Caroline Arnold - Kangaroo

CONTENTS

PHOTO CREDITS: Permission to use the following photograph is gratefully acknowledged: Zoological Society of San Diego, .

Copyright 2013, 1987 by Arthur and Caroline Arnold Clifford Trust. Photographs copyright 2013, 1987 by Richard Hewett. All rights reserved.

Published by Seymour Science

Printed edition originally published in 1987 by William Morrow and Company

Except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and articles, no part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher. Contact: Seymour Science LLC, 15 Cutter Mill Road, Suite 242, Great Neck, NY 11021 www.SeymourScience.com

ISBN XXX-X-XXXXXX-XX-X

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows: Arnold, Caroline. Kangaroo. Summary: Discusses the kangaroo family, their characteristics and behavior, and, in particular, the experiences of an Australian couple with an orphaned baby kangaroo during his first year in which they prepared him to be on his own.

1. Gray kangarooJuvenile literature. 2. KangaroosJuvenile literature. 3. Wildlife rescueJuvenile literature.

[1. Kangaroos] I. Hewett, Richard, ill. II. Title. ISBN 0-688-06480-9 | ISBN 0-688-06481-7 (lib. bdg.)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful to many people for helping us on this project. First, we want to thank Qantas Airways and Terry Bransdon of the Australian Information Service, whose assistance made it possible for us to go to Australia to take the photographs and do research for the book. We thank Irma and Les Melton and Mrs. Lilian Melton for sharing Sport with us. We also thank Pat Robertson and his staff, who welcomed us to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane, Australia, and so graciously gave us their time and cooperation. Thanks also to Dwyte Walton and his family for their help with the rufous bettong, Neville and Jane Davis for introducing us to Sport, and John Hughes for his time and advice. Lastly, we want to thank our editor, Andrea Curley, for her enthusiasm and encouragement throughout this project.

From the back porch of their country house in Wellington Point, Queensland, Irma and Les Melton could see the Pacific Ocean where it met the Australian shore. The trees nearby were noisy with the calls of magpies and parrots, and next to the flowers in the garden below, a young kangaroo contentedly nibbled the green grass.

One night four months earlier, the Meltons had received a telephone call from a friend. I have found a baby kangaroo, their friend said. His mother was killed by hunters, and he is too young to care for himself. Can you keep him until he is big enough to be on his own? The Meltons had never cared for a kangaroo before, but they loved animals and wanted to try to help this orphan.

Yes, they said. Bring him over.

When the kangaroo arrived, he looked like a tiny bundle of soft gray fur with spindly legs. The Meltons decided to name him Sport. Then they called the wildlife service to find out the best way to care for him. They learned that they would have to feed him a special formula and were warned not to give him cows milk because this would make him sick. The Meltons followed these feeding instructions carefully, but even so, it took a week for the young kangaroo to adjust to his new diet. The Meltons were glad when he finally settled down to a regular schedule of four bottles a day.

The wildlife service also issued them a permit to keep the baby kangaroo. It is against the law in Australia to keep any wild animal as a pet. At the end of six months Sport would go to a wildlife preserve.

Every year many young kangaroos are orphaned. In some cases their mothers are killed by wild dogs, called dingoes, that live in Australia. In other cases the mothers are killed by people, either by hunting or by accident. In areas where kangaroos live near roads, signs warn drivers to be careful. Kangaroos often leap across roads and get hit by cars.

Before 1629, when European explorers first came to Australia, the only people living there were the aborigines. Like the natives, the first Europeans killed a few kangaroos for meat and fur. Later, farmers and ranchers began to settle the land. They cleared forests for fields and dug waterholes for cattle and sheep. Some kinds, or species, of kangaroos that lived in forests began to disappear. Others that lived on open land began to multiply. When kangaroos ate the grass meant for cattle and sheep, the ranchers became angry. They started to kill kangaroos by the thousands.

Today, only limited hunting of kangaroos for fur and meat is allowed. Some people think even stricter laws should be made to protect all kangaroos. They feel that some kinds of kangaroos may become extinctdisappear completelyif too many are killed or if the land they live on is changed too much. Today, scientists are studying kangaroos to find out how many there are, where they live, and what they eat. Only as people learn more about them can a proper balance for land use by people and kangaroos be found.