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Do ya'll consider them as pets? OR like pests like deers???

Bit of both. Depends who/where you are. Some people keep orphans as pets, but they're dumb buggers who can be a bit dangerous to themselves and others. They get culled and shot in their thousands as pests, for leather and meat/petfood.

They're tasty.

Should be noted that the one in that pic is relatively small. They get a lot bigger.

 whembly wrote:
Do ya'll consider them as pets? OR like pests like deers???

Out of all the people I've ever known I know a couple of people who've kept kangaroos as pets. In comparison, I've killed as many by myself, hitting them with my car.

As Farseer says, lots of roos are shot because in many parts of the country they're at pest levels. And we eat them, but not often. Not beacuse many people don't like the idea, but just because its a very difficult meat to cook well - it goes tough very easily.

 Farseer Anath'lan wrote:
Should be noted that the one in that pic is relatively small. They get a lot bigger.

Definitely. But the topic was roos that got grabbed by eagles. It would have been dishonest to post a full grown red because eagles don't take them when they've gotten that big

Interesting...

My old house, I lived near a massive park reserve and by the Missouri River. We had deers galore come up to the house, or sleep in our back yard.

Couldn't grow gak on our property as they'd eat anything.

...never had roos before.

Visiting Australia is definitely on my bucket list.

The only truly horrifying thing I've read about Australia is the GW prices.

Oh wait, Ken Ham is from there. Make that two things.

 sebster wrote:


Definitely. But the topic was roos that got grabbed by eagles. It would have been dishonest to post a full grown red because eagles don't take them when they've gotten that big

That's true. But they definitely do take bigger roos-they're known to take emus. Although, I guess an emu is a bit more fragile-long neck, easy to break.

However, paired wedgies take large reds occasionally-which means our birds of prey are teaming up to kill critters not much smaller then ourselves.
They've also attacked kids.

 sebster wrote:

Hey that's cool. Well not for the cat, but those things are environmental disasters. Anyway thanks for the info.

Do a search for Harpy eagles if you want truly scary.

Interesting to read about the Eagles of Oz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedge-tailed_eagle . It will eat feral cats too.

Does Australia really have more nasties than any other continent? Or is it a case of unfamiliarity with the nasties? Or size, given that Australia is the smallest continent, and may have the same amount of nasties, but at a greater density per square KM?

That asked, I can say I'm glad I don't have to worry about a redback on the toilet seat.

Just watched a video of a harpy eagle plucking a sloth off of a vine. THEN watched a golden eagle in Montreal try to grab a toddler in the park. Got about two or three feet off the ground with the kid before the eagle dropped it.

That's pretty standard behaviour for a wedgie, though.

Grab it, fly it up in the air somewhere and drop it (more often than not, if the fall doesn't kill it, it will at least demotivate the prey from running away - because of internal injuries and broken bones and all that - then swoop down and eat it.

I've seen a local wedgie take feral (and neighbourhood moggies) cats (cats do not land on their feet from a couple of hundred feet up). They also attack drones and hang-gliders (but so do Condors - and they attack sailplanes and gliders, not just the flimsy parachute fabric and twigs things).

 Just Tony wrote:
Just watched a video of a harpy eagle plucking a sloth off of a vine. THEN watched a golden eagle in Montreal try to grab a toddler in the park. Got about two or three feet off the ground with the kid before the eagle dropped it.

That Montreal Video was fake, y'know.

Ah, was linked to a series of harpy eagle videos. I didn't even think about it being fake. Guess the safest bet is to just consider all video on youtube fake.

Recent Monsoonal rains in the top end have brought the crocs out, too. Crocodile hunters are being kept busy.

<shrug> and I've watched a wedgetailed eagle chased off by a family of 4 coordinated magpies... they're about the size of doves and attack anything entering their domain in nesting season

.

 chromedog wrote:
Recent Monsoonal rains in the top end have brought the crocs out, too. Crocodile hunters are being kept busy.

So once shown man's superiority, are the Crocs used for meat and that?

Not going down any kind of moral crusade route, just wondering!

I would bet. We eat Gators.

I've had one or the other on my plate before.

Would make sense to eat them like, but who knows what sort of transmittable disease risk there might be?

That's why we cook 'em!

Or better yet, deep fry the bastards!

Deep fried gator was rather greasy, if I recall. Same with Deep fried shark I had once.

I'd rather have a ribeye steak, but I'll try anything once!

 Red Harvest wrote:
Does Australia really have more nasties than any other continent? Or is it a case of unfamiliarity with the nasties? Or size, given that Australia is the smallest continent, and may have the same amount of nasties, but at a greater density per square KM?

That asked, I can say I'm glad I don't have to worry about a redback on the toilet seat.

We do have a really high share of all the world's spiders, for some reason. But But outside of that, we really don't have that many nasties, it’s more a fun thing to talk about. I remember in California an American asking me if we were afraid of all the wildlife, and I responded that you guys have a freaking bear on your flag. Bears are much scarier than anything in Australia.

The real environmental story here is the number of native creatures that are being decimated by various invaders. We have a diverse range of small mammals, and most are being slowly forced in to extinction by feral cats.

But that stuff if boring. Here's some video of a cyclist getting collected by a kangaroo.

Bears aren't really that dangerous at all outside of cornered females with cubs. As opposed to Crocodiles and Bull Sharks which will actually hunt people on purpose. Plus all the venomous spiders.

Bears will pretty much always run away from humans if they have a way out.

Well, not exactly horrifying, but today I learned that Western Australia is home to the largest herd of feral camels in the world.

Found out via MMAFighting.com, where UFC former midfleweight champ Luke Rockhold rode on into open workouts. Will wonders never cease?

 Grey Templar wrote:
Bears aren't really that dangerous at all outside of cornered females with cubs. As opposed to Crocodiles and Bull Sharks which will actually hunt people on purpose. Plus all the venomous spiders.

You've missed the point completely. No animal is actually that dangerous.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 nels1031 wrote:
Well, not exactly horrifying, but today I learned that Western Australia is home to the largest herd of feral camels in the world.

We actually export camels to Egypt

 sebster wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
Bears aren't really that dangerous at all outside of cornered females with cubs. As opposed to Crocodiles and Bull Sharks which will actually hunt people on purpose. Plus all the venomous spiders.

You've missed the point completely. No animal is actually that dangerous.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 nels1031 wrote:
Well, not exactly horrifying, but today I learned that Western Australia is home to the largest herd of feral camels in the world.

We actually export camels to Egypt

Barracuda actually are. They are attracted by glinty and will attack for no reason other than glinty. While not normally lethal their teeth are such that they will take a very bad bite out of you.

Also water moccasins will aggressively attack. They will climb in your boat.

 Frazzled wrote:
Barracuda actually are. They are attracted by glinty and will attack for no reason other than glinty. While not normally lethal their teeth are such that they will take a very bad bite out of you.

Also water moccasins will aggressively attack. They will climb in your boat.

You've missed the point as well. It isn't that no animal will attack a human or anything like that. I mean, dingos will actually steal your baby. Funnel webs will actually leave their web to bite at a human.

But the point is that we are humans. We run this fething place. Any animal that's dangerous we kill or remove from an area we want to live in. And we build systems and tech that keeps them the hell away from us the rest of the time. As a result, despite there being animals with strength or venom or whatever that could really mess up a human, and some animals being quite aggressive, the number of humans that die to any kind of animal each year basically rounds to zero.

Right... 'cuz we 'umies have enough neurons to obliterate anyting...

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:


So once shown man's superiority, are the Crocs used for meat and that?

Not going down any kind of moral crusade route, just wondering!

Tail meat is sold at certain game butchers, yes. It's quite tasty, but like most game, has to be cooked a certain way or it goes as tough as boot leather.

We run this fething place. Any animal that's dangerous we kill or remove from an area we want to live in. And we build systems and tech that keeps them the hell away from us the rest of the time. As a result, despite there being animals with strength or venom or whatever that could really mess up a human, and some animals being quite aggressive, the number of humans that die to any kind of animal each year basically rounds to zero.

You clearly have not been to the radioactive mutant zone that is New Mexico.

Also I avoid barracuda easily with an innate fear of the ocean, and killer drop bears with an equally innate fear of Australia.

Australia, we all remember the kangaroo cavalry you used so effectively in Borneo. How could the Japanese have known you would use them as antiaircraft by using them to literally jump guys with knives at their aircraft. Dude.

 jhe90 wrote:
If we knew this we would never of landed on aus and left the place well alone!

I think it might have been the motivator to use it as a prison colony in the first place.

 sebster wrote:


We actually export camels to Egypt

Yup. Something about the breed stability and sturdiness. There's less in-breeding with our camels (imported during the 1800s and the building of the "overland telegraph" - the Afghan camelherds let them go when they became "obsolete" with the coming of the steam train - and since they were in a suitable environment, they thrived.) than the camels left in the part of the world where the breed originated.