If someone released a bunch of kangaroos into AZ or NM, would they be able to survive there?

[raccoon]

I'm not planning to do this, just wondering....

[Angry Dragon]

1. Camels would be better

[raccoon]

8. That's been tried.

"The U.S. Camel Corps was a mid-nineteenth century experiment by the United States Army in using camels as pack animals in the Southwest United States.

While the camels proved to be hardy and well-suited to travel through the region, their unpleasant disposition and habit of frightening horses is believed the reason for the Army's declining to adopt them for military use."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Camel_Corps

[WatsonT]

27. They actually dumped a bunch of them

so now we have wild camels in the southwest.

[raccoon]

31. I've heard they've all been killed off. I mean, died off. nt

[WatsonT]

34. Could be

just something I'd heard once.

[WillParkinson]

2. Possibly, if they can find the food they need

Kangaroos are herbivores, primarily eating grass and other vegetation, feeding in the early morning and late afternoon/evening towards sunset. Besides grass, they eat young shoots and tender leaves of native shrubs. They enjoy grains as well, but being herbivorous, they do not eat any other animals.

Kangaroos are grazing animals, and they will regurgitate their food to chew like cattle chew their cud.

Tree kangaroos eat leaves, and sometimes fruit.

If living in captivity, kangaroos have access to a greater variety of vegetation and grains such as corn. Whilst kangaroos do need water, they can go for some time without direct water, as long as they have enough access to green plants, from which they obtain most of their moisture needs. Without sufficient water, they must move to better grazing grounds.

Smaller varieties of kangaroos such as the musky-rat kangaroo are omnivores, eating fruits, seeds, fungi insect larvae and small invertebrates such as grasshoppers and beetles.

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_do_kangaroos_eat#ixzz1ObYEGt00

[iamtechus]

3. I doubt it. In NM, starving indians would eat them all.

Either that or the kangaroos would starve.

[Cleita]

14. The kangaroos would be competing with native

species for the same food supply. It happened when we Europeans over ran this continent with our horses, cattle and pigs. The pigs gone wild are especially destructive and making room for the cattle nearly destroyed the buffalo. Yes, I know the railroads had a lot to do with it too so don't bother to correct me.

[dipsydoodle]

4. This might give you a clue

What Do Kangaroos Eat? http://www.gondwananet.com/what-do-kangaroos-eat.html

[Cleita]

5. Introducing alien species into a wild environment can

have ecological consequences even a harmless species like kangaroos. When rabbits were introduced to Australia they bred and nearly stripped all the vegetation because they had no natural predators there at the time. We don't know what native species kangaroos would devastate and most likely they wouldn't last long because our predator species would see to that.

[raccoon]

7. Don't I know...I'm from the land of the kudzu. nt

[Cleita]

9. I have read about kudzu and it's regarded as

an invasive species that has choked out many of your native species. Maybe since it's been there so long, you haven't noticed what's missing.

[raccoon]

16. Probably so. I've heard that it was planted during the '30's to try to help with erosion.

It's been around about 20 years longer than I have.

[galileoreloaded]

11. All species are alien to their environment until they aren't.....Just sayin'... N/T

[Cleita]

12. I know, however, I prefer it when Mother Nature

does the transfer, not us.

[galileoreloaded]

26. Not sure about you, but I resemble Mother Nature! Organic being and all.

Not arguing, just an alternate opinion.

[hobbit709]

32. Like the wild horses out in the West.

[dipsydoodle]

20. As such

its quite tragic that Europeans ever crossed the Atlantic.

[Cleita]

25. I think many Native Americans would agree with you,

more so those from the Amazon rain forest today who are having their ancestral lands taken away from them with lumbering and now with a hydro-electric plant that is about to be built.

[WatsonT]

30. Native Americans were an invasive species at one point

they certainly didn't evolve here.

And the time of their arrival happens to correspond with the extinction of many large animals on the continent.

So yeah, europeans don't belong here, but then by that logic neither do any kind of upright apes.

[Cleita]

35. That's splitting hairs and you know it. n/t

[WatsonT]

37. Not at all

it's the exact same logic. They are not native to this continent. Meaning they are an invasive species. And they did contribute to the extinction of a number of North American species.

[Cleita]

38. Okay by that logic, the first organism that hitched a

ride on a comet that landed on a nascent earth billions of years ago and found conditions favorable to propagating thereby creating the first biological life on earth is an invasive species. I do believe biologists have a time model on what is native and what isn't and the first populations to arrive in the Americas, not to mention Australia and the the Pacific are considered natives.

[WatsonT]

41. If there was nothing present first then they are not invasive

likewise if it occurred so long in the past that everything has completely acclimated then it can be considered no longer invasive.

Humans haven't been in the Americas for all that long.

[hunter]

6. Australia doesn't have big cats.

It's just a wild guess, but I think the mountain lions would find them quite tasty.

[Cleita]

10. I think so too, and coyotes. n/t

[XemaSab]

19. They can get away from dingoes

I think they'd do ok with coyotes if they "recognized" them as a dingo of another color.

[eShirl]

13. giant "mice" for giant kitties

hell of a kick though
uff

[Politicalboi]

15. Or some cat may mistake them for a

Mouse! "Oh Father"

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. if wallabies can survive 50 years in central England, I don't see why not

http://www.britishwalks.org/walks/Named/PeakDistrictWalks.php

[dipsydoodle]

22. I knew we'd got them but wasn't sure where

We've got these local : http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Reeves%27s_Muntjac They make me jump when I see them in the headlights at night.

[damntexdem]

18. Not in Arizona -- they'd lack ID cards.

;-)

[Rex]

21. What parts of the states were you thinking of?

Or were you going to just drop them off at the nearest gas station? :P

[HopeHoops]

23. I'd rather release them into the Capital Rotunda - just for shits and giggles.

[Blue-Jay]

24. We should trade the Aussies for an equal amount of cane toads.

What a bargain!

[WatsonT]

28. Seems unlikely

Australian animals don't seem to do well competing with imports on their own soil.

Likely predators would wipe them out.

[bemildred]

29. The coyotes would enjoy the extra calories. nt

[slackmaster]

33. They'd get eaten by mountain lions or jaguars

[lonestarnot]

36. No water, so depends upon where they would be released.

[Iggo]

39. Nope. Too many guns.

:hide:

[librechik]

40. Yes, but such experiments rarely succeed without unwelcome consequences

In Australia they freed a bunch of camels back in the late 19th century. Now the camels are overpopulated and pests, being big enough to do real damage to crops and structures in the outback where they survived splendidly.