World Kangaroo Day in Adelaide
There are few animals as dear to Australian hearts as the Kangaroo with a recent poll finding more than 80 per cent of Aussies consider the marsupial to be our national icon.
Transcript
00:00 If you haven't heard of World Kangaroo Day, you may not be alone.
00:05 That is because it was established in 2020 by Kangaroos Alive.
00:10 Joining me today is one very special kangaroo.
00:13 And also it's carer Courtney White.
00:15 Courtney, thanks for joining us.
00:16 No problem.
00:17 I'm really excited.
00:18 And this is Winnie the Roo.
00:19 It is.
00:20 Tell us about Winnie.
00:21 So Winnie is a Western Gray.
00:25 She's very special because she's albino.
00:28 And she's been in care now for probably just over a year.
00:32 Albino kangaroos, they're pretty rare.
00:34 About one in 100,000?
00:35 Yep, about one in 100,000 the chance to find an albino kangaroo.
00:41 To find a joey that's albino unharmed is pretty much unheard of.
00:45 So yeah, she's a very lucky little girl.
00:49 How long do albino kangaroos live for?
00:51 Do they have a shorter life expectancy?
00:54 There's not a lot of research around it.
00:56 However, being albino, there are a lot of health issues that will come about.
01:01 She's very lucky being in captivity.
01:03 She'll always be able to be watched, cared for, and monitored with anything that can
01:07 possibly go wrong.
01:08 Tell us about World Kangaroo Day and why it's so special.
01:11 So World Kangaroo Day, we're really excited about bringing awareness to all kangaroo species
01:16 across Australia.
01:18 Here in SA, we have red kangaroos and westerns.
01:22 And yeah, we're just trying to bring some awareness and try and make people aware they're
01:25 not all the bad things that sometimes are spoken about.
01:29 Courtney and Winnie, thank you so much for joining us.
01:32 It's been a pleasure to have you both on this morning.
01:35 No problem at all.
01:37 Another thing that World Kangaroo Day is trying to do is raise awareness about the commercialisation
01:41 of kangaroos for their meat and their skin.
01:44 A number of companies have stopped using kangaroo leather in their products.
01:49 And here's one little kangaroo now.
01:53 World Kangaroo Day.
01:54 It's a great day to be a roo.
01:55 (laughs)
01:57 [BLANK_AUDIO]