts of beef or pork because it is a bit of a niche food (think chicken versus turkey).
Roo shooting is indeed a one shot with a rifle game, but not especially difficult, but wild roos, as mentioned, can have a lot of parasites.
That said, they are used a lot in pet food.
Some people are reluctant to have the animals culled, for animal cruelty reasons, hence the alternative population control measures.
Oh, and the pub in the Rocks with the half and half emu/kangaroo pizza is the Australian Hotel (100 Cumberland St). The coat of arms is OK, but the other pizzas are great.
posted by bystander at 8:47 PM on September 12, 2006


but costs a bit more than cheaper cuts of beef or pork because it is a bit of a niche food (think chicken versus turkey).

I don't know where you're buying your 'roo, bystander, but at my local Woolworths, both when I was in Adelaide, and here in Darwin, kangaroo meat costs significantly less than beef or pork.

From memory, I get two good sized kangaroo steaks for about $5.00, and I can get a rolled, seasoned kangaroo roast for about $7.99, when similar sized pork, beef or lamb roasts can't be had for under $10-$12.
posted by Jimbob at 9:40 PM on September 12, 2006


I'm late to this party, and maybe no one's watching this thread anymore, but anyway... I wonder if there's not also, perhaps, a bit of a psychological barrier with roo meat: the fact that they stand on 2 feet like humans. You know, even in countries where monkeys are everywhere, you don't see a whole lot of monkey eating by the local human populations, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that they look just too much like us.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:58 AM on September 14, 2006


Flapjax: They do eat them. From the Amazon right through to Africa - the accepted euphemism is "bushmeat" and it's a delicacy in some parts and a necessity in others.

Having said that, I think most people don't eat roo because their either ignorant (I can't eat it because it doesn't run around like a cow) or silly (Oh, kangaroo's are too cute and fluffy to eat) despite the fact that they're obviously delicious and have been good enough for the locals for the last tens of thousands of years.

On the whole, your average Aussie cooks is a pedestrian twits who think themselves very cosmopolitan and daring if they can make pasta involving fresh basil. I am surrounded by people who know nothing about food, can't cook to save their lives and think that sophistication is the quasi-Thai food you get at the local pub. Kangaroo will equal dog-food for at least another generation.

/rant
posted by ninazer0 at 2:36 AM on September 15, 2006


« Older The War Against the Third World   |   Happy Birthday, Don, wherever you are Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments