Just as some Europeans think all Americans carry guns and have shootouts in the street, I suspect Americans think that this Roo Fight is a normal occurrence on the Australian street (I know I do). It’s interesting the way they balance on their tails, but I hope they don’t hurt each other. I’ve heard that a big kangaroo can disembowl you with a kick.
At the end there are links to three other “Dear Kitten” videos, none of which I’ve seen.
The way they stand on their tails makes them seem like they’re wearing anti-gravity belts…I imagine every ballet dancer in the world would kill for a tail like that!
b&
How would you wear a tutu with a kangaroo tail?
With a tail-hole in the back, silly:-)) I guess Fantasia’s hippos don’t have quite as much of a tail problem.
Imagine stuffing kangaroo feet in ballet slippers? I’ve worn those mofos and they hurt. I tell people that every time a ballerina spins on point she is in agony. Even the flat slippers hurt.
Yeah, their ballet slippers would look like clown shoes. I still have a pair of toe shoes that I put on every ten years or so when I want to give my friends a giggle. Can only go about 2 steps in them.No longer have a tutu, thankfully.
Never mind the tutu; I’m having trouble visualizing how you’d make this look graceful with a third leg sticking out of your butt.
All 3 at 120 degrees from each other in a plane…
Me? I wouldn’t — I’m one of those dumb schmucks in the pit making that godawful racket, remember?
b&
🐾
The heavier one did about 80% of the kicking.
Yes he did most of the ass kicking.
Love it, but shouldn’t the music be a bit more kick-ass or -gut?
Although I suppose ‘the nutcracker’ is not altogether inapt!
good point;-)
Kind of a sad state really. You only expect to see humans acting like this. What are they fighting about anyway…real estate in the neighborhood.
It’s quite common to see kangaroos in suburban settings in rural towns in northern Queensland, and sights of them boxing are quite common. It’s also not uncommon for them to attack people who come too close. But, other than getting dropped on your butt, you’re unlikely to suffer any lasting damage. I certainly don’t think disemboewlment is a possibility. You may be thinking of the cassowary – the most frightening bird on the planet, in my opinion. You find them in the rainforest of Northern Queensland and Northern Territory, and they have been known to disembowel people. A ranger once told me he would prefer to take his chances with a saltwater crocodile than a cassowary.
http://www.meetup.com/atheists-24/events/208562952/, cute cartoon about cassowary. 🙂
That didn’t look like a cartoon about a cassowary.
Wrong link, this one http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GztoIsNk3n8
Oops that’s better. I love cassowaries. I first saw one at the zoo in Sydney and emailed a picture to my dad saying I didn’t know what it was called but it was a great big dinosaur bird. He knew exactly what I was talking about and told me it was a cassowary. I bought Daintree Tea and kept the box for ages because it had a picture of a cassowary on it.
I know they can be dangerous but they often get mauled by dogs and they are protected poor things. I saw a TV show about them where they were wondering into town after a nasty cyclone messed up their rainforest. They had cute babies chasing one another on the show and the way the babies moved was so cute and muppet like.
Only in Australia would the birds be more feared than crocodiles….
b&
A saltwater crocodile can kill you, but a platypus will cause you to spend multiple days wishing you were dead.
Yeah — Australia can’t even get it right where it comes to its cute mammals! I tells ya, some days it scares the shit out of me to think they’re only on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Do you think that’s far enough for safety?
b&
No.
Ken Ham made it across, after all.
Right — good point.
I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
b&
Not uncommon to see them in the capital city, Canberra, itself: care has to be taken driving between suburbs through reserve areas. On my first day in Australia, I had to stop at a mid-city roundabout to make way for one, which was certainly the “you have arrived in Australia” moment.
For a while I had an city office that overlooked fields which would be full of them come late afternoon.
They don’t seem to be able to see well ahead of them: one bounded toward me very fast while I was walking to the bus stop and I ended up waving my arms at the last second to prevent a collision (it was very surprised, as if it hadn’t seen me at all until I did that!). I note that they do seem a lot bigger when they are coming at you.
