I’m not sure what is happening in the Kangaroo world, but we’ve had quite a bit of change lately, with a new mob showing up on occasion. For more than a year, we have had a fairly stable population of Eastern Grey Kangaroos, with rarely more than three here at a time. Mostly, this has consisted of a mature female with last year’s joey at foot, and another in the pouch. A male kangaroo would drop by occasionally, and sometimes there was an additional female – but very rarely.
Recently I wrote about the return of our regular mob, which we think of as ‘our kangaroos’. We’ve watched ‘Junior’ grow from a tiny bump in the pouch to a boisterous teenager, racing around the dam, to an age where he must be ready to leave his mother’s side very soon. We were looking forward to the new joey emerging from the pouch, and have seen it hopping around on occasion. However, two days after I wrote the last post, a new mob of kangaroos arrived, and this seemed to cause our usual mob to move away.
There have been periods of up to a week where no kangaroos were here at all, others when a lone young male wandered through, and now the new mob are back. This mob consists of a large, very dark, male kangaroo, a mature female with joey in her pouch (younger than the joey we were watching) and two small, immature young kangaroos – probably last year’s offspring. I think one of these is a male, but I don’t think it is ‘Junior’ – again, he seems a bit smaller. I haven’t been able to identify the sex of the second young kangaroo, but it may be a female.
Surprisingly, I feel territorial on behalf of our usual ‘mob’, including feeling a bit indignant that they have ‘chased’ our kangaroos away. I can’t help worrying about ‘Junior’ and the young joey, hoping they aren’t forced to cross busy roads or have encounters with dogs or hunters. When they are on our land, I know they are safe.
In the end, I have no control over these matters. If the new mob decide to stay here, I know I will still enjoy watching them, but it will take me a while to accept them. Hopefully ‘our mob’ will return at some point. I’d just like to know how they are faring in the big wide world.
Fifteen Acres 
Intrigue in the making :). Do the males commandeer territorial rights? I kind of imagine they would strut their stuff to impress the ladies? Hope the ‘regulars’ reappear.
There is certainly one dominant male. I have seen young males having mock-serious fights, but so far not two mature males fighting – but they do. As our regular mob didn’t have a resident male, I’m wondering if the female moved away because this new male appeared. I’ve seen her happily eating grass alongside other females before. I’ve often wondered why she preferred to be on her own rather than with a larger mob of kangaroos. Usually the Eastern Grey Kangaroos form larger family-based mobs. Friends of mine around here have had eighteen or more kangaroos together. They’re always surprised when I tell them about our three.
This link is to an earlier post showing our usual mob with ‘our’ male Kangaroo, and two young ‘rogue’ males mock-fighting. They were only here on that one morning.
Looks like a heavy Joey in the pouch. Intriguing situation, it will be nice if “your mob” come back.
Yes, it is pretty developed, but is still slightly younger than the one we were watching. I guess this one will be getting in and out of the pouch too, but the new mob don’t come near the house very often. I haven’t seen any kangaroos for two days again. It’s funny, our usual mob had a fairly consistent routine, and went from the back of the property to the front in the evenings, and then from the front to the back in the mornings. This meant coming past the house twice a day – although the dam in right smack bang in their route, so some days they would skirt the dam and come very close to the house, and other times skirt it toward the back and be a fair distance away. However, we still saw them. My guess is that the new mob will only pass through our place every week or so – which is what has been happening for the last three weeks. Strange. 🙂 Lisa