Kangaroos: cute, cuddley, and tasty too

How about you? Could you chew on a 'roo?

Kangaroos are versatile animals. While at Australia Zoo we spent many happy moments feeding the ‘roos, stroking their soft fur and laughing at how human they look when standing up on their hind legs. The fur behind their ears is especially soft and seeing a mother kangaroo with a joey peeping out of its pouch is enough to make your heart melt. In fact the mummy ‘roos at the zoo are so cute that, like Hollywood stars, they need a personal minder, to keep the hoarding masses away.

Once a threatened species, kangaroos and their smaller cousins, wallabies, now number over 20 million beasts. Today, there may even be as many as 40 million of them bouncing around Australia. In fact, the effort to conserve kangaroos has been so successful that they are now culled in order to reduce their numbers and maintain ample grazing for domestic animals like sheep.

The Eco-friendly Choice for Meat Lovers

Australian farmers have been culling kangaroos for years, often selling their hides but doing nothing with the meat. Now there is a campaign under way to change this and get people to eat kangaroo meat for reasons of both conservation and sustainability. The marketing campaign extols the virtues of the meat which is ecologically sounds when compared to other red meat sources since kangaroos eat only native grasses, and don’t need food supplements, medicine or chemicals.

A Tasty Treat for Foodies

What’s more, kangaroo meat is not only tasty but healthy too because it is low in cholesterol and fat but high in iron, zinc and omega three. Apparently kangaroo meat is more popular with Germans and Belgians than it is with Australians and it is becoming better known in the UK too. But wait, there’s more: it’s cheaper than beef and lamb too.

Sorry Skippy, it just makes sense

It sounds great doesn’t it? So good that tonight, in a selfless effort to save the planet I will be eating a kangaroo steak instead of my usual iron-boosting favourite, the lamb chop.

How about you? Could you chew on a ‘roo?

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Good luck with all your travel plans!