Chasing Kangaroos: A Continent, a Scientist, and a Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Creature

Front Cover
Grove Press, 2008 - Nature - 258 pages
In his most personal book yet, Tim Flannery, the internationally acclaimed author of The Weather Makers, draws on three decades of travel, research, and field work to craft a love letter to his native land and one of its most unique and beloved inhabitants: the kangaroo. Crisscrossing the continent, Flannery shows us how the destiny of this extraordinary creature is inseparable from the environment that created it. Along the way he uses encounters with ancient aboriginal cultures and eccentric fossil hunters, farmers and scientists, kangaroo advocates and kangaroo hunters, to explore how Australia’s deserts and rain forests have shaped human responses to the continent--and how kangaroos have evolved to handle the resulting challenges. Ultimately, Chasing Kangaroos is a captivating blend of memoir, travel, natural history, and evolutionary science--and further proof of Flannery’s “offhand interdisciplinary brilliance” (Entertainment Weekly).
 

Contents

A Failed Circumnavigation
7
Captain Cooks Kangaroo
15
Quokkas Euros and Stinkers
27
The Last of the Frontier
38
Of Nailtails and Nailed Tyres
48
Kangaroo Essence
56
Deadend in the Inland Sea
70
The Mystery of Hopping
79
Land of Giants
151
Is the Answer 46?
167
World Conquest
181
A Dingodriven Revolution
188
The Age of Mammals in Australia
194
The Groote Eylandt
208
The True Experts
216
Symbols of the New Land
227

The Brightest Place on Earth
90
The Oldest Kangaroo
100
Skeletons in the Dead Centre
107
Where the Great Roos Came From
115
The Age of Kangaroos
124
Advancing with Feet or Stomach?
130
Grass for the Kangaroos
136
Not Formed for Such Work
143
Oolacunta
234
Remaking Country
241
Postscript
249
THE FIRST KANGAROO FAMILY TREE
250
Acknowledgments
252
General Bibliography
253
Index
256
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