Kangaroos Hop through Georgia Foothills

Originally published March, 14, 2008.

Mobs of kangaroos are sunning themselves on a cool day. Others are lying under great oaks and eucalyptus trees, pensive, doing what kangaroos do. And then a pack hops by, faster than a jackrabbit.

Glancing across the landscape of these foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, one would expect to hear a Foster’s lager pop open or someone mutter “g’day mate.” One has to do a double-take to make sure they haven’t traveled half a world away to the Land Down Under.

But this is the Kangaroo Conservation Center, the largest collection of kangaroos outside of Australia. More than 300 kangaroos call this home, just a little more than an hour north of Atlanta.

To get to this seemingly far away place, visitors take Georgia 400 north of the Perimeter and then a series of winding roads to the 87-acre kangaroo paradise.
As the trained caretakers say, the picturesque habitat is heaven on earth for these hopping creatures with long tails that help them balance. The “roos” – as they are affectionately called -- are fed, bred and well-cared-for by a couple of conservationists and their staff who give educational tours.

Founders and owners Debbie and Roger Nelson built the center because of their love of the Land Down Under, especially its wildlife. They first opened a private kangaroo breeding preserve 25 years ago in nearby Alpharetta. They moved it to Dawsonville in 1999, and then opened it to the public. Kangaroos have been transplanted from here to zoos across the country including the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in Ohio and the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago.

The Nelsons take the kangaroo business seriously, not allowing children under the age of six because they can disturb the peaceful animals. They can scare easily and hop away in packs, known as mobs.

The kangaroos have gentle personalities. The staff monitors their growth and bloodline. Caretakers can identify each kangaroo and its parentage.

The Kangaroo Conservation Center offers guided tours for up to 90 visitors daily on different days of the week. Buy tickets online at www.kangaroocenter.com, since it is often difficult to get a ticket due to the exclusive nature of the experience.

Upon arrival at the registration post, guests are welcomed with a yellow, Australian license plate above the door that says, “G-Day.” Guides teach visitors how to throw an Australian boomerang before beginning the tour, which lasts about an hour and a half. We learned that boomerangs were used as hunting tools by aborigines thousands of years ago.

Visitors can also wander to nearby exhibits and listen to the loud shrieks of the kookaburras, dubbed the bush alarm clock by the aborigines. There are six of these birds in the United States – which are native to northern Australia. Four birds are at the Kangaroo Conservation Center.

But we were here to learn about kangaroos. And the first lesson about kangaroo life begins on the Kanga Ranger ride thru the park’s animal habitats. The Kanga Ranger is a high-tech truck pulling open-air trams with seating for 90 visitors. The caretaker explained that male and female kangaroos can be trained to come when called. Their babies, which live in mothers’ pouch until they are about eight months old, are called “joeys.” They are born the size of a jellybean and crawl up their mother’s body to get inside the pouch and grow there until they are too big to fit.

Male kangaroos can grow to more than 200 pounds and more than eight feet from the top of their head to the tip of their tail.

In Australia Station, the main animal-care building, we were introduced to Streaky and Fussy, Dama wallabies, which are a very small species of kangaroo, a breed extinct on the Australian mainland but still found on islands off the coast. The two hopped around inside the arena during the Wild Australia Show, as well as numerous other Aussie animals.

Kangaroo have no wish to box humans and rarely box each other. Younger kangaroos will playfully box with each other as a social activity, not a sign of aggression. Trainers told us that males box when they are trying to dominate another during mating season.
These kangaroos seem at home here in North Georgia because the climate and typography are similar to their native habitats in the Southern Hemisphere. The gentle creatures are protected from area wildlife by a fence built around the property that is buried two feet into the ground.

The most amusing kangaroo lesson came when a staff member informed us of the origin of the word “kangaroo.” When English settlers met the aborigines in Australia, they pointed to the creatures and asked the natives for the name. The natives responded “kangaroo.” Years later, the settlers discovered the translation was misunderstood. “Kangaroo” meant “I don’t understand.”

For more information and directions to the Kangaroo Conservation Center go to www.kangaroocenter.com Tickets are $30 for adults, $28.00 for Seniors ages 65 and up, and $25 for children ages 6 to 17 for a 1.5 hour tour. No children under the age of 6.