A Couple of facts about Kangaroos.

In my “Living With Magpies”, Blog, I concluded with this statement: ” Well! You have heard my memories of Magpies, what are your memories of wild birds or animals that you would like to share?” To which my friend **** replied with this:
“Hi Walter, We had an experience at a caravan park in Queenscliff where we left the door of our caravan open and had Magpies come inside the van looking for a handout. They were not aggressive, but they did leave some calling cards on our carpet. They are very tame down there and will actually come and sit on your knee while you feed them. There is something very rewarding in having a wild creature show enough confidence in you to come as close as that but it can cause problems as you have said. Just last year we were away in the caravan again and we went to a place called Duross in NSW. It is a National Park and there are dozens of Kangaroos there that are also quite tame, although they gave us a couple of warnings about them when we booked in. Don't stand directly in front of them because that is confrontational to them, and don't allow them into your caravan because a Kangaroo finds it almost impossible to back up and they tend to panic and can wreck the interior of your caravan.As I said before, it is nice to be around these creatures but we must treat them as still being wild animals and enjoy them but from a distance.”
Although I grew up not far from, and went to school at a place called Kangaroo Ground, there weren’t many Kangaroos around then as the area was mostly farmland and kangaroos were actively discouraged. However as the land as slowly become Hobby farms, the kangaroos have increased and spread to the point where once there was none even seen on my parents farm in its heyday, there are often many seen there now. And no one really bothers them now. Which is not a bad idea either, for if one does attack you, you will most definitely come off worse for wear and shredded very badly with their Paws/claws.
So my friends advice about not standing in front of them makes a lot of sense, yet it would be the most natural stance for most of us to take against any animal, if you didn’t know better wouldn’t it?
So while I didn’t know it was dangerous to confront a kangaroo front on, I am grateful for that information, and truly believe it might be really handy to know for any possible future confrontations with a kangaroo. (My late mother once came suddenly upon one in her front garden, but fortunately it turned and went away.).
I also did not know that a kangaroo cannot go backwards (although thinking about it later, It does make sense, what with such a big tail to move backwards.) However there is one thing I can tell you with all surety, dumb as I may otherwise be, I would not invite a wild Kangaroo into my house let alone a caravan. (If I owned one that is!). No I know enough about kangaroos and have enough sense to know that if I found one in my house, I would open all the exit points I possibly could safely and then get as far away, and as quick as possible, and wait till it leaves on its own accord. Why? Because I do know that those things are bad news to tangle with. Many a dog has been drowned in water and humans clawed quite badly by these seemingly docile creatures.
What about you? Are there some things, if not animals, that you just might come into contact with that just won’t, or can’t back up? And you just have to treat differently to what you normally would? Or do you still try and apply the one rule fits all solution. Just something to think about before you get all clawed up over something.