“Tame” kangaroos at camping grounds can be scary if they think you aren’t sharing your kangaroo nibbles with them. They will rake your upper body with their forepaws in an attempt to find the food they think you have hidden. Your initial reaction is to wrap your arms tight about you to protect your body, but it is best to extend your hands, fingers extended, to show that you aren’t carrying anything. They then head for the next luckless camper. Personal experience led me to this method of protection.
As a sidenote, kangaroos are carnivores, too. They would steal cold lamb chops left on the bbq and eat them right in front of us
I see a series: Kangaroo Muggers.
Neat name.:)))
Wasn’t there an extinct species of super-sized kangaroo that was an apex predator?
I think there was a predatory species of kangaroo (now extinct).
Talk about tripods on steroids! I think I’d have been able to stand recording only 2 minutes of this. Then I’d be hurling apples at them, from a safe distance, to get them to stop. :] If they’re fighting over territory, the residential areas are a tricky place for them, no?
I too thought of lobbing things and yelling, “hey, knock it off you two!” Funny how I always think of apples when I want to throw something. I wonder why that is.
Haha… in this case, I figure apples would interest and distract these kickboxers. I once threw at a family of skunks the only thing handy at the time — a bunch of hazelnuts. Ha! They just looked at me, as if! And continue stealing the feral cats’ kibble that I leave out on the patio (the baby ‘skunkettes’ were actually sitting in the bowl too!). Well, anyway, the joke was one me, because the next morning, there were only cracked shells all over the place, and obviously the hazelnuts were to the rodents liking.
..ack… looks like yesterday was typo day..
…because you’re the apple of everybody’s eye?
b&
Happens all the time in my desirable Melbourne suburb. 😉
You mean those fancy boots of yours don’t come with matching gun slings?
Sometimes I honestly thought my relatives in NZ thought Americans were having gun fights all the time. They’d ask me, delicately, “How do you (meaning Canadians) get along with those Yanks”. I don’t remember how I answered because the question seemed weird. It hit me that people are really afraid of America. I think next time I’m going to say they have good shoe prices.
Well, some conservatives seem to want to live in a country where we have gun fights all the time…
Keeps everyone polite, don’t ya know. I have always wondered about that fantasy. Do they think, “Oh, you’re more likely to get shot but it will be done politely?” And, even granting the false choice for the sake of argument, that’s good?
Well, it doesn’t help when relatives visit the United States and come back with stories about how they witnessed a minor fender-bender where two guys pulled out their guns and started shooting…
Any know if that was live-action speed? It seemed just a little slow.
Fascinating how long it continued. Most animal fights I’ve seen are over much more quickly.
Live action speed, yes.
They were very evenly matched, and only twice did one come close to kicking arse properly (2:35 and 2:45). If one was much bigger or fitter it wouldn’t have happened, or would’ve finished much sooner.
The way they put their heads right back when grappling looks a bit silly, but we don’t see what happens when one gets clawed in the eye, or put in a proper headlock. Also the kicking doesn’t seem professional standard; male joeys practice kicking their mums when they’re still hopping in and out of the pouch, but these guys may never have been in a serious fight before.
And if the roos weren’t enough to tell that it was Australia, there’s a Ute in the foreground just for good measure.
Kangaroos have very strong and muscular tails. When they “walk” slowly while grazing rather than hopping, they move forward by forming a tripod with their front legs and their tail firmly planted on the ground. They then lift both their rear legs up together and forward to advance a “step”
Surprised no one has mentioned the similarity of this bout to the average MMA bout. I think most MMA fighters would love to be able to do that double leg kick. I was expecting these two to go to the mat and and see who taps out.
Fun fact. A kangaroo’s penis is located behind its testicles…literally “Down Under”. 😉
I once opened my front door only for a kangaroo to fall in on top of me. I think he was having a back scratch on the door knob. Hard to say who was more surprised, me or him. No harm done to either of us, thankfully. Mind you, this was on my farm, not in the suburbs.
Kangaroos will also grab your dog and drown him in a farm dam or river if it’s being hassled. Happened to a friend of mine’s pet. They probably learned to do that to fend off dingoes.
What are they fighting about anyway? Mates, territory, food?
Crazy roos!
They are so human, aren’t they?
🙂
I’ve seen plenty of kangaroos in my time, but never seen them fight. Those lazy bastards just lie around doing nothing most of the time. Get a job, damnit!