Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Nature Notes ~ Kangaroos fighting


Yesterday I could finally go take my Nikon for a mild, ambling
walk, the first in over six weeks. She is a great companion, not
at all talkative and even her shutter click is not too threatening
at a distance and up-wind from wildlife.

If you enlarge the photo you may just see two darker specks
in the middle at the back of the dry grass. I only included this
so you got some idea how far away the contestants were.


I was lucky to have a solid fence post to steady my camera on
since the distance was close to a sixth of a mile and the light
was fading.

No, this is not a friendly 'hail friend, well met' but a sizing up of
each other's strength.


Get your head well away from those sharp and powerful claws!


A bit of wrestling for position,


each one trying to get sufficient grip to rip the entrails out of
the other by balancing on the tail and slashing down with
both back legs.


First one and then the other seemed to get the upper hand,
they were pretty evenly matched


until the attacker who had been grazing on the green grass at
the back before he spotted his rival, finally got the upper hand


and the other chap retreated into the tall grass to mount a
challenge another day.



They all enlarge if you can spare the time . . .

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22 comments:

  1. Amazing shots.These guys are so strong.

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  2. Awesome! I'd love to see that in my backyard! I guess I have to settle for squirrels.

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  3. yikes! glad it didn't get any worse than that!

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  4. Omw, I've never thought of kangaroos fighting. Glad it ended without bloodshed this time. What a super friend you have with your Nikon. Enjoy. Jo

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  5. They are amazing shots indeed, Arija! Not anything we here in the states are likely to see in our backyard! I too am glad it didn't get any worse -- always live to fight another day!! Hope your week is going well!

    Sylvia

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  6. Great shots. I've never seen a kangaroo so it's fascinating to me.

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  7. This is much more interesting than "Animal Planet" on our Discovery Channel! Love your commentary!
    Have a great day, Arija!

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  8. Wonderful shots! I'm glad there was no blood and gore, this time at least.

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  9. Wow, fascinating pics! you did well to capture them so clearly at such a distance!

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  10. Ah, my camera is one of my favorite companions too!

    That is just too cool! What a neat spectacle to witness!

    Thanks for sharing with the kangaroo-deprived like myself!

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  11. In Cooktown is a woman who adopted many orphanized wallabies. She even has made her house snakeproof, for in the surrounding woods are many pythons which hunt joeys. Several times she had to rescue a joey which was almost strangled by a python.

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  12. Wow..what a series of photos to you.. Thank you for adding them to Nature Notes Arija.....hugs...

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  13. Arija, what a neat sighting and great photos. Do you see them fighting often? Isn't there enough food for them all? I would love to see them in the wild. Thanks for sharing.

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  14. that is something you don´t see very often. Nice shots. :)

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  15. That must be something to see!

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  16. What an amazing sighting, to get to watch them sparing. So look like boxers in a ring. Not living around Kangaroos, I wanted to think them gentle. But then I'd like to think of bears and mountain lions being gentle too. I do know better and would give these roos a lot of space. Great captures from so far away, a good place to be.

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  17. This was an eye-opener! I had no idea that kangaroos challenged each other like that. :)

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  18. Wow! Does it always end with one retreating?

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  19. I wouldn't know they are fighting - I would guess playing.

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  20. I can't even imagine seeing sonmething like that on a casual walk! Fabulous.

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  21. How very excited you must have been to be able to capture the kangaroo fight. It is very strange to think about the vastly different wildlife in our two little parts of the world.

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