Kangaroos are often associated with more exotic lands than England such as Australia and New Guinea but at one time there were marsupials bouncing around the countryside in Scotland. However, was this the best thing for these animals and how many were there in the country?
The start of kangaroos obsession
Kangaroos first arrived in Britain in 1791 in London. The first live kangaroo was first displayed at the Lyceum in the Strand and attracted a lot of attention from the wealthy people in London who were fascinated to see this magical creature that they had only heard about two decades earlier.
After the Endeavour voyage by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander and their first description of a kangaroo when they visited Australia, Britain was in a state of kangaroo mania and were absolutely infatuated. When anatomist John Hunter dissected a kangaroo after bringing it back from New South Wales, it was the first time that kangaroos had been on British Isles.
After the arrival of the first live kangaroo in 1791, royalty were obsessed with the animals and even commissioned that a ship in 1795 was called HMS Kangaroo, this continued up until 1920.
London Kangaroos
In London it would not be uncommon for people to be able to see kangaroos around the capital city. Many menageries giving people access to see these beloved animals for example Pidcock‘s Menagerie could boast six kangaroos in 1799/1800. In October 1800, the first kangaroo was born in England. For example, this Irish student wrote a letter home, “I was one day walking down Piccadilly, early in the morning, when I met a porter carrying a live kangaroo, which he was conveying from Mr Pidcock‘s at the Exeter Change, to a person who had purchased it. The animal was fastened to his knot by the feet, and his head lay dangling over, very near the left ear of the fellow who was carrying him; this it seemed was a temptation not to be resisted by the kangaroo, who, after smelling at the man‘s ear for a long time, gave it a terrible bite, and nearly clipped it off.”
However, the kangaroos were used for sport and they were not treated well, the chemist Marc-Auguste Pictet stated about seeing two kangaroos boxing each other in a cage, “I then saw in Pidcock‘s Menagerie in London one of these animals, which when they quietly support it a little by its small arms, as a dance teacher in the first lesson of the minuet, he stays for some seconds sat on his tail like a pivot. The third step depends upon a rapid movement. The animal jumps, body bent forward, to balance on his tail. He jumps on two legs at a time, and in a steady rhythmical manner; when one of the kangaroos begins to dance, the others imitate; and nothing is more ridiculous and more laughable than this scene. We have to say that our burst of applause encouraged him and he gratified us in putting on this spectacle”.
This led to speculation that newly licensed UK bookmakers were even accepting bets on the two animals inside the cage from the general public which is obviously barbaric.
Exotic animals
It was becoming so popular for exotic animals to be living in England, the animals were outnumbering the prisoners returning to England. James Hardy Vaux, who was convicted three times stated in his memoirs “Our ship was at first so literally crowded, so as to resemble Noah‘s Ark. In addition to returning convicts, the ship carried kangaroos, parrots, an emu, black swans, cockatoos, wombats, and smaller birds without number.”
This led to major issues with sailors who would be out there longer than expected and were often starving on the voyages, they would eat the kangaroos because the meat resembled venison. So sometimes the kangaroos would not even make it back to Britain.
Now in the UK
The UK has become more civilised around its treatment of animals and they are treated much better particularly in zoos where animals are kept to a high standard for preservation. Maybe not kangaroos but wallabies have been spotted feral in the UK. Not the usual sight in a mild country but as between 2008-2018, sightings have been noted down and as many of 95 were seen in this period.
