Live data from Hacker News

They Shoot Kangaroos

outsideonline.com

11–20 of 23 posts

Re: They Shoot Kangaroos

#11
Kangaroo hides don't have sweat glands and the proteins have more width-wise linkages compared to cows.

This makes their leather very strong, even when thin, which makes it a prized material in protective wear like motorcycle gloves where it provides far more feel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo_leather

>Although most species of macropod are protected from hunting by law, a small number of the large-sized species which exist in high numbers can be hunted by commercial hunters

Re: They Shoot Kangaroos

#13
post #9

"Fletcher goes full kangaroo, drooping his head, hunching his shoulders, dangling his hands from his chest and zigzagging slowly forward." This is my new dance, the 'full kanga.'

[deleted]

Re: They Shoot Kangaroos

#14
post #2

More appropriate title: Idiots get in the way of government environmental sustainability engineers. Those engineers are removing a pest. Let them do their job.

Here here. To non Australians, they seem like cute puppies that bounce, but in reality they're a huge pest and terrifying when they appear out of nowhere on the highway.

Like deer. Many urbanites think they're magical, majestic, beautiful animals.

Re: They Shoot Kangaroos

#15
post #4

"pest tag", the most useful thing since the sliced bread. Justifying all our destroying ecosystems dreams since the dodo, moa and tasmanian tiger. Buy now the "pest tag" argument and take to your home also the "but, there is still lots and lots of tuna" and "nobody thinks in the billions of cattle killed by wolves each saturday" tags for free.

They are very different to your examples of dodo, moa, and tasmanian tigers. Before European settlement, the population was largely limited by water access. With farming, there are numerous small dams across the landscape and irrigation. The population has exploded in the last 200 years.

Re: They Shoot Kangaroos

#16
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When driving from Kalgoorlie (a remote mining town in the middle of the desert) to Perth (the capital city in that state) one must complete the 6 hour drive across featureless plains during the daylight hours only. Trying to drive at night will result in kangaroos approaching your headlights, then your passenger vehicle is hitting a 200lb (90kg) mammal whilst driving at 70mph (110kmh) which is never going to end well…

Yowch! Even with bull bars, that's never going to be fun

Aren't they called roo bars in Oz?

Re: They Shoot Kangaroos

#17
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here here. To non Australians, they seem like cute puppies that bounce, but in reality they're a huge pest and terrifying when they appear out of nowhere on the highway.

When driving from Kalgoorlie (a remote mining town in the middle of the desert) to Perth (the capital city in that state) one must complete the 6 hour drive across featureless plains during the daylight hours only. Trying to drive at night will result in kangaroos approaching your headlights, then your passenger vehicle is hitting a 200lb (90kg) mammal whilst driving at 70mph (110kmh) which is never going to end well…

And the problem is, because they're so tall they don't even hit the crumple zone, they go straight through the windsheild

Re: They Shoot Kangaroos

#19
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here here. To non Australians, they seem like cute puppies that bounce, but in reality they're a huge pest and terrifying when they appear out of nowhere on the highway.

When driving from Kalgoorlie (a remote mining town in the middle of the desert) to Perth (the capital city in that state) one must complete the 6 hour drive across featureless plains during the daylight hours only. Trying to drive at night will result in kangaroos approaching your headlights, then your passenger vehicle is hitting a 200lb (90kg) mammal whilst driving at 70mph (110kmh) which is never going to end well…

I once (stupidly) drove through (unfamiliar) country Victoria to catch a morning flight at Tullamarine. I was about 3 hours drive away so I started at 3 am.

By 4am I was driving 60-70km/hr along a single carriageway when suddenly my car was flanked on either side by a mob of a dozen roos matching my speed pushing me to the center of the road. If my window was open I could have easily stroked the head of the nearest one.

I knew they couldn't keep up for long so I just tried to match their speed before they eventually started to slow and peel off, at which point I took off in front.

Was probably a couple of minutes but felt like half an hour.

Had a car been coming in the other direction we'd probably all be dead.

Moral of the story; Get a hotel.

Post reply on HN