Now that spring has finally arrived, the marsupials at Kawartha Kangaroos are a lot happier.
“Roos really don’t like the white stuff,” says Michael Dundey, who owns and operates the private reserve south of Millbrook.
Dundey’s thick accent betrays him as a native of Australia, where he founded a successful knife company in 1986. In 2002, he bought a farm in the rolling hills near Millbrook where he lived during the Australian winters. After selling his company in 2012, he retired to Canada.
VIDEO: Kawartha Kangaroos
After a few years living on the farm, Dundey began to miss the emblematic Australian creatures and decided to open a private wildlife preserve. He built the preserve, which he calls Kawartha Kangaroos, last summer.
“I wanted to bring a taste of the bush up here,” he says.
While kangaroos aren’t fond of snow, Dundey explains they are able to acclimatize to the colder temperatures of Canada.
“No worries, roos are hardy beasts,” he says. “They start growing their winter coats in the fall.”
Dundey currently has 56 kangaroos living on his 83-acre property. The “mob” (as a herd of kangaroos is called) has free rein on about 20 acres.
Dundey had to erect eight-foot fences to contain the animals, which have large and powerful hind legs and large feet adapted for leaping.
“A roo can easily jump six feet in the air,” Dundey says. “They can also cover 25 feet in a single leap and reach speeds of over 35 miles an hour.”
Other interesting facts about kangaroos is that they are good swimmers (“They love the ponds on the property”) and they are unable to walk backwards.
“That makes them easy to herd,” Dundey says, who uses border collies to do so.
We asked Dundey if he plans to open up his preserve to the public in the future.
“I’d definitely consider doing that,” he replies. “But since this story is an April Fool’s joke, it’s probably never going to happen.”
The video and all photos in this story are actually of kangaroos in Australia — yes, it does snow there! Video footage from Currango Homestead, Kosciuszko National Park, feature photo by Bernadette Camus, Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary Tasmania.
