Chasing Kangaroos: A Continent, a Scientist, and a Search for the World's Most Extraordinary CreatureIn 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 |
Other editions - View all
Chasing Kangaroos: A Continent, a Scientist, and a Search for the World's ... Tim Fridtjof Flannery No preview available - 2007 |
Common terms and phrases
Aboriginal ancestors ancient animals Arnhem Land arrived Australia Australian Museum banded hare wallaby bettongs bike bones burrowing bettong bush camp cave continent creatures Creek dating desert dingo dinosaurs discovered discovery eastern grey eastern grey kangaroo euro European evolution extinct fauna forest fossils garoo giant grass grey kangaroos Groote Guinea herbivores hopping human ice-age inland sea island joey kangaroo family kilometres known Lake Eyre Lake Pinpa land lineage look macropodines Macropus male Marree marsupial lion marsupials megafauna Melbourne metres million years ago Murgon musky rat-kangaroo nailtail numbers once oolacunta opal outback palaeontologist Paruna perhaps placental mammals plains possum pouch premolars Procoptodon Propleopus Protemnodon Queensland quokka rabbits rainforest rat-kangaroo region remains revealed Riversleigh rock-wallabies rocks roos sand sediments seen sheep short-faced kangaroos skeletons skull South species specimen studies survive Sydney tail Tasmanian teeth thylacine tree-kangaroo vanished western young