The Shoe and the 'Roo

The image to the left shows the prints left in our lawn by an Eastern Grey Kangaroo and, for comparison one of Frances's size 8 Crocs.  The depth of the prints gives some indication of the soggy state of our lawn, which I suspect getting a bit of outflow from our dam which is still brimming.

The beast in question was grazing on our lawn late one evening as I was going out to get some firewood.  My guess is that it was about 1.7m tall when it deigned to stand up and take some notice of me.  When I got within about 5m:
  1. I was beginning to wonder if it was time for me to back off; but
  2. it turned and hopped away.  
I have subsequently measured the distance between prints (aka craters) as 3m - and it wasn't going as fast as I have seen them!

This is yet another example of how the roos are pretty habituated to our presence.   When the small dog gets close to them (on the lead) she barks furiously and they usually look up and bounce a few metres away.

This morning a female and quite large (too big for the pouch) joey were in the small dog's view about 20m away and, when she commented loudly about their presence on her patch, they hopped a further 20m and resumed grazing.  I think both sides felt that the rituals had been followed sufficiently and proceeded on about their business.

It is certainly not the case that the 'roos panic at the sight of the dog.

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