Kangaroo's Delight

A few weekends ago, Lydia and I decided to go for a quick hike up in Lysterfield Park- about a 45 minute drive from our apartment.  We've been to the park before to check out the nature hike, as we had read online that the park has an abundant population of kangaroos and swamp wallabies, but we only managed to see a couple during the hike, and we couldn't get any good pictures.  When we returned a few weeks ago, we didn't expect to really bump into any so we were a bit surprised to find a whole mob of them, and all along the foot path.

While most of the kangaroos hopped away as we continued along the path gawking (as is our duty being non-native Australians), we found a general trend among them; the larger and older the kangaroo, the more ornery and less likely he is to move in our presence.  We were growled at a couple of times by a rather geriatric Eastern Grey who had cozied up to what appeared to be a nice patch of grass:

Grandpa Kangaroo

As we continued along, we stumbled across a few more as well as some swamp wallabies.  Swamp wallabies are smaller, more timid, and arguably cuter versions of kangaroos.  They're darker in color and have rounder ears:

Photo I took at Point Nepean last weekend

An interesting fact (as highlighted in Daniel Tosh's stand-up special Happy Thoughts) is that kangaroos can't hop backwards.  To change direction, they hop forwards and whip their tail around mid-air.  This can lead to some rather jarring encounters, as if you emerge from a blind facing a kangaroo or wallaby, they'll often hop towards you to try and flee.  I had this exact experience while hiking the Great Ocean Walk with a swamp wallaby.  Standing about 6 feet away, the wallaby hopped toward me then did a mid-air about-face before he scurried away.  Although not facing us directly (so he doesn't have to turn that much), here's a video of one of the 'roos we happened upon along the path hopping away:

It's common knowledge here that kangaroos are not the smartest walks of life and they tend to make pretty big messes when you hit them in your car, so they're not really held in high esteem.  Nonetheless, Lydia and I still find them fascinating and will probably continue to take far too many pictures and videos of them.