Since I moved to America, I've been asked about a million times whether it's common to see kangaroos in Australia. People seem to be really fascinated by that idea. Usually I say that it's about as common to see a kangaroo in an Australian city or suburb as it is to see a deer in the US...
But sometimes you do see them. When I was visiting my folks earlier this year, I came across a whole mob of Western Greys . I had my video camera with me, and I thought my American friends would like to see real "non-zoo" kangaroos in what has become their native habitat (suburban front lawns and golf courses).
Video is here:
Something I don't talk about in the video is how careful you have to be driving at night (especially dusk). Neither the car nor the kangaroo come out of it well in a collision. Then again, some folks make the best of it. A friend of mine once hit a 'roo in his ute (that's a kind of pickup, non-Aussie readers). Rather than let the carcas rot on the side of the road, he slung it in the back of the ute, took it home, and froze it. None of us knew he'd done this until his brother was eating a minced-meat toastie - not suspecting it was a roadkill sandwich! The source of the meat only came out when the brother bit down on a piece of gravel...
